Athletes are now essentially free agents marketing their talent to the highest bidder. Gone are the days when coaches could recruit and develop players throughout their collegiate careers.
In response to this shifting landscape, some federal legislators have proposed the Protect College Sports Act, which is rapidly advancing through Congress. In fact, the bi-partisan bill could see a vote in the Senate as early as this week. But while new regulations are needed to help manage this changing system, what’s getting left behind is the holistic development of student athletes – once a central part of college sports that used to view them as students first, and athletes second.
In my interviews with 23 former Black DI athletes and 12 coaches I saw a stark new truth: the money-driven goals of big-time sports incentivize coaches to prioritize wins at the cost of athletes’ wellbeing. Pressure to win means college athletes are increasingly viewed as expendable labor rather than as students with goals beyond sports.
College athletics is competitive, but the reality is that less than 2% of college athletes will turn pro, according to the NCAA. For the other 98%, their future success depends on developing their non-athletic skills while in college.
During recruitment, coaches talk a good game about developing the whole person, but most athletes I interviewed felt their institutions fell short. That will leave athletes to navigate their futures alone.
Kyra, a former DI basketball player, recalled her relationship with her head coach as “purely a business-like transactional relationship,” which left her with an “ongoing desire to quit.”
Mason, a former DI football player, noted how these sterile business relationships drive players into the transfer portal, a system that allows student-athletes to transfer multiple times. He explained that, “When you put so much into football at that institution, and then football is not giving back what you're putting into it, then what is keeping you at that institution?” But this is not without its problems. The transfer portal creates academic challenges for athletes who may lose credits and struggle to adapt to new environments and teaching styles.
This reality highlights a failure by universities to invest in the workforce generating billions for college sports. And it is a burden disproportionately borne by Black athletes, who are underrepresented on most college teams, except high-revenue football and basketball.
Roland, a Black former DI football player, felt there should have been more structural support for career development. “Our institutions have failed us in preparing us to be employees or good employees. It looks different for African Americans.”
Instead, athletic departments remain primarily concerned with keeping athletes eligible to play, as another interviewee explained: “I remember vividly having to kind of go about it on my own to kind of figure out what I'm going to do with my life because there was not really much of an interest in what you do in the next four years, more so just what are you going to do with these four years.”
This is a systemic issue--coaches aren’t the problem. They are stuck in an unforgiving business model that expects them to produce winning teams without the resources to properly develop their athletes.
As Royce, a former DI football coach, explained to me: “It's wins and losses at the Division I level. … That's all that comes down to.”
Treating college athletes solely as revenue generators is unsustainable. To retain top talent, athletic departments must invest in holistic development: mental wellness, career readiness, academic success, and personal growth. It also requires diversifying coaching staffs to reflect the Black athletes generating much of the revenue.
Professional sports franchises protect their human capital by supporting athletes off the field. Higher education should be no different. Investing in athletes as human beings isn’t just an academic mission—it’s the cost of running a successful program.
Debbie Hogan is a college sports researcher and faculty member whose work focuses on athlete labor and the collegiate sports industry. She is a former Division I compliance coordinator.
