Where’s All the Cash Going?

University of Alabama, the Crimson Tide, athletics department recently generated 123 million dollars. Out of those 123 million, 28 million came from ticket sales, and approximately 9 million came from media rights. Student athletes, however, were forbidden from making even a cent.Recently, in the NCAA March Madness Tournament, Shabazz Napier, a former University of Connecticut point guard, announced to the media that he went to bed starving because he was not able to pay for his dinner. During the 2013 summer a college football icon, Johnny Manziel, signed autographs in exchange for money.March Madness drew on average 10.7 million viewers and generated 1.15 billion dollars in advertising revenue alone. While CBS and the colleges are making millions of money off of student athletes, students themselves are not able to share in the profits. Instead, they are starving.NCAA sells lies to college athletes. Not all athletes are going to become the next LeBron James or Peyton Manning. Many college athletes fail to realize that only one percent of them will become professional athletes. Even if they do become professional athletes, the average career span in NBA, MLB, NFL are 4.8, 5.6 and 3.6 years respectively.College basketball players on average miss 2.3 classes per week and spend 42.1 hours a week on sports. When only one percent of college athletes will actually make a career out of their activities, the other ninety-nine percent can’t afford to miss classes and education.Many have criticized the Northwestern student-athletes unionizing. However, it is a step in the right direction. Athletes are underrepresented and abused; they should not be going to sleep without having eaten dinner.Sixty percent of college athletes file for bankruptcy a couple years into their careers. This is because such athletes were forced to skip classes to practice for their teams. These athletes miss out on the education from college and are unable to find a job to form a stable life after graduating.Many athletes believe that they were steered away from more difficult majors because of their responsibility to the team. The new union will positively affect student athletes who are in good academic standing. These students will finally be able to take classes they want to and not be over-practiced.Not only are athletes exploited, but when they are injured, their whole careers become jeopardized. When a Big 10 football player suffers a concussion, he either has to play through it, or take the season off. Athletes fight through concussions just to be concussed in another match. Their professional careers shortens as they suffer from injuries over and over again. These students need the union. The union will ensure that the students do not lose the scholarships that they need to keep continuing their education.The ninety-nine percent of the athletes who will not make it to the professional leagues must focus on what is the most important for them. Skipping classes will not benefit them later in life. While many publicly criticize the athletes for demanding more and more when they are already on scholarships, the critics need to remember the incredulous profit that colleges make off of selling T-shirts and tickets, and that these students will most likely be bankrupt in six years.