College Athletes Are Not Exploited

William F. Devine Jr.’s rant about college athletes being shackled and exploited is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. Last time I checked, an education at Stanford or Notre Dame can cost well over $100,000. If the “discrimination� is so rampant, then why hasn’t any college athlete sued on this ground? The simple answer is because there isn’t any.

What Devine conspicuously ignores is that if Stanford elected to pay a football player such as Luke Powell, for example, then it would be in violation of Title IX if it didn’t pay its female athletes the same amount. Further, Devine also conveniently forgets that college athletes are entitled to a Pell grant, which pays up to $3,500 per year in addition to the free tuition, room, board and books pursuant to an athletic scholarship.

I suggest Devine sue Stanford and the NCAA for violations of Title VII and the Sherman Act and see what happens. He could represent Powell and convince him that this type of lawsuit has merit. Yeah, right.

Gregory E. Givens

Los Angeles