A PRICE TO PLAY | College players denied ‘monopoly’ money

@BR Ednote:Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of a six-part Bradenton Herald series on the state of college athletics.

If the NCAA were a country and college athletes were its citizens, it could be described as a dictatorship.

So declares Walter Byers, the first and longest-running executive director in NCAA history, in his writings.

“Collegiate amateurism is not a moral issue; it is an economic camouflage for monopoly practice,” he wrote in his book “Unsportsmanlike Conduct -- Exploiting College Athletes.”

College athletes are not allowed to endorse products, can’t get paid for speaking engagements and can’t receive any compensation from schools that are making money off their images in video games and jersey sales.

If they want to transfer schools, they are “punished” in most cases by being forced to sit out a year. They have to get a release from the school they are leaving to play sports at another.

They give their rights away in perpetuity to the NCAA when they sign the mandatory letter of intent that binds them to a college, allowing the organization to make money off them for the rest of their lives without getting anything in return.

“Against such an array of power stands the young athlete, unorganized and part of the system for only four to six years before he or she moves on to be replaced by another 18- or 19-year-old,” said Byers, who retired from the NCAA in 1987.

Brett Timmons, a former Southeast High linebacker and current Out-Of-Door-Academy head coach who played at Tulane, says high school seniors and their parents don’t understand what they are signing on that letter of intent.

“Even if high school athletes were aware of what they were signing, what are they going to do? They are not going to turn down the scholarship,” Timmons said. “I tell the kids you only get played if you allow them (colleges) to play you. They use your body for four years and then discard you, and if you don’t get anything out of that (like a college degree), it’s your fault.”

One of the few “freedoms” an athlete has is getting money from boosters in what some refer to as the “underground economy” of college football.

“People don’t understand that college football is a business. You are not a regular person who can wake up and start his classes at 1 o’clock. It’s an 18-hour day job,” said former Southeast running back Freddie Smith, who played for the University of Cincinnati in the mid-’90s. “You might leave your room at 6 in the morning and not get back until 10 or 11 at night. You are not an average person.”

Smith said he believes today’s college football players should get paid, or at least receive money from video games or apparel that bear their images.

“You are treated like you are a pro player, but you are not getting paid like a pro player,” Smith said. “I had teammates who were broke. It contributes to players taking money.

“If somebody comes and gives you a brown envelope or you get a letter in the mail and there is $30 or $60, who are you supposed to tell? I saw it all the time. I came across some envelopes.”

While players are denied by NCAA rules of any profits they generate, many college coaches are earning big money through huge salaries and endorsement deals with shoe companies and forcing their players to wear that brand.

Is it right?

John Wooden, the late, great UCLA men’s basketball coach who won an unprecedented 10 national championships, apparently didn’t think so.

In 1975, his last year at UCLA, Wooden’s salary was $32,500. He would not accept a shoe deal.

“I got one shoe contract offer worth somewhat more than my salary. I didn’t sign because I didn’t think that money belonged to me,” Wooden said, according to Byers’ book.

NCAA Executive Director Mark Emmert does not agree with critics who question the NCAA and how it denies potential earning power to its student-athletes. He disagrees with Byers’ remarks, though he said he has not read his book or depositions Byers gave in lawsuits filed against the NCAA.

“(It’s no) more than if a great donor came along and endowed an academic department and put his name on it that the students inside that department are no longer amateurs,” Emmert told the television show “Frontline” earlier this year. “Our student-athletes remain student-athletes. And they are pre-professional. They are not professional in anything.”

Former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon filed a lawsuit in 2009 on behalf of former college athletes against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company over getting money for athletes whose images or “likeness” are being shown in such things as video games, DVD sales and photos.

Eleven former college football and basketball players joined the suit, which argues the NCAA should compensate former athletes for the use of their images and likeness. NBA legend Oscar Robertson added his name to the suit last January.

It could get worse.

The NCAA’s Proposed Rule 2010-26 is creating quite a stir. It would allow companies to use a player’s image to advertise their products. The student-athlete would receive no compensation.

Currently, the NCAA bars companies from using an athlete’s name, image or likeness in advertisements, promotions or other ventures. If the rule is passed, companies would benefit from the athlete’s image to promote their products, schools would get more exposure, and the athlete would get nothing.

The NCAA Division I Legislative Council this year defeated three variations of 2010-26, but tabled an amended version until October.

Some of the top athletes from Manatee County who played at major college football programs have had their images used in video games. None of them has ever received a dime for it.

“I see my likeness in the college and professional football video games, and I get some money for the pros,” said Manatee High product Tyrone Williams, who played for Nebraska and the Green Bay Packers.

“I am in the Nebraska games in ’93 and ’94 when we won national championships and in the 2011 Classic games, and I don’t get one cent. I didn’t know I was signing my rights away when I was 17 years old, but still what could you do? It was required. We should get something.

“College football is big business.”

This story was originally published August 17, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A PRICE TO PLAY | College players denied ‘monopoly’ money."