On this week's US sports slot on Off The Ball, we wanted to turn to a really interesting, brilliant piece about American college sports written by Professor Kevin Blackistone, who is a Washington Post columnist and a contributor to ESPN’s Around the Horn show and a regular on our show.
Kevin wrote an article, titled 'Let’s end the student athlete charade' and joined us on the show to take us behind the story behind the words on the page.
"Maybe the rest of the word doesn't know it about college athletics here in the United States - and a lot of people here in the United States don't even realise it - but student athletes who generate all this revenue for colleges and universities and television stations are really not remunerated anywhere near what they should be, given their labour and what it produces. It's something that's really starting to come to light in the last 20 years," said Blackistone.
He also "rejects the argument now" that the value of scholarships and education equates to in terms of potential earnings.
"We also don't think about the fact that they miss class time and lab time because of travel they have to make to play for their teams, or because of injury and surgery may take them away from not only their teams, but also out of the classroom. So there are a lot of different pressures on these athletes," he added, before highlighting how precarious the scholarship situation can be and the start of unionisation among some student athletes.
Listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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