Former student athlete reveals the truth

Former student athlete and athletic director of Olive Harvey James Cooper disagrees with Coach Griffin of Roosevelt University about athletes getting paid.

“In men’s basketball, in the Division I, there are 13 full scholarship players on each team… and they’re getting a full-ride scholarship,” Griffin said.

 “They’re getting tremendous perks and benefits in terms of being a part of that team and that program.”

Cooper said that a scholarship doesn’t cover necessities only school-related bills.

“Scholarships consist of tuition, room and board. If you’re not staying inside the dorms, you don’t have meals covered,” Cooper said. So what about those perks?

“Those perks can be anything from … a soft conversation to a hard conversation. You’ll meet different individuals that will pull you aside and talk to you,” Cooper said.

“Those individuals have offered assistance to me.”

Cooper played four years at the University of Illinois under Ron Turner. He had a scholarship all four years, he said. According to Coop, once you become a collegiate student athlete, players are treated like celebrities. Also, he said the focus was athletics and not academics.

“It’s the perception that if I’m participating in high school athletics… I’m going to college and eventually I’m going to the pros. The focus is pretty much that,” Cooper said.

But it wasn’t glamorous all the time. He said that if you stayed in the dorms as a freshman or sophomore, it was a healthy environment, because three meals a day were provided. But once you became an upper classman things changed.

“Once you make the transition to your junior or senior levels of athletics, it requires you to be a little more responsible,” Cooper said. 

Most juniors and seniors stay off campus and have to budget their money. Student athletes would receive a monthly refund that they would use to try to offset meals and pay for rent, according to Cooper. But sometimes student athletes would have to make tough decisions, Cooper said.

“There would be certain situations where we may go unfed,” Coop said. He said some players received food stamps. So should student athletes receive more than just a scholarship?

“Student athletes deserve a … piece of the pie,” Coop said.

“Collegiate athletes should be paid based on the amount of money the institution or conference brings in.”