Professional ‘amateurs’ in the NCAA: the impact of downstream demand

Abstract

We argue that student-athletes are amateur in title only; they are actually professional athletes in all accounts of their actions. This occurs because of the downstream demand of their athletic success: coaches are paid professionals. As a paid professional, these coaches are held accountable for the performances of their team, i.e. they are hired and fired based on this performance. Within the constraints of the National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines, coaches make the rules for their athletes, which the athletes are required to follow. As such, the athletes themselves are professionals acting under professional incentives and are amateurs in title only.

KEYWORDS:

• Downstream demand
• professionals
• amateurs
• NCAA policy

JEL Classification:

• Z20
• D20
• D70
• I20

Notes

¹ This is true in big-time sports (football and basketball), which is the focus of this study. The average head football coach in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) ‘big five’ conference is $2.95 million, which is close to the professional coach’s average salary in NFL of around $4 million. In some cases, coaches actually receive more money in college football than in the professional football league. For example, in 2015, Jim Harbaugh left the San Francisco 49ers (a professional team) to go to the University of Michigan (an NCAA team) and received a pay raise for doing so.

² Recently, there has been a push to include an additional stipend. However, this is capped at $2000 in additional funds for incidental expenses (Lane, Nagel, and Netz 2014). Pending cases also exist, see O’Bannon v. NCAA (2014).

³ Hersch (2012) argues that coaching changes can affect a player’s professional career, especially if the change happens early in the student-athlete’s collegiate career. He finds that new coaches decrease current athletes playing time, resulting from different styles of play. Although only a small number of student-athletes make it into professional sports, a 1990 study found that 43% of black high school athletes and 16% of white high school athletes believe they will become professional athletes (Zimbalist 1999, 11).

⁴ It is estimated that ‘[t]he typical Division I college football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to his sport – 3.3 more hours than the typical American work week’ (Edelman 2014).