Mississippi Legislator Proposes Bill to Pay Student Athletes from Bowl Game Earnings

College football bowl season is almost complete, and as schools make millions from the month-long string of made-for-TV games, and coaches cash in, too, athletes receive none of that wealth—except maybe a gift card, and perhaps a Fossil watch.

A legislator in Mississippi is trying to change that, by forcing schools in her state to put aside 33 percent of their bowl earnings to give a proportionate share to graduating athletes. The bill, introduced by Democrat Omeria Scott, states that:

… [U]niversity athletes invest much time, effort and focus to their athletic pursuits which may result in the university's invite and acceptance to a postseason bowl game, including playoff games, earning significant monies for the athlete's institution. The Legislature further finds that athletic coaches are compensated generously from the bowl game revenues, whereas the athletes receive much less significant monetary gain from their hard work and dedication to the sport.

Therefore, it continues, athletes—who do more than anyone else to create the college football product that generates this money—should have a right to a fair portion of it. This is a very logical idea that would be a no-brainer in any other part of our supposedly capitalist society, but of course, we're talking about college football, which is somehow different because 19th Century English aristocrats made up the concept of amateurism.

Despite being a step in the right direction for athletes' rights, Scott's bill has very little chance of succeeding. For one, the same Republican lawmakers who ostensibly love capitalism and free markets hate it when mostly black 20-somethings have a chance to get a piece of the pie, and they long have protected a college sports economic system that survives only under government protection. They vote time and again against athletes' rights, so in a Republican-dominated Mississippi legislature, Scott's bill is probably doomed.

Schools will argue, as they have before, that they can't do this because it would violate Title IX law (this is a lie, plus they already violate Title IX), and because they are already broke (this is a really, really big lie). And finally, even if this bill somehow ever has a hint of passing, schools will get it shut down by saying the NCAA would declare it against their rules and kick them out of big-time college sports. How a trade group's rules can supersede actual law is anyone's guess, but we already know the NCAA's stance on this: The association already fought a federal court decision that would have put money in a trust for athletes after graduation, and they know that few legislators are going to risk getting their college football being shut down—lots of money at stake, after all—so their scare tactics work.

Besides, the NCAA has a magic formula for what counts as "pay"—which is against amateurism rules—and what does not. For example:

• Get a Playstation from a school booster? That is a violation. Get a Playstation from a bowl game? That's fine.
• A scholarship counts as pay if you're talking about giving athletes more money, but it does not count in employment cases.
• Half a decade ago, it was illegal pay for an athlete to get a stipend from the school for the full cost of attending the university. Now, it's allowed.
• Nike signs a player, giving them money and free clothes? Violation! Nike signs a school, giving them money and free clothes to give athletes? All good.

The closest I can come to figuring out the NCAA's card trick is that the association and schools only allow pay when they're in control. They would not be in control if Mississippi forced them to give some of their money to athletes, so they will deem that pay a violation of their self-declared and enforced rules.

This is good idea from Omeria Scott, who is able to look outside the college athletics bubble and see how insane it is that we allow a cartel of supposed educators—I'll pause while you clean up your spittake—to deny hard-working people the fruits of their entertaining and valuable labor. Unfortunately, we've seen this script before, and others will be too blinded or too self-interested to make just and necessary changes.