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Wednesday, 4/30/97 Student-athletes: Should they stay or should they go now? Compensation main factor in deciding to remain in college

UCLA's recent harvest of two of the nation's top recruits leads to speculation that they - like many other top recruits before them - might leave college for the pros after just one or two years. It is in light of such speculation that I write this column, in which I claim that there is nothing wrong with leaving school early. And it is in light of the next five or six paragraphs, which have very little to do with my theme, that I write this opening paragraph, telling you what the hell this column is about. Because the next five or six paragraphs are about "The Simpsons." There's one episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer is the star of his nuclear power plant's softball team. He takes his homemade wonder bat and becomes a slugger of Ruthian proportions. As a result, his team reaches the nuclear power plant softball world series. (I forget if that's what they actually called it.) Then sinister old Montgomery Burns, owner of the power plant, bets $1 million against a rival power plant owner that Burns' team will win the championship. "One million dollars?" sidekick and assistant Wayland Smithers asks. "That's a lot of money to risk on our softball team, sir." "That's right Smithers," Burns said, "Because we're going to bring in ringers, to make sure that our softball team will win." (Note to Mr. Smithers and Mr. Burns: While I may have paraphrased and quoted you inaccurately, I assume that you won't sue because, after all, you are cartoon characters.) And so Homer lost his starting spot on the softball team to Darryl Strawberry, while eight other major leaguers filled out the starting lineup. Of course they would not become full-time, permanent employees of the power plant - they were only there to play softball. "Where in God's name is he going with this?" you ask. It's a good thing you asked, because I could probably talk about "The Simpsons" for an entire column. Let me start making my analogy. Just as Monty Burns brings major league ballplayers to the power plant for their skills in the field rather than their industrial expertise, most universities bring in blue-chip football and basketball players for their athletic ability rather than for their academic ability. Just as the ballplayers joined the power plant to play baseball and not to work with radioactive chemicals, many athletes go to school to play their sport, and not for whatever reason everybody else goes to school (what are we doing here again?). Just as $1 million were at stake in the nuclear power plant softball world series, a lot of money is at stake in major college sports, with winning teams making money for universities through merchandising and ticket sales. In essence, scholarship athletes in the major-revenue sports come to universities as ringers. And while they can immerse themselves in academics upon arrival (much like Mike Scioscia of the Dodgers immersed himself in manual labor upon arrival at the power plant), they can also choose to - and are often encouraged to - focus their energies on the sport they play. The latter type of the student-athlete isn't getting paid enough. The only compensation student-athletes get is a scholarship (i.e., permission to play for the university for free). When athletes come to a university merely to prepare for a professional athletic career, there is no reason to stay longer than necessary. Universities pay athletes nothing to play, and on top of that, they make athletes go to classes. Meanwhile, professional teams dole out millions to players, because that is how much revenue these same players generate. What I'm saying here is that student-athletes, just like any other ringers, shouldn't feel compelled to stay in school if they're not being adequately compensated. And it is up to each individual player to decide whether he is being adequately compensated. Someone who values a college degree or the college experience might think a four-year scholarship is easily worth his work on the basketball court or football field. Such a person might claim that basketball and football players should stay in school for the full four years, because they are being paid adequately (with their scholarship). To say that, is to say that all people should assign a high value to a college degree and the college experience, which isn't fair to say. And by committing to a school, a football or basketball player doesn't show that he values school - he is merely using the only minor leagues available. So why not leave early? Incidentally, "The Simpsons" episode I mentioned earlier ended with all of the ringers (except for Strawberry) getting injured for the world series, and the team winning anyway - as Homer was hit in the head by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run. It will be quite a stretch to push this analogy further, but how else can I end this column? So, just as Burns' ringers were not well-compensated for their stay on his softball team (For example, Ken Griffey Jr. suffered a case of gigantism and Ozzie Smith disappeared off the face of the earth), football and basketball players are not well-compensated enough to stay in school. Leaving early is the perfectly sensible thing to do. Dittmer is the Daily Bruin Sports Editor and his only goal in life is to be chosen for Montgomery Burns' all-star football team.

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