NCAA doesn’t take care of its athletes

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 Edward Chiao

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UCLA student-athletes are like every other student working their
way through college. Except unlike their counterparts behind the
registers in Ackerman Union, the support they receive from their
“employers” ““ the university and the NCAA ““
is limited at best. Despite working strenuously for multiple hours
a day and “voluntarily” during the summer, NCAA players
are grossly overlooked in terms of health care and financial
benefits.

The NCAA makes millions of dollars a year based on the
performance of student-athletes. But all students have to show for
it is incomplete medical coverage during summer workouts; being
limited to small monthly stipends; being prohibited from using
their talent to work during the off-season; dealing with excessive
extra benefits violations that extend to accepting dinner or
groceries from friends; and the prospect of having to hassle the
NCAA into getting insurance benefits in the case of a catastrophic
injury.

There must be an explanation for why the NCAA maintains such a
blatantly unfair gap between the salaries and benefits they get and
the financial income students who actually do the work receive.
There must be an explanation for why a multimillion dollar
corporation feels so threatened that it can’t allow students
to participate in other jobs, such as summer coaching. And
there’s probably an explanation for why a student-based
organization would seek to curb, rather than increase, student
health coverage. Unfortunately, since the NCAA continuously refuses
to meet with Ramogi Huma, founder of the Collegiate Athletes
Coalition, even though Congress and major media organizations have,
we don’t know. But it’s time to get them talking:
Chancellor Albert Carnesale and the athletic department must
exhaust all possible options to, if not meet with the NCAA to
advocate for their students, at least help the CAC do so.