I’m a big sports fan. And that includes college sports. I think most American sports fans could list a number of things they love about college sports: the NCAA Tournament’s Cinderella stories, the marching bands at football games, the fierce rivalries, and countless others. But if we look at the big-time college sports, football and men’s basketball, there can be no doubt that these sports are big business. Millions of dollars are at stake based on the performance of young men, most of whom are 18-22 years old. And the rules say that these men cannot be paid (except for tuition, a dorm room, etc.). The problem is, the two preceding sentences are at odds with each other. The most talented of these men are undoubtedly worth millions of dollars–they often turn pro and then receive gigantic salaries. And yet they cannot officially be paid. Obviously that is going to lead to a situation where many of them receive money (or other compensation) through unofficial channels, some shadier than others. Maybe it’s an easy job, maybe it’s an occasional lunch, maybe it’s a few $20s or $100s. Maybe, if you play at Miami, it’s a prostitute. The point is that it’s absurd to think that these sorts of things aren’t going to happen just because the NCAA doesn’t want them to.
But this isn’t a diatribe against sleazy boosters or rule-bending coaches or corrupt governing bodies. This is about the absurdity of the very notion of amateurism and its roots in the snootiness of 19th century England. The lazy landed gentry with their public school educations (in England, “public school” means “school where the really rich people go”) were playing cricket or various forms of football and didn’t want to compete against the working-class rabble. The people who had actual jobs couldn’t afford to take the time off work needed to compete at the highest level, so sports were, at first, exclusively for “amateurs” (i.e. the elites). In some cases, not only was getting paid to play outlawed, but in the case of rowing, anyone who was a “mechanic, artisan, or labourer” was not allowed to compete. Heaven forbid the factory workers with their big muscles should compete against the upper class. However, in the late 19th century sports such as soccer and rugby started to attract spectators (i.e. money). This led to a desire for better players, and in 1885 soccer’s governing body in England, the Football Association, officially allowed professionalism. Rugby didn’t handle things so well, leading to the 1895 split that still exists today: rugby league (which allowed professionalism) and rugby union (which, shockingly, didn’t officially become professional until 1995). Continue reading ‘the concept of amateurism and its role in American college sports’