Brigham Young’s tournament woes highlight the shame of college sports
So here’s the quick back-story. Glens Falls phenom Jimmer Fredette was on a march to glory, leading Brigham Young University to its best back-to-back seasons ever.
With the March Madness tournament looming, the senior guard is one step away from an NBA career.
Then something unthinkable happened. One of his teammates, fellow college senior Brandon Davies, admitted to having consensual sex with his girlfriend.
Davies has been dismissed from the team, gutting the BYU’ Cougar’s starting line-up.
If you’re not a sports fan, your first instinctive response might be a shrug. Who cares about BYU’s chances in this year’s March tournament?
Who cares about the dreams and careers of these young athletes? Who cares about another sports scandal?
Here’s why you should care: Modern college sports are literally the last vestige of a system of exploitation and degradation that stretches back into the Jim Crow era and beyond.
In order to advance their careers, athletes are required to play for free — usually for half a decade, when you include their redshirt season — in contests that often leave their bodies wrecked.
Their chances of advancing to a professional career are slim, and their chances of receiving a quality education from the schools are often even slimmer.
But for many of these athletes, there are simply no other options. If they want to pursue their dreams, college athletic departments hold a monopoly. They are the gatekeepers. It is, literally, their field and their rules.
And the current system earns those universities billions of dollars.
You think it’s an outrage that professional football players and the team owners are nearing a lock-out because they can’t agree on a profit sharing plan for next year?
The real outrage is that in college ball, the NCAA shares nothing with its athletes. Zero, nada, zip.
In fact, these supposedly liberal, enlightened institutions have a laundry list of self-righteous rules that destroy young men and women — many from impoverished backgrounds — if they or their families earn a single dime from their athletic talents.
In the case of Brigham Young and Brandon Davies, some pundits are pointing out that Davies voluntarily signed a contract with the school, agreeing to its morality standards.
Those standards include a requirement that adult, grown-up players remain chaste, that they go to church, and that they not drink tea or coffee.
But are these athletes really entering “voluntarily” into these contracts? Is it really a legitimate contract when one side holds all the power, all the opportunity, all the money?
If your son had a chance to advance his career — to escape poverty — and all he had to do was sign a ridiculous, insulting “honor code,” would you really have a choice? Of course not.
Billy Hawkins wrote a controversial book called “The New Plantation,” which pointed out that the vast majority of NCAA officials are white and wealthy, while many money-sport athletes in the college system are black and low-income.
That’s certainly the case with Brandon Davies and the decision-makers at Brigham Young.
Hawkins’ book included the following painful statistics:
-The NCAA enjoys a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS to televise March Madness, the postseason tournament for basketball.
– Coaches earn $5 – 6 million annual salaries.
– Student Athletes earn nothing.
– One-fifth of the 64 teams in the NCAA basketabll tournament have a graduation rate of 40 percent or less.
So yes, it’s a shame that BYU is destroying the career of an adult athlete for sharing consensual, private intimacy with his girlfriend.
But the real disgrace is that this behavior by one college is only the tip of the iceberg, symbolic of a system that manipulates and exploits thousands of young men and women every year.
Tags: sports
Wow, sorry Brian but this is so far out there I don’t even know what to think of your problem with the issue. People who are good at GAMES get a chance to go to a school for free or greatly reduced rate and they have to abide by RULES and if they want to make the bigs they have to suffer a while first? To be blunt, well boo-hoo-hoo. If the rules the BYU players agree to abide by are too tough for them then don’t go to BYU, go to another school with lower standards.
Isn’t this kind of a reflection on our society? This is apparently too tough, it’s unrealistic to expect people to abide by the rules and it’s “not fair” that someone else end up getting the shaft for another persons failure. Jeeze, if we all lived in Perfectland this wouldn’t happen, but that’s life. Suck it up and deal with it.
The real outrage here is both BYU and the NCAA.
I do have some problems with the “play for free” except for the athlete scholarships but that’s another story.
The real problem here is the NCAA collusion with BYU to accept BYU into the NCAA with its absurd morality standards including a requirement that adult, grown-up players remain chaste, that they go to church, and that they not drink tea or coffee.
This is a Constitutional violation of the separation of Church and State, and is reason enough to exclude BYU from the NCAA.
A really fascinating take on this issue.
Brian,
I agree with your take on college sports in general, but this case in particular isn’t part of your metaphorical college sports crime scene. Davies’ suspension resulted from a breach of the school’s honor code, which, however draconian, applies to all students. He’s not being singled out as an athlete, as I understand it. This is a BYU issue, not an NCAA issue. In fact, if he got caught and was allowed to continue all activities, and treated differently than non-athlete students, that would be real hypocrisy.
By the way, Bret, if you know any big-time college athletes, you know that sports is no longer a game, but a job. One they don’t get paid for, over the table anyway.
Bret –
One of the fundamental questions in any fair system is Who sets the rules?
Who gets to establish the conditions of the relationship?
Yes, it would be outrageous, and whingy, if Brandon Davies had broken rules that were fairly established and agreed-to.
But that’s not the case here.
As I point out, student athletes have zero power.
They either accept the terms of the the NCAA relationship — which forces adult athletes into child-like positions of obedience and inferiority — or they go home.
Meanwhile, the education opportunities they are offered are usually pitiful, in terms of quality, graduation rates, and future career experience.
–Brian, NCPR
Pete, Church and state? The NCAA is not a state or government institution. It’s a voluntary association of colleges and universities. Thousand points of light, sorta, but with a big TV contract.
Anyhow, back to real issues: Brian M. with another extraneous hyphen, in the first sentence no less–“back-story”?
Every once in a long while, I read something that opens my eyes to looking at an issue in a way that hadn’t occurred to me, or anyone else I’d been reading in the vast echoing chamber of media commentary. This is one of those times. Thanks, Brian.
This topic was highlighted a few months back on the the HBO show “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” Student athletes at the Division I level in sports like Basketball, Football, even Lacrosse basically are full time, year round athletes. As Brian indicated, their graduation rates are abysmal. And not necessarily for lack of effort.
Imagine trying to attend a regular 16 credit semester schedule when you’re traveling all over the country each week for several months (as in the case of the sport of Basketball). Factor in a grueling practice schedule, off season camps, etc. and it’s a wonder any of them graduate. And on top of that, the athletes are restricted in what they can do to earn money outside of their scholarships. Worse, deserving students miss out on scholarships given to athletes because schools see the money potential in the athletes and not the brainy senior from ABC high school. I think it’s clear that there’s certainly exploitation occurring in big time college sports.
Now in the case of the athlete above, he knew the rules and chose to violate them and thus must live with the consequences. It’s actually refreshing, and frankly, surprising, to see there isn’t a double standard for athletes at BYU. Most programs would have probably swept this under the rug given it’s a big time player who stands to make the school a lot of money.
Brian M said: “Yes, it would be outrageous, and whingy, if Brandon Davies had broken rules that were fairly established and agreed-to.
But that’s not the case here.”
Yes it is, Brian. This is not an NCAA issue. The rule he broke was a BYU honor code regulation, which ALL BYU students must follow. Having sex is not an NCAA violation. (Insert joke here.) The rules were established by the Mormon university’s higher-ups. Every student who attends the school, athlete or not, must follow the rules. I know a guy who got suspended for violating BYU’s honor code. He wasn’t an athlete.
Boy Bret, you spectacularly missed the point on this one. It was not about BYU’s moralizing rules, which Davies presumably was aware of when he consented to attend the university. It’s about the hypocrisy of BYU or any other big time NCAA athletic program engaging in such moralizing when they are immorally exploiting student-athletes for gargantuan sums of money (I guarantee you Jimmer Fredette has brought more income to BYU that whatever four years of his tuition and room and board cost them).
A couple books to start with, Will, to familiarize yourself with the broader subjects of this post:
The 100-Yard Lie, by Rick Telander, and Beer and Circus, by Murray Sperber.
By the way, here’s a better example of the culture of corruption in the NCAA that’s closer to what Brian means to talk about, at another religious-based school, though it doesn’t involve an athlete directly:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-11-02/sports/27079922_1_football-practices-brian-kelly-notre-dame
OA –
I’ve heard this from a couple of people, emailing and phoning me separately. They point out that Brandon Davies could have chosen another NCAA Division One school, with less stringent guidelines.
But a couple of points are worth noting here.
1. No matter where Davies had gone, the most ridiculous imbalances would have been in place. His talents would have been exploited without compensation. He would have been required to accept stringent team rules for behavior. At many NCAA division one schools those rules essentially impose parent-child restrictions on adult athletes.
2. One of the most outrageous provisions of the rules included by many Division One schools is that they disqualify any athlete who secures professional representation. Hire an agent to look after your professional interests or help you make smart decisions about your economic future, and you are out.
Again, I quite agree that if these young, often poor, often African American athletes were negotiating these contracts in a good faith environment, then they should be binding.
But I think it’s also worth pointing out that if the terms of the relationship and negotiations were fair, the contracts wouldn’t look anything like this.
–Brian, NCPR
Contracts are made all the time in which one party writes the rules and then a second party decides whether or not they’d like to follow them, as is.
If my son or daughter had an opportunity to pursue his or her career goals in a very serious, intensive learning program, while having his or her living expenses and such tended to, and also while receiving a free education that may or may not even pertain to his or her career goals, and in exchange he or she had to agree to a set of rules that didn’t mandate that he or she must hurt him/herself, break any laws, damage anybody’s property or hurt other people, I think I’d say go for it. As long as the terms are agreeable to both parties, it’s reasonable, even if it requires one party to sacrifice in order to get what ho or she wants.
It’s not as though the athletes walk away empty-handed. While they may be exploited, do we know for sure that they don’t get what they want to get out of the program? I realize there are cases of extreme exploitation and probably even abuse, but at any point in time, the athlete has the ability to ask himself, “Is it worth it?” If it is, he continues. If it isn’t, he takes another path. We’d all like our options to be so great as – choice A: Be part of something really big and wonderful and maybe even make history OR choice B: find another career.
I don’t want anyone to get hurt or feel bad about themselves, but I’m not sure if there is any opportunity to do great things that doesn’t come with sacrifice, sometimes even extreme sacrifice. And as long as the achiever does so willingly, they’re making the choice to achieve at that expense.
I do think its worth discussing whether its appropriate for college athletes to receive some sort of compensation, however I think your interpretation of the Brandon Davies case comes from a complete misunderstanding of the BYU honor code and the BYU / LDS culture in general. As a former student athlete at BYU, maybe I can provide some perspective. First, Davies did have a choice to attend BYU. He had scholarships from other schools including CAL and Utah State among other. He chose BYU. Many student-athletes choose BYU specifically for the Honor Code, believe it or not. BYU uses the honor code as a recruiting tool, many athletes are drawn to an environment that encourages self discipline and focus. Second, as an athlete or BYU, he is a representative of the University and by extension, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which owns the university. The Honor Code is basically the the standards by which most Mormons live theirs lives, so the agreement is: If you want to represent BYU and the Church as a student athlete you should agree to live the standards of a normal church member. Most student athletes feels it is an privilege to represent the University and the Church but that privilege does not come without responsibility.
As an addendum, I would like you to consider how much money BYU will probably lose over this, since it is now very unlikely that they make a deep tournament run. This decision was not made to exploit Davies for more money.
Also, you should look into the graduation rates for BYU student athletes. I think you will be surprised.
OA, by “bigs” I meant pro sports, not college.
Pete- this has zilch to do with church/state.
Clap- They agreed to the conditions. Lets not pretend those kids are going to school for an education, they all want to be Michael Jordan. So if it’s tough, that’s just the way it is. From what I understand a great many of those star athletes are getting extra help with the academics, rumors of padded test scores and whatnot abound.
Brian M- “Meanwhile, the education opportunities they are offered are usually pitiful, in terms of quality, graduation rates, and future career experience.” Again, lets not pretend they are there for the education. And isn’t that saying something about Notre Dame, UNC, even or our own Clarkson and SLU if you want to say that the education is pitiful?
To both Brians- Yes, it sucks for this kids team mates that he screwed up. It sucks in the real world when your team mate screws up too, sometime you die because of it. What seems to be the issue here to you guys is that it’s “unfair” that NCAA and the colleges make lots of money off these kids who have little say in their contracts and don’t make any money off it. That puts me right back at “well, boo-hoo-hoo”. These kids are good at games, they get a free ride and the schools make money off it which in turn goes to build the school more and fund programs and give more scholarships. I’m sorry, but that’s the way Big Education works guys. And don’t the kids that aren’t good at sports benefit from the zillions of dollars brought in? Don’t those dollars go to help pay the salaries of the staff and support the costs tuition doesn’t cover? Isn’t this basically a similar situation to you and I as taxpayers? We don’t get much say in what happens, the college/NCAA/Gov’t makes rules we have to abide by and they reap the rewards for our work. They produce nothing and we do the work. In return we get a free ride at school or our roads plowed, unemployed supported and mail delivered.
I’m sure you’ll disagree with my position, but I just don’t see a huge problem to get all excited over. It does further cement my dislike of the sports/academics collusion.
I’m not understanding how anyone can assert that the athlete was “without compensation” That is just simply not true. Are NCAA rules an issue? Certainly. Should admission standards be tightened so as to insure that Division I athletes are truly STUDENT-ATHLETES? I believe so.
The system is exploitative, unfair and unjust. I would agree.
I think this case points out the unfairness issues. BYU is a private religious college; it certainly has the right to expect its students to adhere with its own code of conduct. However from a total NCAA perspective this guy is expelled for sex outside of marriage and other guys playing in the tournament are felons and rapists. The system is crazy.
Of course as Brian points out the coaches, the AD’s etc, they get taken care of, they make millions of these players off this system.
A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Olympic athletes were prevented from earning money.
So this is about money.
Is this also about Church/State? A good lawyer could run with it.
But more importantly, the policy at BYU is a double standard. It targets athletes, not the non athlete students.
Why? Might it also have had something to do with Davis being black and his girl friend being white?
“And don’t the kids that aren’t good at sports benefit from the zillions of dollars brought in?”
That’s the (multi-)million dollar question.
You pooh-pooh it by saying that’s the way Big Education works… although the NCAA has nothing to do with education. Well guess what, Big Education receives gargantuan sums of tax dollars, even “private” schools, so I feel I have a right to say how they are used.
And I think universities should be primarily about education. Sports are great entertainment and exercise but they shouldn’t trump education at colleges any more than they should at high schools.
There are minor league sports and junior leagues for those who want to pursue sports as a career and get paid for their work.
Bret, and one last thing. The issue for me isn’t BYU’s honor code or Davies’ violation thereof. Most athletic programs have codes of conducts. Some schools have codes of conduct that apply to all students. He accepted it as a condition of his enrollment. He violated it. He was punished accordingly. And although I’m disappointed BYU’s postseason chances took a hit, I’m fine with the punishment and admire BYU for sticking to it claims to believe in.
My objection pretty much concurs with your own: “the sports/academic collusion.”
Clapton,
You make a great point. I am a coach that’s had several kids go on to play a sport in college. When I talk to them, I am amazed at the totality of commitment required of them for their sport, not just during the season. I’ve looked at the “off-season” training regimen some of them have had to do and was blown away by how much was involved. And here’s the key point, NONE OF THESE KIDS PLAY DIVISION I SPORTS. They are in Div. III, where none of them have athletic scholarships, where they all have real majors and are all expected to do their work and keep decent grades. I expected this suffocating commitment for Div. I sports where many of them take basket weaving or whatever, but not in Div. III where the kids are business or pre-med or physics majors. Div. III players have Div. I athletic commitment expectations combined with real college student academic expectations. Those who can pull it off and maintain a good GPA have my admiration.
Bret,
You are just wrong that no Division I athletic scholarship kids are in it for the education. Many of them are. I know some, and their families. I knew some at the university I went to, which had many Div. I programs, and that includes kids who played football and basketball. For many of them, this is their chance to get an education and go on to a good, long-term career, which professional athletics almost never is. College athletes know that very very few of them will play in the pros. Your assumptions about their ignorance are condescending. The shame is the universities maintain such a skewed balance of priorities in favor of athletics that it is very difficult for the athletes to get an education. As one example, a young woman whose family I know plays hockey at a Div. I school while also pursuing a demanding major. Her practices run from noon to 5 p.m. and the team travels a lot. So fitting in classes and homework is a huge challenge. Plus, as the other Brian says, these athletes are not only expected but required to maintain rigorous workout regimens year-round. And they are not compensated. Nor is their education guaranteed, because, if they stop playing their sport, their scholarship goes away.
I am incensed that there is no accountability of the part of the departing athlete. You paint him as a victim of the system, yet he was given the opportunity of being part of a team and increasing his talents in preparation for what can be a very lucrative professional position. When he knew the rules and consciously chose to disobey them, how can you blame the school for wrecking his life? I am tired of everyone these days placing blame on someone or something else instead of manning up and being responsible for one’s actions. Standards are degenerating at such a rapid pace that there is little honor left. While it hurt BYU immensely to take this action at this critical time in their play schedule, they opted to ” do what is right, let the consequence follow.” And I take umbrage with the fact that you are blaming some system for athletes not completing their educations when it is their choice not to do so. Quit victimizing people who are becoming so caught up in the entitlement cycle that they can feel they are above laws.
Given the cost of tuition, room & board, books and tutors (free to the athletes), I have a difficult time with the argument that they are not compensated.
I played a Div. III sport, but clearly saw the “package” that the Div. I (different sport) players got at the same university.
The shame is when a scholarship athlete doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity to get a free education.
Bobby Knight’s players had a graduation rate of 98%.
Pete said: “But more importantly, the policy at BYU is a double standard. It targets athletes, not the non athlete students.”
WRONG WRONG WRONG. Read the honor code. Applies to everybody enrolled. As I said in an earlier comment.
http://www.yardbarker.com/jump/2m
I would argue that many Division I athletes sign scholarships for the education as most have no chance of making a professional team after college.
Brian M says:
“But a couple of points are worth noting here.
1. No matter where Davies had gone, the most ridiculous imbalances would have been in place. His talents would have been exploited without compensation….
2. One of the most outrageous provisions of the rules included by many Division One schools is that they disqualify any athlete who secures professional representation….”
Fine. Totally agreed with the evils of the NCAA. But your post says the DAVIES CASE “highlights the shame of college sports.” Davies’ ouster has almost nothing to do with the NCAA. Zip. Zilch. Nada. He violated the BYU honor code, and was punished, as any BYU student would be.
Here’s a hypothetical: Brian Mann, BYU college radio station host, is caught having sex before marriage and is removed from his radio show while his status as a student is reviewed. Mann was ousted because he violated the honor code that applies to ALL BYU students.
A better post would have been to show how Jimmer Fredette, by being ALLOWED TO PLAY in the NCAA tournament, highlights the shame of college sports, because he’s truly earning millions for the university while only being compensated thousands for room, board and tuition.
Question from Pete: “Is this also about Church/State?”
Answer: No.
BYU has been widely praised for sticking to its principles even with regard to a star athlete. Although I don’t agree with the specifics of the honor code (which not only bans having alcohol, drugs and non-marital sex but also coffee and tea), it is something all students freely consent to when they enroll. The interesting thing to me is that this violation of the honor code had to have been reported by Davies and/or his girlfriend. Although they obviously made a mistake, I think this honesty speaks volumes about their integrity.
MJ: You clearly aren’t aware of the facts of the situation.
It’s sad how even something as apolitical, non-ideological as this gets (eg: me fundamentally agreeing with Bret) can still get so easily twisted into the usual empty-headed right-left bashing thing. Try to act like humans once in a while.
Make no mistake Division 1 for the major colleges particularly for football and basketball is big business nothing more nothing less. The coaches are paid between 1 and 6 million per year. The athletic directors are in the same ballpark, plus the huge support staffs, not to mention the huge amounts of dollars for advertisers, media, networks and the gambling industry. The Universities generate millions of dollars through this system for themselves. ESPN would not exist without college sports.
If this were truly amateur athletics we would not see those outrageous salaries and this giant system. The only people who are not being paid enough are the actual athletes, many of whom do not even end up with a degree or a pro contract, they are the gladiators in the pit. Often in football not only do they not get paid they end up with permanent brain injuries. With of course no help from the universities or coaches or ESPN or anybody else who has benefited from their injuries
I often see someone writing “they willingly accepted/signed the code.”
This is a bit bogus.
We’ll give you a scholarship but sign this is not a real choice.
I would agree if we were talking about an academic scholarship where you need to maintain a grade point average in order to maintain the scholarship.
I would also agree with a sports scholarship that required you to be good at sport in order to keep the scholarship.
I might even agree if there were a requirement that athletes not be convicted of a crime or were required to meet minimum grade requirements.
What I object to is a code that has nothing whatever to do with grades or athletic competence.
Pete said: “What I object to is a code that has nothing whatever to do with grades or athletic competence.”
Just to be clear, this code has nothing to do with athletics, period.
It is the code for every BYU student, athlete or not. To be in good standing at the university, you have to follow this code. Just like a West Point cadet has to follow the military academy’s honor code. Every cadet. Not just the athletes. That’s how it is at BYU, like it or not. Which is what I’ve been trying to say for about six comments now, and apparently not doing a very good job of it.
The university is hurting itself financially here, more than likely, by following its stated academic mission. You can agree with that mission or not, as it pertains to all enrolled students at BYU. But this is a completely separate kettle of fish from the stinking pot o rotten that is the NCAA–which is not a government agency, by the way.
Yes this is not a BYU problem, BYU is actually being consistent. I mean you look at other schools who try to cover up the actions of felons and violent criminals on their campuses to keep them playing and what BYU did actually is a breath of fresh air.
The larger issue is the exploitation of big time college athletes; the whole system of which BYU is a part.
Will, the vast majority of people I know of who have attended college on a sports scholarship had about as much interest in the educational aspect as they did in having a root canal. That’s not to say they didn’t want the degree, but I can’t think of one out of 12 or 15 that was there for anything but the game and the party and wanted to make the majors. Maybe those people I knew were aberrations and there really are clear headed, thoughtful young people that are there mostly for the education and use the sports as a tool to get that. Maybe. If they are out there you certainly don’t see them very often. If you find that condescending I’m sorry, but I find it extremely difficult to believe our colleges are populated with such hard working, driven young people. I certainly don’t see anything like that displayed by our local college kids.
Bush, first off, I had to google Knight to find out who he is. Secondly, did his players do their own work or did they receive extra “special” tutoring (someone else did their work)??? The rest of your post I agree with.
I suppose I’m alone in this, but to me the larger question than “should college athletes be “compensated” more is “Why should sports be part of higher education if they contribute nothing to the education of the students?” After all, they’re just GAMES.
So after all is said and done, you got to be a little bit stupid to go to BYU.
Unless you are a Latter Day Saint I would think that is true. It is a Mormon school for Mormons. Sure you can go there if you are not Mormon but you play by Mormon rules.
Imagine that, rules!!! What’s the world coming to? Next thing you know they’ll outlaw murder or something crazy like that.