学生运动员有什么权力?

Do Student Athletes Have Any Power? 学生运动员有什么权力?

Several weeks of student protest and a six-day hunger strike over the handling of racial tension on a college campus resulted in nothing.

Last weekend, a group of black football players at the University of Missouri joined the protest. The student-athletes tweeted that they would not play until the university’s president resigns.

Tim Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri, quit the next day.

The student-athletes’ action is part of a growing movement around the U.S. Student athletes increasingly find they have the power to demand changes in their relationship to their schools.

Changing public opinion

College football players often get scholarships and some benefits, like health insurance, from their schools. At one time, many thought that they received a “free education” in exchange for playing a game.

The National Collegiate Athletic¹ Association, or NCAA, controls college sports. NCAA rules say the time spent on sports should not be more than 20 hours a week. But many spend more time on sports than on studying.

Kain Colter was a football player at Northwestern University. He said playing college football takes up 50 hours a week or more. He gave up plans to study medicine because he did not have time to study. At some universities, athletes take easy classes so they can pass without spending much time on study.

Earning money from student-athletes

The principle of amateurism in college sports says student-athletes are amateurs. They cannot earn money to play the game like professional athletes do.

Yet across the U.S., schools with large sports programs earn huge amounts of money with their athletic programs. In 2012, college athletic programs earned over $11 billion dollars from ticket sales, radio and television receipts, alumni contributions, guarantees, royalties², student fees, institutional and government support.

The NCAA itself earned $10.8 billion in 2013 for broadcast rights of college games. It even sold a video game using college players as game characters. Two groups of college football players brought antitrust lawsuits³ against the NCAA and won $40 million dollars in a 2014 decision.

Stanford University Economic Professor Roger Noll writes about the economics of college sports. He says that college coaches receive the money that in professional sports “would have been paid to the players … If we go back to 2000, it was unusual to have any coach make more than a million dollars a year, but now we have a whole bunch of them making five million.”

Noll says that the money creates an environment “where the athletic directors and the coaches end up running the university and they are the main beneficiaries of all the money that’s coming into the sport.”

Attempt to form a union

In 2013, football players from Northwestern University questioned the system where coaches earn up to $5 million a year and the students play for free. The student-athletes tried to start a union. They wanted to receive payment like employees of the university.

The National Labor⁴ Relations Board (NLRB) said in August that it cannot decide to accept the union. A higher court, perhaps the U.S. Supreme⁵ Court, will have to decide the case.

Changes in the system

Some of the student-athletes’ demands have brought small changes to the system. Starting this year, a school can give a small amount of money to student athletes to help pay their “Cost of Attendance.” The average yearly payment is between $2,000 and $3,000. That does not compare to the million-dollar salaries that professional athletes earn.

ESPN college basketball analyst⁶ Jay Bilas says players will have to go on strike, or refuse to play, to get what they want.

“You have a multi-billion dollar business here, and the athletes are being treated like they are somehow high school or little league players. That's obviously not the case. When you are selling these players for billions of dollars, they are professionals …  The players at some point are going to have to decide that their leverage⁷ is in playing all together. The players are ultimately going to have to walk to get what they want.”

Last week the Missouri University Tigers football players did just that. They threatened to stay away from the game on November 14. If they did not play, the University of Missouri would have lost $1 million. A longer walkout would have cost the university even more on ticket sales and money from TV broadcast rights.

Words in This Story

coach – n. a person who teaches and trains the members of a sports team and makes decisions about how the team plays during games

scholarship – n. an amount of money that is given by a school, an organization, etc., to a student to help pay for the student's education

amateur – n. a person who does something (such as a sport or hobby) for pleasure and not as a job

antitrust – adj. (law) protecting against unfair business practices that limit competition or control prices

strike – v. (labor) to refuse to work until your employer does what you want

leverage – n. influence or power used to achieve a desired result

walk (out) – v. (informal) to go on strike, to leave somewhere suddenly especially as a way of showing disapproval⁸

recruit – v. to find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc

racism⁹ – n. poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race

1 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

2 royalties   

特许权使用费

参考例句：

• I lived on about £3,000 a year from the royalties on my book. 我靠着写书得来的每年约3，000英镑的版税生活。 来自辞典例句
• Payments shall generally be made in the form of royalties. 一般应采取提成方式支付。 来自经济法规部分

3 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

8 disapproval   

n.反对，不赞成

参考例句：

• The teacher made an outward show of disapproval.老师表面上表示不同意。
• They shouted their disapproval.他们喊叫表示反对。

9 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。