Among the 10 highest-paid female athletes in 2018, nine were tennis players. [11], Additionally, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case (National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Shawne Alston, et al.) ", ProCon.org. (Photo by Damien MEYER). This leads to more wins and, in turn, more viewers, more merchandise sold and increased brand worth. Until 2018, the mens team qualified for the World Cup every year since 1990, but has not won a championship. Online/Blended Degree and Certificate Programs. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is a nonprofit organization formed in 1906 that regulates college athletics, including game rules, athlete eligibility, and college tournaments. Physical injury can leave professional athletes handicapped or disabled for the rest of their lives; NFL players who experiencemultiple concussionscansuffer from progressive degenerative diseasethat causes dementia and depression. do professional athletes deserve their inflated salaries? But theyre still earning way too much money. Subscribers receive access to the website and print magazine. At first, it was a great place to watch athletes play sports while making sure the rules were being followed. It's truly a pity that none of these true heroes are given the same recognition by society as athletes such as Brett Favre or Michael Jordan are given. While both mens and womens soccer players are seeing salary increases alongside the sports rise in popularity, men still far outearn women. [24], B. David Ridpath, EdD, Associate Professor of Sports Administration at Ohio University, noted, The only amateur quality about college athletics is that colleges refuse to pay their players. Ridpath explained, The United States is the only country in the world that has a significant portion of elite athletic development and commercialized sport embedded within its education systems. Formula 1 favors global competition and advanced technology; NASCAR is all about personalities and fan accessibility. This trend holds a significant effect on players salaries: It helps some athletes get oversized contracts (what doPatrick Mahomes teammates think about his $503M contract?) Scores of college athletes are being used to generate money for NCAA sports in a pandemic without the NCAA enforcing any COVID standards. [17], The NCAA reported over $1.06 billion in revenue in 2017 (the most recent available numbers). [45], On June 30, 2021, fewer than 12 hours before some states NIL laws went into effect, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors issued an interim ruling stating that Bylaw 12 (the rules that say athletes cannot receive payment) will not be enforced. Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry was on track to make more than $40 million in salary alone during the 201920 season. In the 1997-98 season, NBA rookies made 176% more than WNBA rookies. Up until 2020, the WNBA received 20% of their leagues revenues. More significant, though, is that players put their bodies in danger daily. College athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games and be financially compensated, such as Joseph Schooling, a University of Texas swimmer, who earned a $740,000 bonus for winning Singapores first gold medal ever at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games for the 100m butterfly. Do you think well-established minor-league systems would be attractive to high-school graduates and college athletes less interested in (or ill-prepared for) higher education? Only a tiny fraction actually make it to the big time. players make about $500,000. 1, 2021), Dan Murphy and Adam Rittenberg, NCAA Delays Vote to Change College Athlete Compensation Rules, espn.com, Jan. 11, 2021, Sarah Polus, NCAA Tables Name, Image and Likeness Vote after DOJ Warns of Potential Antitrust Violations, thehill.com, Jan. 12, 2021, Adam Liptak, Supreme Court to Rule on N.C.A.A. Photo Illustration by Vanessa Irena for Scholastic. The case is a bit murkier for the U.S. womens national soccer team, which is on the prowl for a second straight World Cup title and faces Spain tomorrow after sweeping its three pool-play matches. Professional athletes are making too much money in a society where salaries and wages are traditionally based on the value of one's work. In 2019, little had changed: soccer star Lionel Messi made 125% more than tennis star Serena Williams. Adelphi University respects your right to privacy. Under the terms of the agreement, the women a group of several dozen current and former players that includes some of the worlds most popular and decorated athletes will share $24 million in payments from U.S. Soccer. 2021, the NCAA was composed of [n]early half a million college athletes [who] make up the 19,886 teams that send more than 57,661 participants to compete each year in the NCAAs 90 championships in 24 sports across 3 divisions. [1] [2], The NCAA is seemingly the final authority to decide whether college athletes should be paid to play college sports. Agents can be advocates for fairer wages and better benefits. And athletes should as far as possible have the opportunities other students enjoy. [49], Governor of California Gavin Newsom, stated, Collegiate student athletes put everything on the line their physical health, future career prospects and years of their lives to compete. While the highest paid athletes draw more attention, the truth is thatmost athletes are fairly paid. [20], The highest paid mens basketball coach was the University of Kentucky head coach, John Calipari, who was paid $8.2 million per year. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: What is your reaction to the settlement? There is no guaranteed money. Lets take a closer look at the professional athlete salary statistics for three sports that have made headlines when it comes to the gap in professional pay: basketball, soccer and tennis. To learn more about Adelphi Universitys Online Programs download a brochure, fill out the fields below or call us at 888.252.4110 to talk with one of our enrollment counselors. What puzzles me even more, is how after holding out for weeks, and sometimes months, the owners give in and pay them what they don't deserve. In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was $96,955 while the average income of a professional baseball player in the major leagues was around $4.7 million .The rising gap between the average American's income and a professional athlete's income might pose a serious threat to . The women have asked for $67 million . Most players have no real amateur sport option and those who would rather not go to college have no other established feeder system to make it to a professional team. [16], In 2021, the National College Players Association (NCPA) Executive Director Ramogi Huma stated, [m]any of these athletes are Black and from low-income homes the NCAA treats them like disposable university property. Feldman explained, That was a shape-shifting decision that in many ways fundamentally changed economics of college football and college football television. To fix the problem, and separate athletes who are getting an education just because they want to play a sport from those who actually want to go to college, the United States needs a true amateur or minor league that feeds into professional sports. And this stark disparity has hardly budged for more than a decade: the pay gap between men and women has sat at 80%-83% since 2004. ], ProCon.org, "Paying College Athletes Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "Paying College Athletes Top 3 Pros and Cons. Limits on Paying College Athletes, nytimes.com, Dec. 16, 2020, Dennis Dodd, Breaking Down the NCAA's Forthcoming Supreme Court Battle with Its Big Brother Status and Amateurism at Stake, cbssports.com, Feb. 3, 2021, NCAA, 2021 March Madness: Complete Schedule, Dates, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. And the few athletes who get that far have relatively short careersjust 5 to 10 years to earn a living, compared with 40 or 50 years for other jobs. The result is an explosion in player salaries in the major men's sports leagues. [35] Further, a Gallup poll of 74,385 U.S. adults with a bachelors degree, finds that college graduates who participated in NCAA athletics experience a host of positive long-term life outcomes at greater rates than non-athletes. [36], Those positive outcomes include: 70% of NCAA athletes graduated in four years or fewer, 50% agree that college was worth the cost, 39% earned an advanced degree, 33% have good jobs after graduation, and 24% of footballs highest-paid players, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, just signed a four-year contract for $134 million. Do you think professional athletes are overpaid? Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. What do you think of U.S. Soccers pledge to equalize pay between its mens and womens national teams? Plus, we tend to forget that published professional athletes salaries are gross salaries. The top ten highest-paid women in 2019 were all tennis players when a decade ago the top-ten list included NASCAR, ice skating and golf. As women and girls continue to fight for equal opportunity in the workplace, the fields, arenas and courts have been, and will continue to be, no exception. In any other job, if you don't perform to your expectations, you're fired. Panel Recommends," nytimes.com, June 28, 2021, Alan Blinder, "College Athletes May Earn Money from Their Fame, N.C.A.A. Is MMA any more dangerous than boxing or other contact sports? Such Salaries Contribute to Income Inequality within Sports. TakeScottie Pippen, who, despite being a vital asset that lifted both Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, played most of the 1990s under what is consideredone of the worst contractsin NBA history. The 2020 agreement was also a big step forward in terms of WNBA players salary potential. And sport marketers can attract more fans to a league or player, increasing revenue and support. While President Obama is hard at work reviving the economy, the unproven rookie in the MLB is earning way over that figure. So if you think pro athletes make too much money, maybe you should stop watching them. Consider the pro position of the National College Players Association that paying college athletes is a civil rights issue. 81 other head football coaches made more than $1 million annually and another 29 more than $500,000. Should the college athletics system be revised in another way to compensate amateur athletes? We'll have to wait and see what. 31, 2021 as the NCAA March Madness tournament heads into Final Four games just days later on Apr. Should college athletes be paid? In the N.B.A., the average annual salary was $7.1million. Source: Womens National Basketball Players Association (2019, 2020). But, while the level of pay varies from sport to sport, a look at five popular American sports shows a common reality: female athletes consistently make less than men. Nine other NCAA executives were paid more than $500,000 in 2018, with one paid more than $1.3 million. But as recent lawsuits and even Twitter battles show, we still have a ways to go. Please try again later. Men's sports receive vastly more media coverage, television licenses, and sponsorship deals, which contribute to higher revenue. In 2010, golfer Tiger Woods made 124% more than tennis player Maria Sharapova. These players are apart from their families and have to stay in hotels and eat out at many places. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). ), and Major League Baseball (M.L.B.) U.S. Soccer appears to have gotten the message, and the two sides will pursue mediation after the World Cup to resolve the gender-discrimination lawsuit instead of going to a courtroom. In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was, The large amounts of money invested in professional sports in recent years has the potential to drain the true meaning from sports. (While thats still a lot, its not nearly as much as their top-level teammates earn.) But far more comes from the multibillion-dollar deals made with cable and TV networks to broadcast games. [28]. But that will always be the case if women's sports aren't marketed properly Thu 9 May 2019 05.00 EDT. In 2018, the average annual salary for an M.L.B. Someone who tosses a ball shouldntearn 700 times as much as someone who saves lives. They make their teammates better, thereby improving the whole team (thinkTom Brady Kevin Durant, and, of course,Michael Jordan, etc.). players. 3. Aspiring athletes get to be superstars because they have some type of rare talent. Theres an important role for college sports in higher education, and that role needs to be placed in the proper perspective as part of the educational mission, not apart from it. [37]. Firefighters can abide in the fire station for up . 3, 2021), National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Tuition Costs of Colleges and Universities, nces.gov, 2019, NCAA, Finances of Intercollegiate Athletics, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. The NCAA keeps players in poverty and denied them ways to earn money, while making millions on their performance. People argue that since women in sports work just as hard as men, they should receive equal pay. When asking people whether they think athletes are paid way too much money, most agree with me. If Alex Rodriguez earns the same amount of money as it would take tofeed the nation's poor for a year, he cant cheat and take steroids. This was quite a change from polling conducted in 2017, when 60% believed college scholarships were enough compensation for college athletes. Of the 18,816 male basketball players, 4,181 are draft-eligible and 60 will be drafted, but only 52 will go pro, or a 1.2% chance a college basketball player will play professionally. These infamous players must grow up, and prove to America that they can be positive role models for kids on and off the field. What Should Be Done About the Gender Pay Gap in Sports? When the WNBA players' union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement in November, Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the union, wrote for The Players' Tribune: This is not purely about salaries. The rising gap between the average Americans income and a professional athletes income might pose a serious threat to sports. TakeAlbert Haynesworthof the Washington Redskins. THAT'S IT! If you are interested in equalizing athlete pay, or if you want to push for better compensation for players overall, consider a career in sport management. Team sport athletes represent 82% ofForbes highest-paid athletes list. The rest of it gets spread out to the coach, who makes $8 million a year, to the assistant coaches, who make as much as a half-million dollars a year. An NHL Blackhawks player earned over 124 million dollars in 13 years.Why should athletes get paid so much to play a game? How should the NCAA (or another governing body) balance college athletes sport, educational, and financial interests? 23, 2023. Its hard to ignore the racist undertones when the financial benefit to these institutions is based on the unpaid work of young Black men. [22], The NCAA requires players to have health insurance but does not pay for that insurance and can refuse to pay medical expenses for sports injuries, some of which can have life-long consequences for the players bodies and career opportunities. But between particular sports, there are vast discrepancies in pay for men and women, ranging from tennis, where pay is comparable, to basketball, where players are in entirely different zip codes. 1 overall pick in the '07 draft. It does not go to the players, what I call the unpaid workforce. [3], As of Nov. 17, 2020, the University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban was the highest paid NCAA college football coach, making $9.3 million per year. Last modified on March 27, 2023. 1,217 will be draft picks, but only 791 will be drafted yearly, meaning about 9.9% of college baseball players will go pro, which is the largest likelihood in NCAA sports. Fox Sports say the pool-play game versus Chile had record viewership for a Women's World Cup group-stagematch. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? Perhaps more notable is U.S. Soccers pledge to equalize pay between the mens and womens national teams in all competitions, including the World Cup, in the teams next collective bargaining agreements. According to the NCAA, the organization provides more than $3.6 billion in athletic scholarships annually to more than 180,000 student-athletes. Divided equitably, each student would receive about $20,000 per year. In order for these players to gain respect, they need to have a more significant impact on the community. Furthermore, police officers, firefighters, and doctors save lives while risking their own for a fraction of what sports stars make. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom. 1, 2021], Jessica Gresko, High Court Agrees to Hear NCAA Athlete Compensation Case, nsjonline.com, Dec. 16, 2020, Daniel Roberts, Poll: 60% of Americans Support College Athletes Getting Paid Endorsements, finance.yahoo.com, Oct. 8, 2019, NCPA, NCAA Refusal to Vote on NIL Pay Is Slap in the Face to Athletes, ncpanow.org, Jan. 11, 2021, Bloomberg, The NCAA Raked in Over $1 Billion Last Year, fortune.com, Mar. TM & 2021 Scholastic Inc. All Rights Reserved. Men earn 20 percent more than women on average, a difference that would require a female to work 10 more years to make up. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. while increasing income inequalitybetween the majority of athletes. Top U.S. mens player: Andy Roddick, $2,187,719, Top U.S. mens player: John Isner, $411,414, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $1,484,559, Top U.S. womens player: Serena Williams, $4,266,011, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $307,343, Top U.S. womens player: Sofia Kenin, $3,012,043. We are told female athletes are paid less than men because they generate less money.