Discussion on Whether Students Athletes Should Be Paid

It’s a joke that the NCAA doesn’t pay student athletes. One of the greatest thrills of college football are the weekend trips to all those sacred stadiums that haven’t changed since Pop Warner roamed the sideline. But they have. The stadiums now look like the coliseum in Rome. The game is much more sci-fi now, that to a fan listening to an audible sounds like an alien language. Thou most of all, the players have changed and along with them the entire concept of an amateur athlete. Nobody’s an amateur these days, at least not on Saturday afternoon. Some people are just compensated that way.

We’re not trying to turn college athletes into higher paid individuals then professional athletes. For the most rare group of players, the ones successful enough to consider leaving college early to play professional sports, some words to live by. Get a good agent, stay healthy, and put your money in the bank because this career doesn’t last long. For the ones that choose to play on Saturday, a new concept of amateur athlete is being built. Serious discussion has already begun in that Oz world of the NCAA sanctions committee. Football players particularly at high priced private universities already receive a lot, but not as much as they earn.

“The demarcation between professional sports and intercollegiate sports is where you’re going to pay student athletes.” Cedric Dempsey, the executive director of the NCAA, said in a March issue of Sports Illustrated. “I’ve always advocated that it’s an opportunity for student athletes to have up to the full cost of attendance. Our present grant need does not provide that. On an average, it falls about $2000 short.” Now think about that, the scholarship athlete with all the other various forms of financial aid available still remains $2000 short of the full cost of attending university. For many athletes that are $2000 they don’t have. This figure does not include trips for family members to come see their relatives play or be able to talk to their children regularly on the phone, both luxuries that they usually can’t afford.

In this new aged world the cost of living goes up every six months it seems like. Tuition increases will always be covered but when the price of living goes up how are they supposed to cope with the increase. The deal making all around is only going to become more embarrassing in the future. You think those corporate bowl logos can’t get any larger. And when the national championship playoff comes, the best interest of the student athletes will be ignored even greater for the sake of additional revenue.

These athletes are not just football players anymore. Not in the new age era of the gigantic bowl payout, the multimillion dollar extra point, the conference championship game bonanzas, the overpriced two night hotel minimums, the big money television deals, and the exclusive shoe and apparel company relationships. These are not football players. These are mobile company billboards and revenue producers. They have become in most cases the university and in some extreme cases, the states most visible employees. They also put up with about as much scrutiny as politicians do. For instance if Rob Football gets into an altercation it usually ends up in the front page of the local newspaper. Now for heaven’s sake if a player steps way out of line or is around someone who does, his name will usually appear coast to coast. That is not a complaint. It’s just the way they live.

Most everybody knows that a few high profile football programs are closer to the unofficial salary cap limits then others. Enough careers have been jeopardized because of agents handing out gifts that were just too tempting. Let’s take the money from under the table, the way tennis and Olympic sports did decades ago and reason what happens on Saturday afternoons. This is not about the kind of money that would make anyone rich or discourage an early exit to the NFL. If the temptations given by agents are to be avoided, isn’t it time to provide players with a bigger share. Not a salary, and certainly not a handout or gift. Just a realistic share of the pie.

How about some of the players who are trying to compete academically they face a much higher stress level than the average student. They have concerns of time management, deprivation and achieving that perfect grade. It’s hard to accomplish this feat due to the 20 hour practice week and the so called “captain practices”, required off season workouts or other unofficial requirements to stay on scholarship. This leaves them with no time for side job with reasonable pay. The elite level programs do not release their players until well past dinner only to have to finish the day’s academic chores that are not close to being completed yet.

The physical and mental pain level that an athlete has to deal with are extraordinarily high. When I signed my letter of intent to Alabama they should have inserted something that read “Warning, do you know how dangerous football is? This will not get you directly to the pro’s. It will most likely be five years of hell. Be prepared it is no longer a game. You will feel it every day.” That pain has made football much different than any other sport in the college world.

Princeton and Rutgers unknowingly created an industry in 1869. At the elite level it is no longer about fun anymore the way a game should feel. The outside sections of the coliseums may still display ancient words engraved by the rulers of a past time long ago. But the insides have luxury seating and message boards that remind the consumer of corporate sponsors. There is also no coincidence that in late summer the most popular jersey that sells for about $80 a pop has the most famous players numbers stamped on it. Give the featured few a percentage of the profit and make the other percentage to be distributed among the other athletes. Football would also not be the only revenue maker. If the Tennessee women’s basketball team had fans that wanted the starting five on a t-shirt because they won the national championship so be it. There is nothing amateur about 90,000 people paying big money to celebrate a Saturday afternoon in the fall. The ones who make Saturday special and in some cases by their performance help motivate other people to fight to stay alive are in need of help also.