A handful of student-athletes at various PAC-12 schools handed over a list of demands to PAC-12 officials, a list that first circulated on Sunday via The Players Tribune.
Among the demands include 50% revenue share for all S-A’s, six-year scholarships, 2% of conference revenue to go to low-income black students, and much more.
Many felt the demands far exceed what can reliably be expected of the PAC-12 to provide, particularly on this short notice. That includes David Carter, a professor of sports business at USC who categorized the demands as “either a classic overreach or a fundamental misunderstanding of the economics of college sports.”
David Carter, a USC sports business professor, on the Pac-12 players' ask of 50% of conference revenues: "This is either a classic overreach or a fundamental misunderstanding of the economics of college sports or likely both on their part and of those that are representing them."
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) August 3, 2020
Carter went on: “I think oftentimes you are trying to make a broader point, whether it makes economic sense or not, and this is a time when they believe they have some running room to try to affect change. This kind of change is completely unworkable, though.”
“If they were hypothetically to get any share of revenue, the impact on low or non-revenue sports—especially Olympic sports and women’s sports—would be substantial and many respects legally that can’t happen. It’s pretty hard to figure out what they mean by that.”
There is obviously a lot of development left in this story, but it does seem there would be some logistical hurdles to make these demands work in 2020. That doesn’t mean it’s not important – crucial really – to at least start the dialogue, especially when concerns about racial injustice and player safety are at an all-time high.
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