Hello everyone! My name is Jordan Dorman (formerly Jordan Jones). You may have seen my name pop up recently over this tweet regarding college athletes being paid.
Wow. I feel so sorry for all of these athletes who are getting a free education, free meals, monthly stipend, free healthcare, the best resources to improve academically & athletically – all while getting to play the sport they love on a national stage. Sounds terrible. https://t.co/E19PzWzCjY
— Jordan (@JordanJones33) August 2, 2020
I’d like to try to share more of my perspective and why I feel the way I do on this topic.
Jordan Jones eyes a 3-pointer at the O’Connell Center.
First off, a little background on me: I played basketball at the University of Florida from 2008-2012. They were some of the greatest, most memorable years of my life. While there, I got my undergraduate degree in Business and my master’s in Sport Management. Since then, I have traded in my basketball shoes for changing diapers and am now a full-time mom of a two-year-old and a one-year-old (oops!), while also balancing a full-time job.
While I spend most of my time now working or chasing after toddlers, sports have, and always will be, my passion. And my experience gives me some insight that I think might give you a better idea of everything I was given while at UF and how this has impacted my opinion on paying college athletes, keep reading…
The Benefits
There are a ton of perks associated with being an athlete at the University of Florida.
- I am from Georgia so my out of state tuition (which don’t get me started there – tuition prices are insane) cost around $30,000 per year.
- For three years I had an amazing apartment a few blocks from campus, which was paid for by UF.
- We had a certain amount of meals each week we could use to eat at Gator Dining.
- We got “flex bucks” put on our Gator One card where we could eat at Reitz Union.
- For dinner, all athletes ate at what we called then “Training Table”. Training Table was a buffet style meal – all you could eat and drink, including desserts. We were living the dream!
{*Side story: One night walking into Training Table, my teammate and I walked in behind a football player. I’m sure he didn’t see us, but he walked in and the door started closing behind him. Tim Tebow, who was a few yards behind us, yelled ahead and said “Hey man! We hold the door open for ladies!” I like to tell this story when someone asks me if I knew Tim or if he really was a good guy.}
- We had access to a nutritionist all day every day, which included very frequent stops for smoothies as snacks between class.
- Our training room was filled with Gatorade, bars and protein shakes, where we would go and grab handfuls every morning to get us through the day. Unlimited Gatorade and smoothies – I miss that life!
Something else people may not instantly think of unless you’ve been through it is the benefit of healthcare. Now paying for my family’s healthcare, this alone would make it worth it to me to suit back up!
When I was playing, all of my contact lenses were paid for. I got my wisdom teeth out – didn’t pay a dime. If I had a fever, I went to the team doctor – no copay. Any injury, whether it’s a scooter accident or you tore something in practice, all of your treatment is taken care of. Literally every single thing, down to Advil for a headache or birth control for female athletes if needed, is covered.
I haven’t even mentioned the books (I had no clue how expensive they were until the first time I checked out) that are covered or the thousands of dollars in gear you get each year, between clothes, shoes, backpacks, hair bands – you name it, you got it. Oh and as icing on the cake, you get a monthly stipend for “spending money” each semester. I know what they get now is double what we got back then.
I say all of this so you can truly wrap your mind around how good we had it.
The Sacrifices
But there are certainly sacrifices that athletes make as well, and I don’t want to diminish those.
A typical offseason day was at least 13 hours long. For me, that meant conditioning at 6am. Afterwards, we’d go back, shower and get dressed, and head to the first class. Sometime in the middle of the day would be a weights/conditioning session and an individual skill session on the court, mixed between more classes.
In season, days started a little later, but you still had a 3-hour practice, weights, film study and you add in travel, missing class, playing catch up, and honestly just the stress of competing, on top of your full class workload. I am by no means insinuating the student-athlete life is easy or they don’t earn every single thing they are given each year. When it comes to football players in particular, they absolutely put their body through more hell, while bringing in exponentially more revenue, compared to every other sport. Yes, I can put myself in their shoes and understand where they’re coming from.
But there are benefits associated with training and studying too.
At night, for my team, as a freshman you have mandatory study hall. Every night you would get dinner at Training Table then head off to what we called OSL (I know that building is called something else now). For my team rules, if you had above a 3.0 GPA you did not have to go to OSL. If you were struggling with any class or just wanted to stay ahead of things, you had access to any tutor you wanted for any class you needed.
UF definitely gives you every resource for a student-athlete to succeed. Each team also has an academic advisor. This person signs you up for all of your classes and makes sure you get in the classes you need, which are often strategically picked based on the daily in-season practice time and the relationships that have been built with the professor (some aren’t as accommodating with travel schedules).
Some of these things you can’t put a price tag on but I promise you they are invaluable to the success of every student-athlete.
The Controversy
This “pay college athletes” debate has been ongoing for years, but I know that this year adds an extra layer of complexity with COVID-19.
My stance here is if you don’t feel comfortable playing, absolutely don’t play. It has been established that scholarships (and all of the benefits associated with those scholarships) will be honored. But even if someone decides to play and, God forbid, does contract this virus, I do feel very confident that they will get the best medical care.
The issue I had with the tweet by a current student-athlete was the indication that student-athletes, in particular black student-athletes, are exploited by the NCAA. In my opinion, that insinuates that it is not a mutually beneficial relationship.
Aside from all of the tangible things I listed above, you also get the resources to give yourself the best shot at becoming a professional athlete, if that is your goal. You get to play on a national stage and build your own brand. If being a professional athlete is not in the cards for you (like 98% of college athletes), you have your degree paid for and you’re ready to get started in the real world. (Which by the way, UF also provides career counselors and athlete-only career round tables to help you network and make connections).
I read through the PAC 12 list of demands and it can’t be done without completely changing the landscape of college sports.
For starters, they ask for 50% of REVENUE. Not profit, but revenue. I am very much aware that if it weren’t for Title IX and the revenue brought in by football and men’s basketball, I would have never had an opportunity to play college basketball. I challenge people who agree with that demand to look up Title IX and how revenue brought in from men’s sports help fund women’s sports.
I actually did my internship for a D1 University Athletic Department for a year and while I don’t claim to be an expert on this topic, I have seen and worked with athletic department budgets and know how money is spread out.
The Takeaway
The ability for Florida athletes to profit off of their own image and likeness is coming. I agree with this, albeit hesitantly, as it is a great concept overall but gets murky when you start nailing down the details. I mean, what do you do if Booster Joe from UGA tells a kid he’ll give him $4,000,000 for a signed jersey if he goes to UGA?
But I want to make it very clear that if I was a football player or my son was playing college football, would I want to be paid or for him to be paid? Absolutely! I am all for people making money and creating better lives for themselves and their loved ones. And I hope that those who willingly choose to play can stay healthy and fulfill their dreams of helping their draft stock professionally or just enjoying the very short time they have to put on that uniform and play the game they love.
My argument all along has been I have yet to see a realistic way to make it happen. I would love to hear people’s plan of how they think it should work. I tweeted this request and did not receive one response with a plan, other than a few people saying profit off of each person’s own image/likeness.
As I said, that is coming and I tentatively agree with it. But it’s not just a minor detail to move from having a player sponsored by All-State to collectively bargaining a 50/50 revenue split.
Beyond all that, I’d ask you to consider if you would put on that jersey, for the benefits I’ve listed above? Would it be worth an education, all your meals paid for, monthly stipend, no rent payment, all healthcare covered, to work hard every day (that’s an understatement), go to school, and represent UF as an athlete?
My answer was, and still is, a resounding yes. For some people, clearly it’s not worth it and they should try to use whatever leverage they think they have to get what they think they deserve.
If someone can come up with a workable plan, I’d love to hear it! I truly do appreciate and welcome healthy and respectful dialogue so please tweet me @JordanJones33 if you have an idea I haven’t considered or help me understand your point of view.
Remember, it is still possible to respect people or support your favorite team without agreeing with every single thing a person or player tweets! And above all else…. GO GATORS!!
Editors Note: Jordan says above that she “played basketball at the University of Florida”. She’s being modest to say the least. She was a multi-year starter who led the team in scoring in the 2010-2011 season (and South Carolina in 2007-2008 before transferring). She also had 23 straight games with a 3-pointer.
Brian Vargecko
I agree with every word of this, and so does my Ohio State softball alumn- 85-87, and Im sure my very traditionalist former UF linebacker and fullback father in Heaven does as well. I graduated from UF. Wish I had half the perks of the athletes. They’re not exploited. Teachers are exploited. We already have pro football. Keep the game pure by keeping it strictly student-athlete. It’d be an instant stain that only grows worse as greed exacerbates.
Steve
Excellent points Jordan, thank you for the constructive dialogue.
Another key element, that you eluded to, is that everyone has a choice. If the arrangement is not beneficial or satisfactory, you don’t have to do it. If you want to be a professional, go be a professional. Hopefully you will be treated well and succeed. Some professional leagues require you to wait until you are a minimum number of years out of high school but take that up with them. Maybe you could play earlier overseas for a while if college is not for you. But if you go to college you will probably get a much better coaching, for free, than you would get otherwise; its a great “internship.” By the way, do you think other students would like to receive all of those benefits to prepare for their careers? Student teachers, for example, get nothing except the experience (and they are still paying their own way through school, without all of the benefits above).
Jordan appropriate calls out the 50% of revenue request which is absurd and shows people do not understand the balance sheet very well. Most athletic departments barely break even after providing all the benefits they do today plus the operating costs of running all of the events, the departments, etc. I understand that some coaches get paid very well (mostly just football and basketball) but even some of that is generated by agreements with outside parties. You could cut coaches salaries but the market will just move the best people away (to the college ranks) and if the product isn’t as compelling there will be less money. There is a misconception that there is a lot of money left over after the NCAA pays out from a few big events but it just isn’t reality.
My wish is for all to succeed and I think the college experience lifts a lot of individuals that might not have the same access if not for athletics so that is also a huge benefit. We need to be careful to avoid reducing those opportunities like we have seen recently with some schools cutting sports. NIL done well will be a nice add without jeopardizing college sports but if college sports becomes another pro league, it will lose its appeal to many and many schools will not be able to afford it. I’d rather lose more players to professional ranks and keep college sports “amateur” to preserve the opportunity for more student-athletes.