Unpaid labor still unacceptable

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Usually, when I feel conflicted about putting something in the paper it tends to be harder news, not really something that’s in sports. But on Monday as we built the paper and we placed the University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars season tickets story up with Marco Ynclan’s mug, I had a bad taste in my mouth.

Some inside baseball, if you will. The office is sent press releases all the time from anywhere imaginable. I remember an email I got that had “letter to the editor” in the subject header and it was just some person out in Indiana selling some sort of prescription medication.

So it is up to the news staff to determine whether something either a) has a local spin to it or b) would be of interest or importance to our local readers.

The UHV baseball ticket information featured a Shiner St. Paul alum, Ynclan of Gonzales. I wrote his letter of intent signing story months ago and initially was happy to remind folks that he was indeed on the team. But then I quickly realized that this was merely free advertising for the university.

By no means are they the Clemson football team, but college athletics serves as a revenue source for said universities. Essentially, UHV is hoping to get a few extra bucks from the area by telling local would-be fans “hey, come out and support your hometown athlete by buying our stuff.”

Except the only support Ynclan or the rest of his teammates would be receiving are objects of no real value.

The NCAA has built their plantation on not paying their labor by the logic that free “education” and a place to sleep is sufficient. But if that was the case, Clemson’s head football coach Dabo Swinney wouldn’t have needed that extra $1.4 million in bonuses he earned during the Tigers’ run to the championship.

Swinney earned $150,000 for winning the ACC title, $150,000 for winning 11 games, $400,000 for making the four-team College Football Playoff, $400,000 more for reaching the championship, $100,000 for winning the championship and another $200,00 for finishing ranked in the top five.

If education was payment enough, why not offer him four graduate courses to take for free instead of giving him money? Sounds ridiculous, right? And yet that’s what universities “pay” their student laborers.

According to the most recent federal records, the Clemson football team generates $44 million in annual revenue and a $19.8 million profit for the school.

The players get none of it.

In that football national championship game, Clemson scored on that last second play. Had anything bad would have happened, a turnover, the clock runs out on the Tigers, etc., Swinney would have been out $100,000. But because his team made that tremendous touchdown play at the end, he got to cash in.

Meanwhile, those kids who went out and actually did something on the field got none of that money.

Let me reiterate, UHV is not Clemson. And baseball is a way different animal than football. But it doesn’t make me feel any less sick knowing that a team can profit off their athletes while the athletes themselves cannot take any money since it’s against NCAA regulations. Even if a player wanted to sign some autographs and sell them to get some money they aren’t allowed. The NCAA owns their likeness. How is that fair?

Looking at the most recent federal records, UHV brings in a total of $1,616,063 in revenue from all of their sports. It should be noted that UHV participates in men’s and women’s golf and soccer as well as baseball and softball. The reported profit is listed at just $43,963, which further shows how different a school with 1,538 full-time undergraduates is with Clemson whose number is 16,529. But the point remains that Clemson, who makes $19.8 million profit from their football team and UHV who makes about $44,000 profit from all of their sports still give their athletes nothing.

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