Amateur or Pro?

The past few months have seen a huge question rise up surrounding this year’s Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion, Cam Newton. Has he been given excessive benefits to play at Auburn University?

Although the intent of college sports today is to simply let young amateur athletes compete at a high level, the NCAA has become very much a business. Broadcasting rights, stadium rights, ticket sales calculate to huge revenues for the schools and television networks. Some of the highest State Government paid officials are the coaches of the top sports programs; however the premier players remain unpaid.

The NCAA maintains that athletes must be 100% amateur. College athletes are prohibited under NCAA rules from seeking or receiving compensation for their athletic participation or performance, aside from scholarships. The simple act of the Georgia wide receiver, A.J. Green selling his autographed game jersey landed him a suspension.

The idea of amateurism versus professionalism has long shadowed sports associations. The Olympics have had a long history with keeping athletes amateurs but controversies became too often and rule was phased out during the 1970s. As of today, only boxing restricts professionals from participating in the games, while soccer has a limit of only three players over the age of 23 allowed per team.

Famously, Jim Thorpe, who is widely considered the most versatile athlete of all-time, was stripped of his two Gold Medals after it was found he played semi-professional baseball prior to the Olympics. Jim Thorpe went on to play professional baseball, football and basketball, and he was later posthumously reinstated as a Gold medalist in 1983.

Southern Methodist University football team was the epitome of the golden sports program in the early 1980s, heralding star athletes from across the nation. Coming out of nowhere, SMU landed the highly recruited and now Hall of Famer, Eric Dickerson as well as loads of other talent. The program from 1980 to 1984 took 2 national championships and posted a ridiculous 45-5-1 record over the span.

Highlighted in the recent 30:30 movie Pony Excess, it was discovered that SMU had been paying thousands of dollars to many of these new recruits and had been handing out benefits including cars and new homes. A joke going around was Eric Dickerson took a pay-cut upon entering the NFL as a top 5 draft pick.

> Check out the 2010 NFL schedule for your favorite team's schedule this fall and don't miss out on our great selection of NFL apparel & jerseys as well as NFL Fatheads and more!

The NCAA took charge and gave “the death penalty” to the college program. It involved cancelling the entire 1987 season, cancelling all 1988 home games, restricting them from entering NCAA bowl games until after 1990, cancelling scholarships for 4 years and restricting the coaching staff size. This shocked the sports world and the SMU program has been in decades of rebuilding since.

More recently, the University of Southern California had penalties enforced upon them regarding the recruitment of former USC player and Heisman winner, Reggie Bush. NCAA investigations determined that excess benefits were given to bring in the highly recruited Bush, and once again heavy sentences were given.

This season having investigations brought up over the electric personality and athlete that is Cameron Newton, the college community and the NCAA need to decide whether the amateur rule needs to change. People from throughout the sports world are calling for the stars of the NCAA economical behemoth to earn something at all.

“College football is a billion-dollar enterprise now, and everybody involved is making money — sometimes millions — except the players themselves.”- Frank Deford, NPR

Has the time come for the NCAA to become a professional sports association, or at least ease up?

By: Derek Updegrove
Pro Football Guest Writer