Jenkins v. NCAA

  • Summary:
    • Martin Jenkins, Kevin Perry and William Tyndall are suing the NCAA and it’s conferences based on the claim that college athletes are being exploited and not compensated for the amount of money they’re bringing to the school and athletic program. They are not seeking damages, but rather an injunction that would allow a free market for college athletes to get paid. The plaintiffs’ argument is that these young athletes are bringing in so much revenue for their schools, but are not receiving any of it. In other words, Jenkins is suing the NCAA for exploiting athletes. One very important point that these plaintiffs made was that one of the vital reasons the NCAA is working to keep amateurism is because the amounts of money that they would have to hand over to a student who’s only 18, 19, 20 years old. But no matter how much, it was still that player or those players’ who generated it.
  • Potential Story Ideas:
    • A story about how college sports would be if athletes were getting paid
      • Would they stay in college longer? Draining talent in the NFL
      • How would you decide who gets paid and how much?
      • Would it kill the nature of college sports?
      • How would college students spend that amount of money?
      • Would they still get full athletic scholarships?
      • May create tension on a team if player(s) feel they aren’t being paid enough or if they feel as if their teammate is being paid too much
    • A story about why college amateurism is important for student athletes
    • Another good story idea would be to hypothetically estimate how much college athletes would get if they were allowed to receive compensation
      • Ex: If college athletes could get paid, Nick Chubb would be making ______ a week.
      • It would take a lot of extensive research and data collection
      • A good way to measure one players’ worth vs. another