In the days after a memorial service at which nearly 1,000 mourners tried to fathom the sudden and shocking end to the vibrant young life of Devaughn Darling, the family of the late Florida State linebacker learned the value of that life to the NCAA, in financial terms.
|  | | Florida State coach Bobby Bowden speaks at a service for the late Devaughn Darling, whose uniform number was displayed in a flower arrangement. |
The standard $10,000 death benefit provided no comfort for a family that says it spent more than that on funeral, burial and associated costs.
"That's not right," said Devard Darling, Devaughn's twin brother and teammate on the Seminoles. "We're out there making millions for these schools, and that's all we're worth to them – $10,000?"
The outrage is raw and personal. But it flows in an era when college football players from big-time programs are growing restless about the treatment and benefits they receive from a sport that in many ways has become every bit the entertainment business as the NFL, despite its tether to higher education.
Former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma is trying to focus those concerns into a national players' association of football players designed to speak to the NCAA with an independent, collective voice. The Collegiate Athletes Coalition, formed in January with its first student chapter at UCLA, represents the second attempt in a year to organize college athletes outside of the NCAA structure. The Student Basketball Council, led by Duke's Shane Battier, was formed last year under the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
So far, the CAC effort has consisted mostly of Huma and a cadre of current UCLA players calling fellow athletes at other programs and encouraging them to consider forming local chapters. But by the start of next season, the group hopes to announce the addition of at least 6 to 8 more chapters from high-profile college teams.
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CAC PLATFORM
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Medical benefits
What they get now: The NCAA allows schools to pay for medical costs that stem from injuries suffered during the academic year and official workouts in the summer. If those costs exceed $50,000 within two years, an NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance policy picks up further expenses that an athlete's personal insurance policy does not cover.
What CAC wants: Year-round health coverage, including injuries suffered during the many non-official workouts to which players submit. Some members are also encouraging the CAC to push for better coverage for the vast majority of athletes who leave college with injuries that are troublesome but don't reach the $50,000 deductible that triggers the NCAA catastrophic injury policy; many schools voluntarily agree to pick up medical costs in retirement, but there are no guarantees. Former college athletes, unlike retired pros, don't qualify for Worker's Comp.
Life insurance
What they get now: The family gets a flat $10,000 death benefit if an athlete dies during an official workout.
What CAC wants: A larger death benefit, although the CAC hasn't suggested a number. NFL players get a minimum death benefit of $150,000, with older players getting as much as $300,000.
Better stipends
What they get now: A full grant-in-aid pays for an athlete's tuition, fees, books, room and board, an amount that varies depending on the school. If an athlete lives off-campus, the school cuts a monthly check during the academic year for room and board equal to the amount that costs would be if the athlete lived on campus. Meals provided by the training table are deducted from that allowance.
What CAC wants: A grant that includes full cost of attendance, including expenses such as transportation and entertainment. Each school has a different cost-of-attendance figure, on average it's about $2,000 more than what an athletic scholarship provides.
No salary cap
What they get now: Athletes are permitted to hold a job and earn as much as $2,000 during the academic year, an effort by the NCAA to bridge the gap between the scholarship and cost-of-attendance figures.
What CAC wants: For players to be able earn as much as they can during the academic year, just as they are allowed during the summer, provided they are paid at the going rate (no phony jobs with boosters).
Other platform issues are noted on the CAC's student Web site at UCLA.
-- Tom Farrey
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For now, Huma said, the CAC has declined to aggressively pursue a chapter at Florida State to avoid appearing as if it is capitalizing on the late February tragedy, in which Darling collapsed during an rigorous early-morning conditioning drill (no cause of death has been determined yet). But eventually, the group would like to have many of the most prominent schools signed up, with a minimum of at least 50 percent of the players on each team on board.
"It's going to be really important for the NCAA to see that this is not a local issue, that the sentiments are shared nationwide," said Huma, the group's chairman. "That will be a wake-up call to the NCAA to see that something needs to be done. We're not going to stand for this anymore."
In the NFL, more than 60 percent of all revenues go to player salaries. At UCLA and other big-time college programs, less than 10 percent of football revenues go to the players, in the form of scholarships. But the CAC is not asking that players be paid like NFL players, even though Huma concedes that sentiment does exist among some players.
To start, the CAC is keeping its goals modest: year-round medical coverage, better death benefit, removal of the $2,000 limit on job earnings during the academic year, and scholarship grants that cover up to the cost of attendance. At many schools, players struggle to make ends meet, because the full cost of being a student is a few thousand dollars more than the NCAA grant-in-aid -- tuition, room, board, books and fees -- provides.
"If we were to secure these goals, they would go a long way in the lives of current and future student-athletes," Huma said. "At this point, we feel that's more important than pay-for-play. We understand there are a lot of complexities in the NCAA system (that restrict outright compensation for players), a lot of cross-subsidies, and the money for that is tied up. But we feel these are goals that are attainable and realistic."
And if the NCAA offers nothing but a stiff-arm? Well, that's where things could get interesting.
The CAC's partner in this exercise is the United Steelworkers of America, one of the most powerful unions on the continent. Huma reached out to the union last June for help in the massive, complicated effort to organize players from across the country. Its top officials have responded with legal and technical advice and have met with players to encourage solidarity.
The Steelworkers and college athletes might seem like odd fit, at first glance. But in fact, the 700,000-member union organizes labor in a variety of non-steel industries -- nurses, police officers, even nuclear scientists. They also have helped campus groups such as Students Against Sweatshops, known for its protests of the labor conditions in the Asian factories used by Nike.
"We can have massive demonstrations in front of sporting events by non-players, steelworkers and by Students Against Sweatshops," said Leo Gerard, Steelworkers president. "Maybe we'll take the Students Against Sweatshops movement and ask them to look at the NCAA as a sweatshop. I have a lot of sympathy for these student-athletes, and when I've talked to our members in various parts of the country they're ready, willing and able to support them."
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OUTSIDE THE LINES
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CAC chairman Ramogi Huma will chat with ESPN.com users Monday at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT).
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One tactic Gerard and Huma say they have ruled out as an option is a strike – athletes refusing to play unless their demands are met.
"When people start to learn about the rules that these kids are operating under, there will be a public outcry," Gerard said. "There will not be any need for strikes."
The moderate tone is consistent with Huma's personality. The studious son of a Kenyan immigrant -- Ramogi is the name of the founder of his father's tribe -- was known as a respected leader on the UCLA team, where he earned Pacific 10 Conference all-academic honors. UCLA coach Bob Toledo describes him as a "good kid" who might have had an NFL future if not for a debilitating hip problem that ended his career after his junior season.
Huma said he hopes that by not threatening to affect the integrity of the games with strikes, the CAC will be more easily understood and accepted by college coaches, who then might be less inclined to stand in the way of their athletes creating local student chapters.
"We're going about this in a good way, so I think the coaches would tend to support something like this," Huma said. Besides, he said, "I think (recruits) want to know that a coach is behind the team."
Still, there is no underestimating what the CAC is up against. There are good reasons why in more than 100 years of college sports, athletes never have organized to speak with much of a collective voice. Players are young, geographically separated, busy and often ignorant or confused about the issues. They also often are intimidated by coaches who control their playing time, and hence their gateway to the NFL.
"As soon as a coach gets wind of this, he'll have his players running wind sprints and, if necessary, pulling their scholarships," said Gary Roberts, a Tulane law professor and expert on NCAA liability. "It's sort of like leading a free speech movement in Nazi Germany."
It's a movement already under NCAA surveillance. The organization is monitoring the CAC and "talking to institutions where we know they have been active," said NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro. But, he said, the NCAA is not necessarily encouraging schools to prevent players from meeting with CAC leaders.
"We have no authority to do so," he said. "Everyone has a right to free speech, last time I checked."
Renfro said the NCAA would prefer that athletes voice their opinion through its Student Athlete Advisory Committee, a non-voting group he contends in recent years has helped influence legislation addressing athlete benefits. He points to passage of the rule that permitted athletes for the first time to work during the academic year as long as they earn no more than $2,000.
But like Huma, Devard Darling wants more dramatic change. He's willing to listen to the CAC.
"I think my teammates would be up for it," he said. "There are just some things that need to be changed. I'll bet some of the people who make these rules never even played."
Tom Farrey is a Senior Writer with ESPN.com. He can be reached at tom.farrey@espn.com Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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