The NCAA and the Exploitation of College Profit Athletes: An Amateurism That Never Was

Summary

The NCAA and the Exploitation of College Profit-Athletes is a comprehensive historical, sociological, legal, financial, and managerial argument for the reclassification of profit-athletes as employees. The authors cut through the institutional doublespeak of approved benefits, cost-of-attendance stipends, or “name, image, likeness” (NIL) collectives and provide evidence that the NCAA’s amateurism has been a collusive, exploitative, and racialized “pay for play” scheme that disproportionately affects Black profit-athletes. They offer a forward-thinking structure in which individual labor contracts, or a potential collective bargaining agreement, address compensation and working conditions.