Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Billy Donovan: for athletes, lack of compensation ‘difficult to swallow’

Billy Donovan head

While the focus of the latest scandals in college sports have all been football -- Johnny Manziel’s autographs, Sports Illustrated’s Oklahoma State exposé, Yahoo’s story on a former Alabama player turned runner for an agent -- the crux of the discussion that’s been generated is very much pertinent to college basketball as well.

Should collegiate athletes be paid?

If you read this site, than you know where I stand on the issue. Amateurism is a fraudulent concept rooted in preventing working class people from playing sports in England in the 1800’s. (I might as well just link Dan Wetzel’s column from yesterday, because he lays it all out for you.)

It’s a major talking point in college athletics, and last month, Billy Donovan addressed it while speaking at Capital City Area Gator Club in Tallahassee.

From Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun:

“There is a feel by a lot of families that here you have these huge athletic departments, you have arenas, stadiums filled up and these kids are told, you can’t go out and you can’t take a free meal, you can’t take anything,” Donovan said. “A lot of times for those kids, I think it’s very difficult to swallow that.”

Donovan later touches on the idea of limited earning potential and careers that rarely last into an athlete’s mid-30s and can be cut short any time they suit up. All it takes is one bad step to blow out a knee.

For the overwhelming majority of college athletes, a scholarship is a great deal. Free schooling (read: no student loans) and the chance to play a sport at the highest level? That’s awesome.

But a small number of stars having significant value while in college. For basketball players, it’s not a huge issue. Andrew Wiggins is going to spend seven months feigning being an amateur before he gets his millions. But Jadeveon Clowney has to watch three years worth of money end up in the pockets of the higher-ups at South Carolina and the suits at the NCAA.

If you think exchanging that money for a degree in a field that he will certainly not be going pro in is a fair deal for Clowney, than I don’t know what to say to you.

Follow @robdauster