Fit to Play with Jim Johnson: Second class athletes

In May 1965, I got on a bus going from Baton Rouge to Lexington, Kentucky. I wasn’t alone as I was working as the athletic trainer for the 28 members of the LSU track team. We were going to compete in the SEC championships. A few days before departure we were given the news that the school was not flying us to Kentucky, but that we had to take the bus about 700 miles — about 15 hours. One doesn’t need advanced training in exercise science to know that sitting on a bus that long prior to athletic competition is not ideal.

We were a good team, some Olympians, vying for the championship. During the meet we learned that the LSU athletic director had arrived on his private plane. However, we never saw him as he never took the time to come down to the field to congratulate or meet any of the team. He wasn’t there for sport, he was on a business trip. The meet ended — back on the bus. Fifteen hours later we arrived in Baton Rouge, tired, dirty, and poorly fed. I suspect the athletes were still proud of their performance, proud of being part of one of the best track teams in the nation, but they also knew that in the mind of the school, they were second class athletes.

The fact that football athletes, and often basketball players, are the priority of D1 universities is no surprise. That’s gone on for years. They bring in money while so-called Olympic sports often do not. The recent House v. NCAA settlement has been celebrated as a solution to stabilize big-time college sports. This settlement pays back around $2.8 billion to former D1 athletes who could have been receiving funds based upon their name, image, and likeness (NIL). It also allows each school to pay a total of $20.5 million directly to current athletes each year. Those athletes who receive NIL funding will still be eligible for such funds but an independent accounting firm will manage this. No one seems to know how that will work.

What is only vaguely mentioned is the effect of this settlement on sports other than football and basketball. Will sports like track and field, cross country, swimming, gymnastics, and wrestling suffer? Early reports are that only athletes from those sports that produce income will receive income. Football will get the majority. One has to ask the question, where is the school getting the $20.5 million? Raise ticket prices, increase student fees, increase parking? How about decreasing coaches salaries? I bet they won’t do that. Some years back schools could not receive academic accreditation if they paid coaches more than the school president. Today, it’s “How can you be serious about football if the coach doesn’t make more than the president of the university?” How about the assistant coaches? Most of them make more too.

So where is the $20.5 million going to come from? You guessed it — everything but football and basketball. As I have written, D1 college athletics is not really about sport anymore, it’s about money. Coaches are bought and so are athletes. It hasn’t always been this way. When colleges started athletics many years ago it wasn’t to make money, it was about balancing academic life with healthy alternatives. School spirit and pride were attributes, a way to bring students together. Today, profit rules and if you’re non-profit, you’re second class. Transportation, coaching salaries, food stipend, uniforms, schedules, and more will be cut. They will take the bus.

Every four years our Olympic athletes come out of hibernation. Swimmers, gymnasts, and runners become national heroes. For a brief period, they are no longer second class athletes. Their images are on cereal boxes, headlines in Times Square, and clothing ads. These athletes are no different from those who participate in sports for profit. What did it take to get there? I’ve coached swimming and know a bit about what it takes for a swimmer to excel today. It’s twice a day practice year after year, few days off, hours on end looking nowhere but the bottom of the pool. All champion athletes undergo hardships, often failing but rising to overcome and most receive their training in college. Are these the athletes we want to diminish because they don’t play in giant stadiums? The recent legislation didn’t stabilize sport, it simply widened the gap between profit and non-profit athletes. It’s all about money, not sport.

Jim Johnson is a retired professor of exercise and sport science after teaching 52 years at Smith College and Washington University in St. Louis. He comments about sport, exercise, and sports medicine. He can be reached at [email protected]