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Analysis Of Stanley Eitzen's 'Slaves Of Big-Time College Sports'

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Works Cited
Eitzen, D. S. "Slaves of Big-Time College Sports." USA Today (Farmingdale), Sep, 2000, pp. 26-30. SIRS Issues Researcher, Accessed 4 May 2018. D. Stanley Eitzen’s “Slaves Of Big-Time College Sports” attacks the fact the college athletes are not paid by using strong language and harsh, but accurate metaphors. From the very beginning of the article, Eitzen shows strong emotion to his strong dislike of college athletes not being paid. Eitzen’s opening sentence proclaims “Athletes are Dominated, Managed, and Controlled”(Eitzen). Eitzen continues showing his strong dislike when he compares large college sports to a plantation system(Eitzen). He even goes on to compare the players to slaves, and calls legendary Indiana men’s basketball …show more content…

Eitzen continues to call the fact the college athletes are not paid “ironic” and then begins to tear into the counter argument(Eitzen). He states that the NCAA views the athletes as amateurs, and that amateurs cannot be paid. Eitzen states that the view of amateurism is “injustice” and continues his strong, emotional tear into the counter argument(Eitzen). Finally, Eitzen shows more advanced statistics to support his claim that college athletes should be paid. He shows that most college athletes do not go pro, and proves that football and basketball student athlete graduation rates are at fifty percent or under. This proves his point that in order to continue their lives after college sports, these athletes need paid in college. Eitzen then proposes his plan on how to “change the system”(Eitzen). In short, this plan states that the starting point is to pay the athletes monthly so they can afford their daily needs, and then to increase the probability …show more content…

Eitzen’s article is very strongly spoken and attacks the counter argument with his slave plantation analogy, which really jumped out at me as unnecessary. Additionally, I disliked him calling Bob Knight a “slave owner”, because as a diehard Indiana basketball fan I appreciate Bob Knight and what he helped Indiana accomplish. However, I did enjoy the statistics for how much money was involved in certain deals along with his plan to fix paying college athletes. This was not included in my other articles, so that was very helpful. D. Stanley Eitzen’s “Slaves Of Big-Time College Sports” certainly had its highs and lows, but in hindsight I would have rather found another article with more quality information and less attacks on the counter

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