Pay to Play: Race and the Perils of the College Sports Industrial Complex

by Lori Latrice Martin, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner Ph.D., Nicholas D. Hartlep Ph.D.

Overview

This book advances the debate about paying "student" athletes in big-time college sports by directly addressing the red-hot role of race in college sports. It concludes by suggesting a remedy to positively transform college sports.

Top-tier college sports are extremely profitable. Despite the billions of dollars involved in the amateur sports industrial complex, none winds up in the hands of the athletes. The controversies surrounding whether colleges and universities should pay athletes to compete on these educational institutions' behalf is longstanding and coincides with the rise of the black athlete at predominately white colleges and universities. Pay to Play: Race and the Perils of the College Sports Industrial Complex takes a hard look at historical and contemporary efforts to control sports participation and compensation for black athletes in amateur sports in general, and in big-time college sports programs, in particular.

The book begins with background on the history of amateur athletics in America, including the forced separation of black and white athletes. Subsequent sections examine subjects such as the integration of college sports and the use of black athletes to sell everything from fast food to shoes, and argue that college athletes must receive adequate compensation for their labor. The book concludes by discussing recent efforts by college athletes to unionize and control their likenesses, presenting a provocative remedy for transforming big-time college sport as we know it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440843150
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/20/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Lori Latrice Martin, PhD, is associate professor of sociology and African and African American studies at Louisiana State University.

Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, PhD, is Shirley B. Barton Endowed Associate Professor in the College of Human Sciences and Education at Louisiana State University.

Nicholas D. Hartlep, PhD, is assistant professor of urban education at Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 Amateur Athletes and the American Way 1

Chapter 2 Creation of the Amateur Athlete in America 11

Chapter 3 Racial Segregation, and Amateur Athletics 31

Chapter 4 Rise of the Black Male Athlete at Predominantly White Colleges and Universities 51

Chapter 5 Commodification of Black Bodies 59

Chapter 6 Current Controversies: An Analysis of the Northwestern and O'Bannon Cases 109

Chapter 7 Pay to Play: The Case for Compensation 137

Chapter 8 Rules for Transforming Amateur Athletics 155

Appendix 161

Notes 175

Bibliography 195

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

A particularly strong and new argument is the authors' linking of black male athletes in "high-revenue-generating" college sports to the controversy over paying college athletes. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; researchers and faculty.” —Choice

From the Publisher