Summary of “The Shame of College Sports”

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” author Taylor Branch describes the corruption if the wide world of college sports. He begins by describing how some of the top athletes are bribed by colleges with large sums of money to come paly for their school. On one hand some athletes are getting paid large sums while other good athletes and hard workers are not getting paid anything at all. Further in the article the author explains how shoe companies and other sports outfitting companies pay the colleges large sums of money to advertise their stuff on the athletes. One said though it may not be moral the universities get money and the companies get great advertising. When television came into play it became a way for college sports to earn millions of dollars. The author then describes how the NCAA came into power and how it was full of corruption. The NCAA controlled the TV for football and basketball and became irate when they lost control of the football TV. The NCAA is described as being all about the money and not really about the athletes. This is evident when some athletes were injured and the NCAA refused to pay for their injuries because they were not employers. The NCAA enacted the student-athlete to protect themselves from lawsuits. The author suggests paying the athletes but many are against it because they say it would ruin the integrity of amateur sports. The corruption of the NCAA continues with the company not allowing the athletes to wear any logo they want unless the NCAA says its ok. Also the NCAA sells the videos and memorabilia of the athletes they choose when they choose, but athletes themselves are not allowed to do so. There were many cases scandals that showed the NCAA does not really care about the athlete’s education because only 1% of the budget was spent on academic enforcement. The author concludes that these athletes are being taken advantage of and wind up with nothing. He suggests that amateurism should be done away with in order to protect the rights of the athletes and rid the NCAA of corruption. Though paying college athletes may be nerve-racking it is the best choice.