SCROLL
meet our advocates
COACH CARMEN MACIARIELLO
Coach Maciariello is a Division I basketball coach for the men's basketball team at Siena College. As a coach, he ensures his players are taken care of financially, making sure each of his players are given $1200 a month for clothes, food, books, and other basic necessities. Maciariello, along with several other coaches from across the nation teamed up to create, Coaches 4 Change with the purpose to educate and combat racial injustice.
"It is all about equality but also being a head coach of a program. I have to make sure my door is always accessible and open and that each of my players know I am listening".
-Coach Carmen Maciariello
"Billions and billions of dollars...goes to these universities, goes to these colleges. Billion plus revenue to the NCAA...the folks that are putting their lives on the line. Putting everything on the line. Are getting nothing...the only people that sign away their right...are athletes". -Governor of California, Gavin Newsom
CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
In 2019, the Fair Pay to Fair Play act was passed in the state of California. Effective January 2023, it will allow college athletes to be paid when their names are used for promotional uses, advertisements, merchandise, etc. The passing of the act will assist struggling low income athletes with their financial hardships and relieve unneeded stress.
KATELYN OHASHI
After former UCLA D1 gymnast, Katelyn Ohashi scored a perfect 10 on a floor routine. The UCLA Gymnastics twitter account posted her routine on social media making it go viral. Ohashi became a fan favorite, and like many other athletes, the NCAA's regulations prevent them from profiting off their likeness and image. Instead, colleges and the NCAA are able to profit off of athletes, like Ohashi, making them millions while the athletes get nothing.
"I was handcuffed by the NCAA rules that prevented me from deriving any benefit from my own name and likeness, regardless of the fact that after my final meet I had no pro league to join". -Katelyn Ohashi
"Common decency demands that [college athletes] should be paid, but the only way it will happen is the same way workers got paid throughout American history, through a strong union". -Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR
Before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's professional career in the NBA, he played for the UCLA's men's basketball team in the mid-'60s. Kareem, like many others, believes college athletes should be paid and the best way is in a union. A union would prevent student athletes from always being "at the whim of the NCAA and the colleges and universities that profit from them" (Abdul-Jabbar).
ED O'BANNON
Ed O'Bannon, a former UCLA men's basketball player back in the mid-'90s, was involved in a lawsuit against the NCAA and their ability to profit off of college athletes and their likeness in video games. In EA's 2009 release of the NCAA basketball video game, which allowed players to play as college athletes. O'Bannon saw that one of the players for the UCLA team, number 31, which was his number back in '95, looked awfully similar to him. Although his name wasn't on the jersey, his playing style was almost identical.
"I had moved on and they were still making money off of my likeness. I enjoyed being on a video game, but they didn't ask me for it and my friend who I was visiting at the time he was like 'you know we paid x amount of dollars for this and you didn't get a penny"'. -Ed O'Bannon
Former African American Division I Basketball & Football athletes express their thoughts on the NCAA exploiting them for money
* Due to privacy reasons, the players' names are kept confidential and are replaced with pseudonyms - fake names.
"...the colleges make so much money off of the athletes...those athletes are producing those winning records and those winning records are producing millions for that college but the athletes don't see any of that, and they get away wit it by saying 'well ok we're giving you a free education"'. (Adam)
"I mean they make it hard for guys that are student athletes...you can’t get a job...So I mean the athletes don’t win, I mean I believe, myself personally, that student-athletes should be paid...you have no time to make money...you are doing football 24/7, year round...you don’t have a summer vacation, you have quote-unquote voluntary practice that you have to be at...So I think they need to set up programs that can help student-athletes to make money where it won’t be illegal". (Brad)
"I’m not gone say we should get paid to play, but our monthly income that they give the students is definitely not enough to live. Just because they pay for room and board, if you move off campus that check is really not enough to cover expenses to live especially since they always find reasons to take money out of your check instead of putting money in". (Fred)
"You and I both know that there are athletes that spend four or five years at college or university and don’t do nothing and the college or university actually just uses them up...uh ya know the college athletes are out there working hard...they’re actually running...getting bumps and bruises things of that nature…Okay. And um the university is making millions off of 18-22 year old kids...and all the kids are getting is...maybe an education out of it". (Nate)
Source:
Beamon, Krystal K. “‘Used Goods’: Former African American College Student-Athletes’ Perception of Exploitation by Division I Universities.” Journal of Negro Education, vol. 77, no. 4, Fall 2008, pp. 352–364. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37374611&site=eds-live.