theoretical frame

My theoretical frame stems from The Plantation Model created by Billy Hawkins. The plantation model has several pillars however the foundation lies on the overemphasis of athletics in black communities. The backbone of this system lies in the mass media propaganda depicting sports as an accessible path for young black kids to achieve social status and class mobility. Hawkins claimed that as a male growing up in one of these communities "if you did not compete in athletics, your masculinity was questioned; consequently, if you made “too many” good grades, your masculinity was questioned" (Hawkins 5). These kids grow up seeing their idols playing on tv dreaming to be just like them, not knowing that once making it onto a college team, the chance of making it be a professional is around 1%. 

The first pillar is the idea of oscillating migrant laborers in which the players are forced to sell their labor and utilize their skills in hopes of improving their financial conditions back at home. This term refers to Mexican Migrant laborers, who historically were allowed to sell their labor cheaply in the United States as these migrant laborers because their actual home communities were extremely poor. Ironically, though, these athlete laborers are given no opportunity to bring money back to their home communities while in college. It is only if they make it as professionals that they will be able to transform the lives of their families and home communities by sending money to them, essentially (in much the way that migrant laborers bring back valuable money to their communities). For the vast majority, though, who don't make it as professionals, there is a big chance that they will bring nothing back. The term oscillating refers to the two completely different lifestyles they live at school compared to when they're home. Many of the division 1 athletes are near to or below poverty and then are treated like celebrities at school. They are provided with barbershops and flat-screen TVs in their locker rooms but are not compensated monetarily at all, leaving many to couch surf their friends' apartments. By giving the athletes a glimpse of what happens when you work hard, the goal is to keep the athletes working to their utmost ability to eventually achieve this lifestyle. 

The ownership of college athletes stems from the NCAA owning all rights against these athletes due to their amateur rules. The term amateurism is used by the NCAA to symbolize “paternalistic protection,” or in other words ownership. In order to play a sport in the NCAA, athletes must sign a significant number of papers, essentially giving colleges all the rights of profiting off of the student’s image. In this way, the athletes do all the work and the universities and the NCAA make all the profits. This is further discussed in the case of O’Bannon vs NCAA.