Editorial

A group at UCLA is trying to take the "student" out of student athlete.

The Collegiate Athletes Coalition, a union-style student organization, is trying to reform NCAA regulations and, in the process, finagle a cut of the college sports industry, which has become a big business.

Among the CAC's interests are improved health and life insurance, increased monthly stipends and elimination of the $2,000 off-season earnings cap. But these demands stem from the athletes' assumption that their function in college sports is to make money, not attend class. Despite assertions to the contrary, athletics are secondary to academics.

Try telling that to a quarterback at Florida State, a school where the football program rakes in about $26 million annually, according to a December 2000 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. The players, some would say rightfully, want to dip their spoon into the pot they are helping to fill.

But not all sports programs make money. Some, in fact, lose revenue.

If the CAC succeeds in revising NCAA rules, it could leave schools such as Ohio University, struggling to make ends meet, and they should not have to.

Athletes already receive rewards for their service with scholarships, priority scheduling, stipends and free tutoring. Some players, who do not have time to hold a job, practice and attend classes, contend the stipends are not enough to cover incidental expenses. But penny pinching is nothing new to the average college student, and there's no reason athletes should not share that experience.

Attending college for free or at a reduced cost should be a sufficient reward for athletic service. But perhaps that's part of the problem - that participating in college sports feels like service.

Economics always comes into play when big bills exchange hands, but the exorbitant salaries professional sports teams shell out to talented players make up for a lack of funding at the college level.

And colleges do suffer from a lack of funding. While the millions coming into sports programs seems like a lot, once schools pay their coaches' salaries, account for field maintenance, fun scholarships and pay advertising bills, little cash is left for what the CAC wants.

Some of the group's demands are not unreasonable; increasing the $2,000 off-season salary cap according to inflation is something the NCAA should look into. But college sports do not need a union to accomplish some basic reforms.

Members of the CAC need to reevaluate why they participate in athletics at all. They need to remember they are student athletes, not university employees.