Exploitation in the American Academy

Abstract

The exploitation ofcollege athletes, particularly Black revenue athletes, has been apersistent topic of controversy within American higher education for the past halfcentwy. Strikingly absent in this literature are the college athletes themselves. This research study of581 NCAA Division] college athletes examines these participants 'perceptions offeeling exploited by the universityfor their athletic ability andpotential. Comparative analyses are reported based upon gender, race, year-in-school and scholarship status. D[ferences between revenue, defined asfootball and men basketball, and nonrev enue or Olympic sports (all other intercollegiate athletic teams) are reported. Findings demonstrate significant dlfferences across several of these demographic and sport-specific categories. Findings also suggest that the perceived exploitation experienced by college athletes is more complicated than a simplefinancial or educational exchange. Several social and educational implications are discussed. T HE EXPLOITATION OF college athletes, particularly Black college athletes, has been a persistent topic of controversy within American higher education for the past half a century. This controversy is punctuated each year by football and basketball championships, when the public appetite for parades, pageantry and an ever-increasing number of televised games has been described as inducing fever and madness. During these times in particular, exposés and editorials abound, decrying low graduation rates and the recruitment and commodification of young men and women solely for their athletic talent and potential. Edwards (1985) articulated the case well some 25 years ago when he wrote: For decades, student athletes, usually 17-to-i 9 year-old freshmen, have informally agreed to a contract with the universities they attend: athletic performance in exchange for an education. The athletes have kept their part of the bargain; the universities have not. Universities and athletic departments have gained huge gate receipts, television revenues, national visibility, donors to university programs, and more as a result of the performances of gifted basketball and football players, of whom a disproportionate number of the most gifted and most exploited have been Black (p. 373). As evidence that this controversy persists today, decades after Edwards first made these as sertions, United States Secretary ofEducation Arne Duncan refocused attention on this issue when he proposed that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bar any team from participating in the post-season tournament if it fails to graduate at least 40% of its players. If the proposed rule had applied to the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament,