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With the recent announcement that he plans to enter the NFL draft, Newton is going to be just fine. But there are other very talented players on the Auburn University football team who played a significant role in winning the title, who will leave campus with neither an academic degree or an NCAA contract. These individuals deserve to have labor rights so they don't have to be megastars in order to get a fraction of financial return for their athletic investment. Schools like Auburn University are massive corporate athletic machines who use athletes (many of whom are black) to keep their revenues high. Simultaneously, many of these players have families who live in poverty. I believe this to be fundamentally unfair and incredibly unAmerican.
Congress should get involved. The video is below, check it out!
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the Athlete Liberation and Academic Reform Movement (ALARM). To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (11)
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By: jeromequigley on 1/14/2011 12:13PM
Gee, Dr W once again crying about the NCAA! CAN SOME ONE MOVE THE NEEDLE ON THIS REPEATING BROKEN RECORD???? Dr W, a little advice..do some thing more than cry or STFU!! We all know you have a very UNHEALTHY HATE towards the NCAA, but it is getting old to hear you cry about the same WRONG info over and over again. If there are players who are graduatiing with out a degree then that is their own fault!! There are MILLIONS of students who would love to get a FREE college education. Most will graduate with a degree and a HUGE debt to pay back. So just get over yourself!!!!
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By: ernest on 1/14/2011 1:21PM
bravo jerome!!!! as an actual employee of a university, not a college professor, i find most of what BW says is garbage and hogwash. if any of these athletes were employees they could not afford to go to the college. we have to pay for everything that comes with coing to college (books food, labs,) that the athlete gets for free. you mioght be eligble for tuition remsssion for you are an employee, but that is it. as far as the $ taht the NCAA makes it is spent on the students/athletes to keep them in college cause you do not hear of any athlete dropping out b/c they cant pay for anything. if they need money so badly inorder to go out on a date or need some pocket change they can do something everyone else does and work for a living.
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By: jeromequigley on 1/14/2011 8:03PM
Thank-you for your insight Ernest! My bro_in law worked like a mad man for YEARS AND YEARS to get his doctorate! He worked as a university professor @ the same time. And as you said he also worked in the research dept for the EXTRA $. He was working on medical projects to help peepz with various medical problems. As BW seems unaware that many others do things that actually help humanity, not just play around! Those are the real hero of the world! Thanks again for sharing !
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By: Floyd Maddox on 1/17/2011 1:38PM
@jerome: I think both you and BW are correct. It is up to the athletes to take full advantage of their opportunity to graduate with a college degree while playing sports at the university they attend. However, not to consider the NCAA as a sports corporation is naive. They have multi-billion dollar contracts like the professional sport leaugues and are just as popular. People in this country want everything based on a free market capitalist society; then players should be allowed some compensation in addition to the scholarship they recieve. Labor issues applied to all professions and college football and basketball are basically semi- professional professions whether you like it or not. It's the reality of today's sports scene.
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By: kt on 1/14/2011 12:18PM
FYI: that pic is not Cam Newton...though the colors are orange and blue, that helmet clearly says Illinois and not Auburn. Also, Cam doesn't have dreds. Just FYI
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By: Alexis Stodghill on 1/14/2011 1:51PM
Thanks, this has now been changed.
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By: Robert Skiles on 1/16/2011 8:10PM
Reading the previous comments it is easy to tell those that played college sports and those that didn't. If anyone with any degree of intelligence believes that college athletes on scholarship are receiving a "free" education you also believe that slavery was an opportunity for institutional career development. As a student athlete (All-American) I can assure you that the four years of sacrifices (including personal injuries, brutal daily practices and constant poverty) demanded by the university was re-payment, in full, for the opportunity to get a college education. Everything I received from the university in the form of books, fees, food and living accomodations was earned. I was forutunate enough to be one of the few black athletes that received a degree, in spite of, not because of the efforts of the university. There were many athletes just as talented as I was but, did not have the intellecual accumen to perform academically as well as they did athletically. Many of those athletes left the university with nothing to show for years of dedication and sacrifice (in some instances with permanent physical disabllities) yet, the university made capital gaines from exploiting them as "student" athletes. It is, exacttly, that mind set that was used to justify the epistemological hedgmony the promoted four hunbdred years of slave trade and the resultant bigotry that is fundamental to the socio-economic cycles of poverty and deprivation large numbers of black americans experience today.
As Dr. Watkins indicated, the NCAA is not a benevolent, non-profit organization with the best interest of the student athlete as its first priorty. The NCAA is the self appointed, self regulated, for-profit enforcement arm of a multi-billion dollar athletic industry with federal political influence and support that exploits young athletes (particularly those that are poor and uneducated) when they are most talented and most vulnerable.
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By: Chuck Ehresman on 1/16/2011 1:28PM
I do not think College athelets are exploited. They attend the University of their choice, and RECEIVE a full scholarship for their efforts. I believe that tuition is around $30,000 per year or greater at a major University. This equates to at least $120,000 for a scholarship athelete. I do not feel sorry for these athelete's. They are there to learn and get a DEGREE that can help get them a decent job. If they fail to obtain a degree, shame on them.(a free ride is not obtainable by many) This is not a labor issue , and any person trying to argue this point, and call this "UnAmerican" is lacking the fundemental understanding of the "American Deam". It's about having the OPPORTUNITY to achieve and succeed. Whether you achieve,or fail to achieve is the individual's responsibility.
On the other hand, I completely agree that there are Millions of dollars that these athelete's help to generate for major Universities. So the real question is: Why is tuition so high in the Universities with these successful athletic programs?
What you will get out of life is what you earn with the effort that you give.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
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By: cl on 1/17/2011 2:45PM
To Mr/ms God Bless America,
Do you have any idea of the schedule these athletes have to keep in order to make the team as well meet the travel/out of classroom requirements of these athletes? I can assure you that it does not itself to the opportunity to do a lot of studying. So that $30,000 scholarship means nothing. Do you ever wonder what would happen to a star athlete who misses practice because he needed an extra couple of hours to study for finals?
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By: Keep it Real on 1/17/2011 9:23PM
To God Bless America tuition at Auburn University is about $10,000 per semester for out of state students. It is about $6000 for in state tuition. At most $50000 for 4 year degree versus over $21 million... hmmmmm
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