{"id":3213,"date":"2021-04-20T10:29:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=3213"},"modified":"2021-04-20T10:29:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T15:29:33","slug":"public-opinion-on-pay-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2021\/04\/20\/public-opinion-on-pay-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Opinion on Pay-to-Play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image description: Two college football players make contact on the field. Sports like football and basketball bring in huge amounts of money to colleges, but the student-athletes do not receive pay, raising questions about amateurism and exploitation that are now in front of the Supreme Court. Image via pixabay,<\/a> pixabay license. <\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The NCAA was back in the Supreme Court last month<\/a>, in the middle of its fabled March Madness basketball tournament. In NCAA v. Alston <\/em>the association argued that the NCAA, not the courts, should decide the definition of amateurism. Or in other words, the NCAA should be in charge of deciding what types of compensation college athletes are able to receive–or not receive, as the case may be.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCAA\u2019s arguments built on their last Supreme Court case, in 1984, when the court ruled that the association’s actions in monopolizing TV contracts for college football violated antitrust regulations. But in his decision ruling against<\/em> the NCAA Justice Stevens also included the line, \u201cThe NCAA plays a critical role in the maintenance of a revered tradition of amateurism in college sports.\u201d The NCAA has leaned on this language over the past 35 years to maintain control over what benefits college athletes may receive, with the stated purpose of maintaining a separation between college and professional sports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCAA contends that the \u201cproduct\u201d of college sports will be devalued if college athletes are allowed to be paid, as fewer consumers will be interested in watching college sports if players are perceived as professional. Given that this argument amounts to an argument about consumer demand, what does the social science research say on whether the public believes that college athletes should be paid?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent Ohio State survey (National Sports and Society Survey-NSASS) finds that a majority of Americans do<\/em> support paying college athletes. This is a change from past research and potentially an important finding for the current legal challenges. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n