College sports is big business. Its governing association in the US, the NCAA, took in more than $1 billion dollars in 2018, and a large proportion of that revenue came from merchandising fees. If you buy an expensive jersey bearing the name and number of your favorite shortstop or point guard, for example, how much of that money will the athlete receive? Under the current NCAA rules, players receive nothing, not one cent, but momentum is building for a big change to the system. In this Conversation, we explore the issue from four angles. First, California Governor Gavin Newsom signs a new law during an episode of The Shop, a sports-related TV talk show hosted by LeBron James. Next, business student Jackson Joffe proposes a comprehensive player compensation plan in his university newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian. Next, journalist and Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith discusses the situation of student athletes and California’s new law. Finally, Nate Scott, managing editor of For the Win, a feature of USA Today, comments on a statement about player compensation that was issued by the NCAA several days after the California law was signed. All pieces were broadcast/published between September 27 and October 29, 2019. We suggest you read/listen to all four pieces before responding to any of the questions. QUESTIONS 1. Signing legislation into law is usually done in a government office, although if a bill is particularly important, the signing may be an orchestrated event, perhaps in a public place and with news media and other interested parties in attendance. To sign California’s new “Fair Pay to Play Act,” Governor Gavin Newsom appeared on LeBron James’s HBO talk show, The Shop. Why might he have chosen to sign the bill in that way rather than as a press event in his office or another more conventional location? Point to statements or features of the video that support your reasoning. Did Newsom make a good decision to sign the bill on a TV program? Why or why not? Explain your response. 2. Joffe takes a very measured and comprehensive view of college athletics, pointing out that while the arguments in favor of compensation largely focus on the star athletes of the big money sports, there are thousands of athletes in less popular sports and/or smaller schools who would never benefit from a law like the one recently signed in California. What does Joffe propose? Summarize his proposal. Would you support such a proposal? Why or why not? 3. Smith notes that those who would benefit most from endorsem*nt income are overwhelmingly black athletes. Further, he points out that the “head coaches of collegiate sports, predominantly white men, are often some of the most highly paid people in the entire state.” How well does Smith establish his point that race and racism aren’t coincidental elements of the player compensation debate? Explain your reasoning and point to examples from Smith’s essay to support your conclusion. 4. Scott accuses the NCAA of using “a sneaky rhetorical move” in its Oct. 29 statement on player compensation. Do you agree that the phrasing of the quoted passage is “sneaky”? Why or why not? Does Scott damage the credibility of his argument by using such an accusatory word as “sneaky”? Is it appropriate for Scott to state his criticism so boldly in a respectable, large-circulation publication? Why or why not? 5. From their statements on The Shop, how do you think Gavin Newsom and Katelyn Ohashi might respond to Joffe’s proposal? Would they likely find it fair? How did you arrive at your conclusions? Point to specific statements from the video and from Joffe’s essay. 6. Smith mentions former champion Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who argues that any kind of player compensation puts emphasis on the individual player at the expense of the team. Tebow asserts that allowing compensation would change the game so that “it’s not about ‘us,’ it’s not about ‘we.’ It’s just about me.” Imagine that Tebow might have been a guest on the bill-signing episode of The Shop. How might LeBron James and Diana Taurasi have responded to him? How might the face-to-face nature of that conversation affect Tebow’s argument? Why do you think so? Explain your reasoning. 7. You might have noticed that the image at the top of this post is a little, well, less interesting than those of our other posts. Take a look at the images heading the three text articles in this Conversation; are they any more attractive? Do you notice a pattern here? Spend a day or two observing the role of celebrity photos in drawing your attention to articles, products, social media posts, etc. How might you respond differently to the ads, articles, posts, etc. that you encounter in your daily routine if there were no images of people you recognize? Would you pay as much attention? Would the content be as important or valuable to you? Next, write an essay supporting or rejecting the idea of compensation to student athletes for the use of their name, image, or likeness. Use your own experience and reflections about the importance of images as evidence to support your position, whatever it is.
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