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NCAA Sports Make $1 Billion A Year, But College Athletes Aren't Paid

Following is a transcript of the video:

Narrator: In the 2016-2017 school year, NCAA revenue reached $1 billion. Many people have argued that the players who drive this revenue don't receive the true value that they bring to their schools.

John Oliver: There is nothing inherently wrong with a sporting tournament making huge amounts of money, but there is something slightly troubling about a billion-dollar sports enterprise where the athletes are not paid a penny.

Narrator: John has a point. So why is it that student-athletes aren't paid? Let's start by looking through recent lawsuits against the NCAA. In response to the release of EA Sports' popular NCAA video games, former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA over whether Division I men's basketball and football players should be compensated for the commercial use of their names, images, and likenesses.

After appeals, the final outcome was that even though the NCAA's amateurism rules are unlawful, the fact that it lets colleges compensate student-athletes with the cost of college attendance, the NCAA frees itself from antitrust violations. And in March 2019, there was a slight change to that ruling.

In the US District Court, Judge Claudia Wilken ruled to allow each conference and its member schools to provide additional education-related benefits without NCAA caps and prohibitions. Her ruling tethers payment to education, so instead of cash, student-athletes will be allowed to receive computers or scholarships for post-graduate degrees.

In each trial, the NCAA has argued that amateurism keeps it from becoming an anticompetitive trust. So what is amateurism?

In page four of the NCAA Division I handbook under the heading "The Principle of Amateurism," the NCAA declares student-athletes shall be amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, and their participation should be motivated primarily by education and by the physical, mental, and social benefits to be derived.

To clarify that, Oliver Luck, the NCAA's former executive vice president of regulatory affairs, said in a speech in 2015, "It would be a bad mistake to create campus employer-employee relationships with student-athletes." Paying college athletes "would distract in a very significant way from pursuing what they really need to pursue - an education... And we need to emphasize the value of that education."

But let's think about that for a second. Are student-athletes able to receive the full value of that education?

Richard Sherman: No, I don't think college athletes are given enough time to really take advantage of the free education that they're given.

Narrator: Former student-athletes argue that the time commitment of playing a college sport, especially at the Division I level, impedes their ability to take advantage of their educational opportunity.

Sherman: Show me how you're gonna get all your work done when after you get out at 7:30 or so you got a test the next day, you're dead tired from practice, and you still have to study just as hard as everybody else every day and get all of the same work done.

Narrator: In fact, CBS Sports published a study on the topic with data from the Pac-12, the league Sherman competed in while at Stanford. The study surveyed 409 Pac-12 student-athletes and found 54% of athletes say they don't have enough time to study for tests, 80% of athletes say they have missed a class for competition during the academic year, and overall, athletes spend 50 hours a week on athletics. And while student-athletes feel they have the resources at their disposal to succeed academically, they don't have the time to do so.

Reporter: The University of North Carolina today reeling from a blow, a really big blow, to its reputation, especially the integrity of its legendary sports program.

Narrator: The University of North Carolina even went as far as committing academic fraud for 18 years. Advisers enrolled students in paper classes, which were fake classes used to inflate student-athlete GPAs to keep them eligible to play. So in many cases, these student-athletes are not receiving the education they're promised, the cost of which is by law how they're compensated.

But beyond that, the cost of that education is lower than the revenue most big school athletic departments bring in. In 2014, the 10 schools that made the most money in college sports averaged revenue that was $132.5 million more than the average those schools spent on scholarships.

Skip Bayless: So you get a free ride at school, but you deserve so much more than that.

Stephen A. Smith: The NCAA has been allowed to be the flaming hypocrites that they are, getting away with the multitude of things that they have gotten away with in an effort to exploit these kids for years and years and years.

Colin Cowherd: It's time to now pay players.

Narrator: In her latest ruling, Judge Wilken denied a free market scholarship model, and the idea of paying student-athletes raises a lot of questions.

Scott Davis: There would be such a large disparity between some of the athletes, and it's no different than the pros where the best players are getting paid and lower players are not, even when you trickle down to other sports that are not making as much money or generating as much attention as football or basketball.

Bernard Muir: We have 36 sports, many of the sports you've just mentioned. We would have to kind of concentrate to a small number in order to pay student-athletes.

Davis: There would be less incentive to go to class because they would essentially have a job already if they were earning, like, their true value to the schools.

Narrator: Despite these arguments, some writers have devised plans to pay athletes the value they add to their schools. Deadspin published, "So what is the best plan for playing players? No plan at all," arguing to treat them like any other employee and that the free market is the best solution, similar to the proposal in Judge Wilken's court.

SB Nation suggests the NCAA adopts the Olympic model of amateurism in which the athletes are free to gain endorsement deals and sell autographs. And LZ Granderson has called for government intervention.

Granderson: It is way more complicated than just handing out checks, as well, and so I think Congress actually needs to get involved a lot more than what's happening right now.

Narrator: This issue is far from decided and likely won't be anytime soon. Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you believe college athletes deserve to be paid? If you do, what model do you think works best?

Readers Name Paul McCartney's 2019 Show At The Mark The Best In Quad-Cities History

There's a special feeling on the first weekend of March Madness. There are 32 games played in just a few days. Within weeks, there's a champion. It's a pretty magical thing.

The chaos of that yearly college basketball tournament served as a model for the Timeless Tickets Tournament, the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus' own spin on a 64-seed bracket. Except we weren't looking for hoops glory.

We were looking to crown the lofty title of the greatest concert in Quad-Cities history.

We started with 64 shows, one each from the last 64 years. Those were picked through our Timeless Tickets series, which ran earlier this year and highlighted the history behind the most notable show every year from 1959 to 2023.

The first one was Johnny Cash. The last was The Head and The Heart. For what it's worth, if 2024 got a show, it'd probably be the packed Lainey Wilson gig at the John Deere Classic.

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Like the first weekend of March Madness, there were some early surprises in our Timeless Tickets Tournament.

In the top left corner of the bracket, a few iconic shows fell early, like the centennial Yo-Yo Ma appearance with the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra and Eminem's controversial 2000 gig at The Mark. So did Kanye West and Rihanna's 2008 show at The Mark, which was a big enough deal to lure NBA stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul to town.

Other major artists like Taylor Swift, Destiny's Child, Louis Armstrong and Metallica lost in the first round, too.

Across the board, country music took some shocking hits early. Carrie Underwood fell to The Bee Gees. Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen lost out to The Beach Boys. And Eric Clapton beat Miranda Lambert and George Strait.

As the bracket progressed, it was obvious that readers had an affinity for good old fashioned rock and roll.

Jimi Hendrix was a juggernaut, making it all the way to the Final Four and beating KISS, Simon and Garfunkel and Willie Nelson along the way.

Prince made the Final Four as well, knocking off rockers like Eric Clapton and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The Mississippi River Jam shows, from 1978 and 1979, were popular, too. Journey, Van Halen and The Doobie Brothers pulled off the biggest vote blowout of the whole tournament in the second round, knocking off REO Speedwagon and Blue Oyster Cult with ease.

Above it all, though, there were two shows that rose above the rest: Elton John's 1997 show and Paul McCartney's 2019 show, both at The Mark of the Quad-Cities.

John had a rocky quest, winning narrow votes against Prince and the 1978 Mississippi River Jam lineup. The latter went to the bracket's only tiebreaker vote. Early on, he beat Sonny & Cher, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne.

McCartney seemed like the clear top dog from the start. His 2019 show didn't have a single close vote, all the way up to the championship. It was clear that local fans still remember that famous gig from five years ago fondly.

McCartney knocked off Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, The Bee Gees, the 1979 Mississippi River Jam show and Hendrix.

And when it came down to the championship match-up, between John and McCartney, that one wasn't all that close either.

With resounding certainty, readers named Paul McCartney's 2019 show at TaxSlayer Center, the arena now known as Vibrant Arena at The MARK, the best in local history.

Thanks for voting and making the bracket a fun one. It felt just as special as those first few days of the March Madness tournament.

In case you're wondering how McCartney's historic show went down, here's our "Timeless Tickets" piece about it, which first published in July.

Timeless Tickets: Paul McCartney at TaxSlayer Center (The Mark of the Quad-Cities) on June 11, 2019

The day is June 11, 1968, and Paul McCartney is at Abbey Road Studios, working on a song.

"Take these sunken eyes and learn to see," McCartney sings, his foot audibly tapping along. "You were only waiting for this moment to be free."

The mostly acoustic "Blackbird" was written as a metaphorical tribute to the civil rights movement in the United States.

It was two months before Jimi Hendrix's show at the Col. Ballroom in Davenport. And two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The Beatles songwriter's had a song called "Blackbird."

It landed on the iconic rock band's self-titled white album released later that year. It was the band's only double album, and their ninth consecutive record to go platinum in the U.S.

To this day, The Beatles — McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison — are the best-selling music act of all-time, with 183 million units certified in the United States alone.

Rock music legend Sir Paul McCartney performs at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Tuesday, June 11, 2019.

FILE

They have 16 multi-platinum albums and six more diamonds. They've won seven Grammy Awards and have 16 songs in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Since their unmatched run from 1960 to 1970, The Beatles have served as the benchmark for music fame. "Beatlemania" is the reference point for all new crazes. The band was everywhere. But they were never here.

The Beatles never came to the Quad-Cities. They never played in Iowa at all, though they did appear in Chicago in three consecutive years from 1964 to 1966. That's the closest a Quad-Citian could get to a Beatle for decades, without hours of travel and a whole lot of luck.

All that changed on June 11, 2019, when Paul McCartney came to Moline.

McCartney crew member helped serve hungry folks in Davenport

From the second that McCartney's solo show was announced at the TaxSlayer Center (formerly The Mark) in Moline, local music fans started scrambling. By 2019, McCartney was one of only two living Beatles members, along with Starr.

He'd played shows in Des Moines and Ames before. But this was different. It would be right here in our backyard, and everyone was determined to be there.

The arena's executive director, Scott Mullen, knew it. He told the Times in 2018 that he expected the show to be the quickest sellout and highest grossing show in The Mark's history. So how did he pull it off?

"We had to be creative with the deal so we actually won't make much profit on this show, but it's justified to get an act of this caliber for our community," he told the Times.

"The economic impact for the Quad-Cities will be significant, with millions of dollars being spent at local hotels and restaurants."

Mullen said that the show was in fact McCartney's idea. The singer likes to play in new cities as often as he can. On 2019's "Freshen Up Tour," he picked Moline and Madison as first-time Midwest stops.

"The number of performances this guy does — it's amazing," Mullen said. "He was looking for a venue he hadn't played before that was in his routing. He asked to play here. It's good to know we have that kind of visibility."

The arena instituted a lottery system for selling tickets. Fans could arrive at 10 a.M. On the on-sale day to draw a number. There was no apparent advantage for getting there early, but still, hundreds of fans were in line by 9:30 a.M. One camped out starting at 11 p.M. The night before.

Fans joined together and sang Beatles songs. A fan from Coal Valley got lucky enough to get tickets and threw her hands in the air as if she scored a touchdown, reporter Linda Cook wrote in the Times.

The fan was there with her 13-year-old son.

"My baby is going to get to see Paul," she said.

Victoria Navarro said she reached out to McCartney's team to see if they'd want to help serve the hungry at Cafe on Vine in Davenport, where she volunteers.

Initially, she was looking for some publicity. What she found was friendship. McCartney's crew let Navarro know that the singer wouldn't able to show up, but his director of security, Mark Hamilton, wanted to.

A day before the show, Hamilton served meals at the cafe, under the condition that it wasn't publicized.

"I introduced him as my cousin from Scotland," Navarro joked in an interview with the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus on Monday. "Which no one believed, because I'm Mexican."

The two hit it off and grabbed lunch afterward. On the day of the show, Hamilton invited her son and granddaughter to come on stage and sit at McCartney's drum set. Navarro never got to meet Sir Paul. But still, she said she cherishes the memory.

Before leaving town, McCartney's touring crew donated their leftover meals to Cafe on Vine.

Felt like the Bix outside

The Times ran a lengthy feature ahead of the show, highlighting some of the biggest concerts in Quad-Cities history. It included many of the Timeless Tickets greatest hits: KISS, Simon & Garfunkel, Prince, Frank Sinatra.

Writer Jonathan Turner called McCartney's gig one of the most anticipated shows in local history. Law enforcement had to anticipate it, too.

"Obviously we are cognizant of who (McCartney) is, and we will have a number of officers based on the crowd size," a Moline Police detective told the Times.

The situation was complicated by the fact that McCartney wasn't the only big guest in town that day — just a month after announcing his run for president, former Vice President Joe Biden was set to visit Davenport the same night.

With an estimated 10,000-plus in downtown Moline, the scene on the day of the show was hectic. Good weather kept the spirits high, but the crowds were thick. Homemade shirts, caps and signs littered the crowd.

A pair of cousins from Clinton and Rock Island told Times reporter Alma Gaul that they were some of the lucky ones who saw the Beatles for $5 in Chicago in '65.

They wore shirts that read "I Saw The Beatles Live On Stage And I'm Still Around To Brag About It," and told Gaul about the energy back then.

"Everybody screamed," Barb Wingler told the Times. "Except the guys. They just stood up and made fun of everybody who screamed."

Before the show, Gaul wrote a column for the Times about her own experience seeing McCartney in Des Moines the year before. She described the kinship. The intimacy. The disbelief when it set in that she could see a real Beatle on stage.

"Fifty years ago, the idea that I would one day see one of the four musicians who played before millions, who were mobbed everywhere they went, who so changed the course of musical history was about as remote as going to the moon," she wrote.

If that's the case, there were roughly 11,000 astronauts on the streets in Moline that day.

"If you've ever watched the start of the Quad-City Times Bix 7, with thousands of runners weaving and bobbing up Brady Street hill," Gaul wrote. "Then you have a pretty good idea of how the lines waiting to get into the TaxSlayer looked from the doors."

McCartney took flight

McCartney took the stage around 8:15 p.M.

Turner, reviewing for the Times/Dispatch-Argus, called the reaction "deafening."

Sir Paul started with the Beatles classic "A Hard Day's Night," before segueing into a few songs from his most recent album at the time, "Egypt Station."

When the hits came, they came in bunches. He played "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Got to Get You Into My Life" and "I've Just Seen a Face" early.

McCartney ended his setlist with a ridiculous run: "Something," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," "Band on The Run," "Back in the U.S.S.R.," "Let it Be," "Live and Let Die," "Hey Jude," all in a row. Seven of the biggest songs in music history. Right here in the Quad-Cities.

Turner acknowledged that assembling a McCartney setlist would have to be an "exquisitely agonizing challenge."

But Sir Paul made Moline proud, with a 38-song lineup that featured 22 Beatles tracks. The stage design was somehow even better. Fireworks and flames surrounded the stage during "Live and Let Die."

"Technically, the spectacular lighting, video and other special effects were the most impressive of pretty much any show I've seen at the arena," Turner wrote.

"There are no words to do justice to the pyrotechnic wonders of that gonzo display."

The encore was the stuff of legend, with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Helter Skelter" and the entire three-song closing suite on the all-time classic record "Abbey Road": "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," "The End."

The then-soon-to-be 77-year-old also built a stage-to-seat friendship with fans. He told stories about the background of every song.

The fact that "Here Today" represented the words he wished he once said to the late Lennon. How "My Valentine" was dedicated to his wife, Nancy, in the audience. How "Who Cares" was an ode to those who have dealt with bullying.

And of course, he explained "Blackbird" as a nod to the civil rights progress for Black Americans.

"Alone with his acoustic guitar, McCartney literally flew way up high as most of the stage ascended," Turner wrote. "And on a screen in front of that piece was displayed an image of the Earth with stars."

The day was June 11, 2019.

And the biggest star the Quad-Cities has ever seen was at The Mark, working on a memory.

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March Madness: Belfast Basketball Star CJ Fulton Relishing Tournament Opportunity

Image caption,

Fulton plays as a guard for the Charleston Cougars

Belfast basketball star CJ Fulton said it is a "a dream come true" to play in college basketball's 'March Madness' tournament.

Fulton plays for the Charleston Cougars, who face Alabama in the first round on Friday in Spokane, Washington.

The NCAA Division One knockout tournament, known as 'March Madness', involves the best 68 teams in the US.

"I think a lot of people in America would say it is the largest sporting event here," he said.

"Even including the Super Bowl and the NBA finals, the month of March is all about college basketball and it is really unique as there are a lot of upsets.

"It is the main event with the whole world watching it, it is massive and it should be a lot of fun."

'It's really special' Image source, Mitchell Layton Image caption,

Fulton helped Charleston to win the CAA Conference Tournament earlier this month

The competition, broadcast on network television across the US, features 68 college teams, 32 of which automatically qualify by winning their conference tournament.

The other 36 teams qualify through their performances during the season, with the teams then competing in seven rounds of single-elimination games until the national champion is crowned in the final.

Fulton, who plays as a guard for Charleston, helped his side win the CAA Conference Tournament to qualify for the end-of-season finale.

The 21-year old is relishing the chance to play in a tournament he grew up watching with his grandfather in Northern Ireland.

"My granda got me into it and I remember as a kid growing up watching March Madness and filling out the brackets [wall charts] with him. He always had the magazines to get the right predictions. So it's definitely a cool moment."

He continued: "It's really special, I haven't really thought about it but I think after March Madness I will reflect on my journey - from where I started to making the tournament and hopefully winning a few games.

"Being able to impact winning is really special at this level as not a lot of Irish people have done it before."

'We can beat Alabama' Image source, Icon Sportswire Image caption,

Fulton transferred to Charleston from Lafayette University last summer for his junior year

Fulton established himself as one of the major talents in the Basketball Ireland Super League, helping Belfast Star to their first title in 21 years in the 2019-20 season and being named young player of the year.

He moved to the Wichendon School in Boston before landing a collegiate scholarship with Pennsylvania-based Lafayette University.

The Irish underage international transferred to Charleston last summer and has embraced the "winning culture" at the college.

Charleston, who are ranked 54th out of the 68 teams this year, will look to go one better in the NCAA Championship after losing in the first round last year against eventual runners-up San Diego State.

Fulton is under no illusions as to how difficult that will be against Alabama, the number four seeds in the tournament.

"I think in Charleston there is a tradition with winning. We've had a good year this year, we've won 27 and lost seven but we won our league and conference tournament and it has been really successful.

"There's a lot of buzz around the city, everyone is really excited and walking about, you get a bunch of people wishing you luck.

"We've got Alabama, who are one of the best teams in the country. They are a good side, they play a good style, really fast, similar to us and we know we have to play well but we can definitely beat them.

"We want to win as many games as possible, it would be very special and that is our aspiration."

Support in Spokane

It will be a family affair in Spokane with his parents and sister making a gruelling trip across the Atlantic to watch Fulton in action.

"They're going from Dublin to London to Seattle to Spokane," he explained.

"I'm really excited for them to come, they managed to come for a few games in February and that was really great, but for them to get to go to March Madness is a whole different level.

"There was a lot of talk about whether they would come, especially when we got the draw of it being in Spokane on the west coast - it's another six hours on a plane for them but they thought they couldn't miss it."

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