M en's college basketball players, like those at top-ranked UConn, should be given a stipend for transportation to and from college and home, according to University of Connecticut men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun.

 

NCAA rules prevent that, and I will support Calhoun and call on the NCAA to change those arcane regulations.

 

At Calhoun's post-game press conference last week, Jan. 25, after UConn's brawlball win over Big East rival St. John's University, I blindsided him with this: At what point do we call NCAA Division I basketball a minor league and ask the NBA to subsidize the operations of programs like UConn?

 

None of the 40 or so reporters made a peep while Calhoun thought how to answer the question that begs asking. Are these kids professional entertainers in training or amateur student athletes?

 

Thousands of people pay $50 or more a night to watch UConn men play. Major television networks make billions in ad revenues off of college hoops. Corporations throw millions to UConn in sponsorship ads, hoping to be associated with Calhoun's success. The NBA relies on NCAA schools to provide an inexpensive, mature stream of players.

 

Yet Calhoun only registers a 27 percent player graduation rate, according to a 2005 University of Central Florida study. That rate drops to 14 percent if we only count his African-American players, UCF said.

 

UConn student/athletes overall graduate at a 62 percent rate. Some say graduation rates aren't a fair measure because transfer students who graduate at other institutions are counted against Calhoun's measurements.

 

Calhoun makes an impassioned case that his players delve into academia.

Jim Calhoun

"They're students, they go to class," he said. He pointed to the massive computer lab in UConn's Gampel Pavilion, the tutors and UConn's top-notch academic advisor Ted Tagen.

 

I hope Marcus Williams, accused of computer theft this past summer, pays attention in his Law and Ethics class. Huskies like Williams, who seem to be biding their two years before jumping to the NBA, don't deserve a paycheck, Calhoun said.

 

"Do I think it is amateurism? Yes, it is," Calhoun said. "So many great things come from college basketball. I would be 100 percent against it. It would spoil a great thing."

 

But, Calhoun said that players deserve payment to be able to travel home during breaks. NCAA rules prevent them from holding part-time jobs.

 

"The number one problem is transportation violations," Calhoun said. "At some schools, they make $10 or $12 million a year on basketball programs. We have to get some of that to students for travel."

 

Reports vary on Calhoun's income, and he is loathe to divulge details, but he makes between $963,000 and $1.4 million annually on his contracts with UConn, and endorsements from Nike, etc. Over the course of a 37 game season, that equals about $35,000 a game.

 

His players make about $600 a game in non-cash compensation, that being free tuition ($21,000 or so annually) to UConn. Over the years, Calhoun's players have been caught in various illegal fundraising schemes, from accepting free airline tickets to stealing laptops.

 

UConn isn't the only big-time basketball school with such problems. The abuse and potential solutions are well-documented by people like Professor Allen Sack at the University of New Haven.

 

College basketball is not perfect, Calhoun admitted.

 

"Do we have flaws? Everybody has flaws, this country, this school, we're humans," he said.

 

Josh Boone, a junior forward for the Huskies, said he thinks his education is a fair payment for his efforts, but he wouldn't reject a paycheck.

Josh Boone

"That would be an interesting concept," Boone said. "It might change the game a bit, but it wouldn't change the way I play."

 

I wonder if Boone preferred that question to the same ones he hears from the sportswriters trying to make each game seem more important than the previous.

 

It is almost painful to listen to the charade a coach or player must respond to: "Did all the hype coming into this game make it seem like there was more spark on the court?"

 

Calhoun criticized the press, too, for not focusing on basketball. At first I thought he was talking about my question, but then I realized he was hounding on the horde of Big East writers looking for a scoop on some guffaw about an alleged airplane incident where a St. John's staffer made UConn's plane late.

 

"Miserable people write things when they don't have anything else to do," Calhoun says. "Cynical people who have nothing else to do can ruin it."

 

Of course, those quotes didn't reach any paper the next day. It wasn't until almost a week later that Jeff Jacobs in the Hartford Courant challenged Calhoun's criticisms.

 

While I waited to interview Boone, a beat reporter scolded me for asking my question, saying I took valuable deadline time away from daily writers.

 

"If you asked the question a long time ago, I wouldn't have to do it," I said. He stomped away.

 

Perhaps if sportswriters focused on issues that Calhoun already said need reform, or on how well Boone is doing in classes (he said he thinks he is on schedule to graduate), we could begin to make life more equitable for these players.

 

Rather than go for the whole transformation to a minor league, let's start small and heed Calhoun's call. Let's see what happens after we open the door in NCAA rules to provide travel remuneration for NCAA student-athletes. Perhaps we will see that our entertainment needs don't outweigh those academic and social needs of student/athletes.

Room for Reform at UConn, Continued...