PF Dec 2017 - NCAA Athletes As Employees - Introduction

Resolved: NCAA student athletes ought to be recognized as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Introduction

The December 2017 Public Forum Debate topic appears to deal with an issue which has been discussed in various venues for many years. Amateur athletics is very popular in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of non-professional athletes compete in various sports contests and competitions annually and millions of spectators will attend these events. Moreover, spectators will pay copious amounts of money for the opportunity to attend and take home mementos of their experience. College athletics is one particular class of such activities, in which amateur athletes will compete against one another in contests which can earn national recognition for the college, the team and individual competitors. Needless to say, colleges can leverage their successes in athletics to attract more students, to sell tickets and merchandise, and attract corporate money. Huge amounts of money exchange hands each year through corporate sponsorship of events. The athletes themselves, also get benefits. At the college level, most athletes are awarded scholarships which may pay all or a significant portion of their tuition, room and board and books. Athletes may also be given medical care through the Athletic Department of the institutions for which they compete. However, in order to maintain their amateur status, college athletes are not allowed to be otherwise compensated. They cannot earn a wage, or receive gifts or favors in exchange for their participation as a member of the college team.

And so, we can begin to surmise this resolution may be asking us to consider the fact that college athletics sweeps in billions of dollars worth of revenues each year for the colleges, organizations, and sponsors of events while the athletes are restricted from receiving compensatory benefits despite the fact, the riches enjoyed by those who profit are made off the backs of those who do the work; namely the competitors.

Nevertheless, we need to be careful about surmising things. So before doing any other speculating about the intent of the resolution we should have a look at the definitions of the terms used in the resolution.

Definitions

NCAA

Abbreviation for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a regulatory organization which oversees college athletics for participating universities and colleges in the United States. According to their own website, they are committed to promotion of academics, well-being and fairness for student athletes and their teams and have grown into a very large organization.

NCAA 2017:

Nearly half a million college athletes make up the 19,500 teams that send more than 54,000 participants to compete each year in the NCAA’s 90 championships

student athletes

We could define each of these words individually and derive a meaningful interpretation. Merriam-Webster defines student as "scholar, learner; especially: one who attends a school" and it defines athlete as "a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina".

Obviously student athletes are individuals, who participate in sports and also attend school and more specifically, relevant to this resolution, they are college students who are members of the college sports teams. They are the students that play or compete against other college sports teams. In keeping with their stated objectives, the NCAA makes the following claims:

NCAA 2017:

More than 460,000 NCAA student-athletes – more than ever before – compete in 24 sports every year. Member schools support their student-athletes’ academic success by providing state-of-the-art technology, tutoring and access to academic advisers. More than eight out of 10 student-athletes will earn a bachelor’s degree, and more than 35 percent will earn a postgraduate degree.

ought to

Merriam-Webster defines this as "used to express obligation" and I believe that is sufficient for understanding this resolution. The actor, who is not specified in the resolution, by the way, has a duty or obligation to do something.

recognized

The past tense of recognize which, again referring to Merriam-Webster, means, "to acknowledge formally". When one is recognized, they are seen for who they are, either by name or status.

employee(s)

With a formal definition of "one employed by another usually for wages or salary" most people will understand that an employee is one who works or performs tasks for another in exchange for some kind of compensation and the compensation is specifically money.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

This is a federal regulation, originally passed in 1938 and amended many times since, which sets standards and criteria which establish fairness and equity for employees. Very broadly it outlaws abusive child labor, sets the minimum wage, established the 40-hour work week mandating time-and-half pay for overtime, rules for employees who depend on tips as part of their compensation and more. It also, establishes rules aimed toward eliminating various forms of discrimination by employers. Detailed information can be found at the United States Department of Labor website.

Discussion

Based on the preceding definitions, we can interpret the resolution to mean, that student athletes participating in NCAA regulated events should be compensated (as employees) in accordance with federal regulations established in the FLSA. Since most students who will be debating this topic may be unfamiliar with various employee classifications, I will clarify a few points. Broadly, there are three major classes of employees. There are contract employees, and non-exempt and exempt employees. Contact workers are working under the terms of an agreed contract, which specifies things like job classifications, duties, wages, working conditions, hours, etc. Contract employees are typically unionized, meaning their interests are represented and protected by a federally recognized labor union. The majority of non-contract employees are classified as non-exempt salary employees. They are not represented by a union and agree to work under a FLSA compliant compensation plan. This means, they must be paid overtime for hours in excess of 40 hours per week and are allowed to take periodic breaks. Exempt salary employees are considered exceptions to the overtime rules and may be required to work any number of hours without overtime pay. Typically, these employees (such as managers, specialists, sales personnel) receive higher wages or other compensation, such as compensatory time off, to cover the fact they are not paid overtime. Nevertheless, the relationship and agreements between contract, non-exempt and exempt employees and their employers are subject to federal regulation under the FLSA which for the most part are in place to prevent employers from abusing their workers by under-paying, working too many hours, prohibiting breaks, and so on.

Thus, this resolution claims student athletes at the college level should be considered employees subject to FLSA requirements. The wording, "under the FLSA" seems a bit strange, and perhaps some will push an alternate interpretation to their advantage, but I think for the most part, we can assume that "under the FLSA" means subject to FLSA regulations. I think the most confusing aspect to this resolution is whether the athletes should be considered employees of the NCAA as an organization or the college or university for which they play. This may be the unspecified actor in this resolution I mentioned previously. Who should recognize these athletes as employees? I think most evidence will support the idea, the athletes should be considered employees of college or university since it is they, who determine the hours, working conditions, training schedules and fringe benefits of the players and not the national organization or the federal government.

NCAA Is Non-Profit

The NCAA is considered a non-profit organization. According to their own statements, while the NCAA takes in a substantial amount of revenue, the majority of which comes from media contracts, only 4 percent is retained by the organization.

NCAA 2017:

For 2011-12, the most recent year for which audited numbers are available. NCAA revenue was $871.6 million, most of which came from the rights agreement with Turner/CBS Sports.
NCAA revenue supports intercollegiate athletics opportunities on national and local levels.
The total rights payment for 2011-12 was $705 million, or 81 percent of all NCAA revenue. Most of the remaining 18 percent of revenue came from championships (mostly ticket and merchandise sales).
While the amount of revenue is large, little of the money is retained by the NCAA national office. About 96 percent is distributed directly to the Division I membership or to support championships or programs that benefit student-athletes. The remaining 4 percent goes for central services, such as building operations and salaries not related to particular programs.
For 2012-13, NCAA revenue is projected at $797 million, with $702 million coming from the Association’s new rights agreement with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting.

No doubt the 4 percent retention goes to cover administrative and promotional expenses. The non-profit status of an organization is regulated by requirements of the Internal Revenue Service of the federal government since corporate profits are subject to federal taxation.

Collegiate Income Disparity

The post-secondary schools can potentially take in a lot of money, especially when the school is a nationally recognized name in NCAA sports and is often a contender for national championships. Tickets and merchandise sales and other forms of income can be quite substantial. But, there are thousands of smaller NCAA schools competing in a broad spectrum of sports every year that barely make enough money to cover their expenses. Thus, there is a great deal of disparity between the income potential of 'big-name' schools and the majority of schools fielding competitors. Business Insider explains this and impact it may have on this resolution.

Business Insider 2016:

We recently took a look at the schools that make the most money off of college athletics, with Texas A&M topping the list with $192.6 million in revenue, according to data collected from USA Today and the U.S. Department of Education.
While it is no secret that there is a lot of money being made from college sports, that money is not even close to being evenly distributed. The 231 NCAA Division I schools with data available generated a total of $9.15 billion in revenue during the 2015 fiscal year. But while there are 24 schools that make more than $100 million, most make much less.
Of the 231 schools, 76% make less than $50 million in athletics revenue. If we take it a step further, nearly half of the Division I schools (44%) make less than $20 million, or more than $160 million less than Texas A&M and the University of Texas.
Ultimately, this is the biggest obstacle to paying athletes. If schools are going to pay some athletes, they will have to pay all athletes. It is one thing to ask a school making $150 million off of sports to pay the rowing team and the volleyball team. It is something else to ask a school making a fraction of that.

The profit and loss picture of individual school athletics programs is often clouded by charges of financial mismanagement and wasteful spending, which drives some schools into the red and this may have an impact on how this resolution is supported.

Kick-Off

This introduction to the topic has been brief but the topic seems, despite some murky elements, capable of being debated without too much controversy.  I hope to tie-up loose ends and clarify much more about the topic as I present the Pro and Con positions. So, let the research and case writing begin! Well...as soon as my favorite college teams are done playing for the day.

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