Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
Q: Why are there not more Black computer science grads? Or... any STEM grads for that matter?
A: Lots of systemic racism reasons, but one of the biggest ones is college sports. Changing the college sports model will increase Black college graduates by *millions* of people over 10 years. Seriously. It's one of the biggest levers for grad rates.
Let me explain why, and why I was part of the group that sponsored the California Name, Image, and Likeness bill.
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The first thing to understand is that in the USA, 60% of all Black men in college will drop out.😢
The primary reason for dropping out is not grades. It is financial hardship. This is true for students of all races. Not all poor students are Black, but in the US, most Black college students are poor.
You can ask a US college student 2 questions:
1) Are you rich?
2) Is your family rich?
If the answers are "No" and "No," there is a very good chance that this student will not graduate college.
The "inciting incident" that triggers the student to drop out, is usually an unexpected expense of less than $4000. This could be car trouble, medical bill, childcare, or some other emergency.
CS professors at any school with lots of Black students will confirm: The Black students that graduate with Computer science degrees are not necessarily the best CS students at the University. They are the best of the 40% that survived the economic hardship trap.
It is a harsh and unforgiving filter.
Removing economic hardship as a factor in dropping out, would almost double the US Black college graduation rate. But how to do that? Hold that thought and let's talk about sports economics.
The NBA makes revenue through ticket sales, sponsorship deals (Official pizza of the NBA!), Apparel licensing (Official NBA Jersey!), And selling TV broadcast rights. Of this revenue, the league must pay ~50% to players.
If you add up LeBron's and every other NBA player's pay, it's ~50% of $10 billion USD.
The NFL pays ~50% of its $18B revenue to players.
The NHL pays ~50% of its $2.5B revenue to players.
Now for my European friends, take the revenue of the English Premiere League. Add that to the revenue of the Bundesliga, and add that to the revenue of La Liga. US college sports generate more revenue than those European soccer leagues... combined.🤯
Somewhere between $18B and $20B depending on who's doing the math.
Almost all of this revenue is generated from football and basketball TV deals
One TV deal, for one sport (football), for one sub league, of only ~12 schools, is over a $1B a year of college sports revenue:
https://theathletic.com/3520740/2022/08/18/big-ten-college-football-tv-rights/
But players don't see any of that $9B. In the US, it is illegal to pay these mostly Black, mostly poor, college players. 🙃
The players get "athletic scholarships" instead. The sum total of which, comes to less than 2% of league revenues.
The "student athletes" (read: employees), don't even get workers compensation if they're injured.
