Pay College Football Players?

[slydways]

What do you think? Should college football players be paid? Northwestern already has a union...

[Austinmario13]

No.

[bengalmike]

Most of them are getting a free education, so I don't think that they should be paid for being on the team. I do think that if the school is selling that player's jersey, that player should get some percentage of the earnings. It's only right. These universities can't just make money and not give money to the players who are basically advertising for them

[slydways]

Thank you...austin... for that lengthy...well researched...and fully comprehensive retort....

[Sidelion]

The player is getting paid: it's called a college education. (It's also called a "bag man", but that's a discussion for another time.) Most universities at the D-I level run football completely in the red, so the simple math of it is that if college football players are to be paid, it would bankrupt the sport and its rich history. In more than a few cases, football is simply there to attract more male students or make the campus look better overall by saying, "Look at us, we've hit the big time, we have a football team" - ignoring the success stories of FGCU and VCU - even if it's highly likely that your program will be as abysmal as Georgia State in D-I.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ncaa-rev ... ort-2011-6
http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/M ... -Cow2.aspx

On the other side of the coin: if we start paying players at the few schools at the top that make money, the quality of that education is going to degrade further. Even in this modern era of degree factories, where the collegiate academic system is nothing more than a massive scheme with profit being the bottom line, the purpose of public universities is to: 1. provide a relatively low-cost and quality education/diploma to those that otherwise do not have the means, the aptitude, the scores, or the desire to attend a private college; and 2. increase economic prospects on both the end of the business and the employee. Universities are the gatekeepers to a good deal of civilians - that's why they're subsidized with taxpayer dollars. We should not let a sport, no matter how entertaining or how corrupted it's become by an entitled generation, endanger America's future...

(I say we're an entitled generation because as far as I can discern, we're entertaining the notion that a free ride to college is somehow not payment. There are three ways to receive a free college degree: 1. academic scholarships, which a vastly overrepresented number of people receive; 2. athletic scholarships; and 3. the GI Bill, by joining the military, the most common route. Think about it. That's all I have to say.)

However...

As far as the player themself making ANY money... that's just... "amateurism", come on, NCAA. If a player like Johnny Manziel wants to earn millions of dollars by signing a deal with Nike, let him. That would end this entire utterly pointless debate in a heartbeat. The players who make the big plays get paid. That's it, that's all. Obviously, rules like "recruiting pledges cannot be made and/or a Letter of Intent cannot be signed where a condition of payment is made by an external sponsor" should be created and followed to the letter. Just as well, I think this would be another step in the direction of parity for college football - imagine what it would do for the MAC with endorsements of one or two outstanding players.

[slydways]

Vote is today at Northwestern...



If this is finally successful...college athletes will be represented by this union...CAPA...( College Athletes Players Association)

http://www.collegeathletespa.org/

[Gridiron]

College Football can be a beautiful thing.
It can also be big and greedy and ugly.

Due to encroachment of the corporate mindset It has grown beyond the point where it can really be considered a 'normal' college learning experience.
Perhaps it would be better to consider the NCAA more of a business and it is certainly professional.
If everyone else is making money (college coaches are well paid), then certainly the players who are called upon to sacrifice a lot and risk a lot also deserve to be.

Additionally the value of a college education is way overrated.
Especially the version that a football player gets during the fall semester.
Anyhow, in today's dumbed down corporate workplaces, It ain't what you know, it's who you know.

Pay the college age football players just like the MLB pays the players in their farm systems.
And to be fair, allow the non academic athletes to play as well.
A high school graduate should be qualification enough.

National College Age Athletics Association

Or if they really want to make it a pure college untainted learning experience, stop the cash flow.
Free admission to the games for students, and unpaid coaching staff.

As far as a player's union?
One should not be necessary if there are honorable contracts between the athletes and the Association.
Only when there are contract negotiations are they truly needed.
But for the college level, you know... below the level of superstardom, just have a good and honorable standard contract that covers all situations.
Why would that be problematic needing a player's union is beyond my simple mind.
I'm thinking that when a college aged player needs special contract conditions, then it's time for him to turn pro.

[Gridiron]

Vote is today at Northwestern...



If this is finally successful...college athletes will be represented by this union...CAPA...( College Athletes Players Association)

http://www.collegeathletespa.org/

Interesting news clip there slydways, it is the first time I've heard about that.

The cynic in me thinks that the NLRB declaring the players to be university employees is part of some big money conspiracy.
Plans for hands into the moneypot.
The only thing worse than big city politics, is federal politics.

I wrote the previous post before I was aware of the current news story about Northwestern.
Now that I've watched both videos I feel that my position as stated above is sound.

It's past time to divorce organized college age football from being an actual part of the university organization.
However the schools would make excellent sponsors.

[Sidelion]

College Football can be a beautiful thing.
It can also be big and greedy and ugly.

Due to encroachment of the corporate mindset It has grown beyond the point where it can really be considered a 'normal' college learning experience.
Perhaps it would be better to consider the NCAA more of a business and it is certainly professional.
If everyone else is making money (college coaches are well paid), then certainly the players who are called upon to sacrifice a lot and risk a lot also deserve to be.

Additionally the value of a college education is way overrated.
Especially the version that a football player gets during the fall semester.
Anyhow, in today's dumbed down corporate workplaces, It ain't what you know, it's who you know.

Pay the college age football players just like the MLB pays the players in their farm systems.
And to be fair, allow the non academic athletes to play as well.
A high school graduate should be qualification enough.

How are the colleges going to do that when only a very small percentage of D-I FBS teams run in the black? Take even more money from academics? Get rid of Title IX? NCAA-mandated reductions in scholarship numbers (thus negating the entire purpose of Division I)? It's simply fiscally untenable - the money isn't there. There isn't a way to pay player without bankrupting college football, plain and simple. The NFL can't buy the NCAA and pay players that way (as far your farm system goes) and borrowing such vast amounts of money from another institution to pay FBS players alone is again untenable and incomprehensible.

Additionally, how would you pay players? What scale would you use? Does a starting QB make more than an All-American lineman like in the NFL, even in an option offense? Do West Point and the Naval Academy have to pay their players too?

College is college. What you say is the ultimate betrayal of the spirit of college football - non-academic athletes? wat. No, just no. CFB is far, far more than a semi-pro or farm system. It's an independent game with history and tradition that should not be eradicated in the name of faceless corporatism. A scholarship already gives a kid with a rough past a chance to attend a school like Duke or Vandy that he would never be able to attend otherwise. Don't devalue that by allowing academic scabs to pollute the system.

A coach is paid vastly more than a player's average scholarship, granted - but that's an issue on its own. It's a bubble that will bust, much like the MLB big contract era.

A degree is a near prerequisite to enter into the upper ranks of the middle class in American society these days, even with some additional resume experience, such as the military. Knowing a few doctors doesn't get you appointed your own medical practice. The choice of a bad degree like communications ultimately falls on those who pick their classes, not anyone else. It's an issue in a CFB, but one that doesn't merit dismantling the entire system in favor of a terrible idea of semi-pro football.

At the least, the NCAA owes more to the players, far more than it currently offers. Health care for sports-related injuries and profiting from your likeness and sponsorships, definitely. The system, what it has meant and what it should mean, will buckle under the weight of personal greed if unchecked, however. I fear that Title IX (which should be replaced - again, an issue in its own right) will simply be annulled by a huge push without an immediate replacement, and then we'll see a "black-and-white" loss of sport effect. In Division I, the Big 20 or so in college sports (in terms of profitability) will be relatively unaffected. The Bottom 60 or so in profitability will drop football, possibly even basketball programs in favor of keeping a multitude of sports. The Upper 40 will decimate their small sports and female athletics programs in an attempt to keep basketball and football afloat.

Ultimately, at the end of this road, whatever it is, I fear there aren't any good results. We could see the NCAA revert every college that falls under its jurisdiction to what is essentially Division III status, with no scholarships granted. I don't see Mark Emmert ever dismantling his use of "amateurism" - the NCAA refuses to bend and adapt, it would much rather break completely apart.

[petroleum]

From the player's perspective (especially the star players) I can see their argument. They do have to put in a lot of hours at football (making it hard to find another job, even without needing to worry about fake jobs from boosters) and take risks with their health. True, they get scholarships (except at division III) but they still need money to cover other expenses (and what's left of their school bill for division II students and, I assume, some freshmen at division I). I can also understand their gripping at watching money being made on their jersey/face and playing for a coach three to five million a year without getting a cut.
On the other hand, a lot of the money raked in by successful football programs go to pay for other sports that don't make any money or even (occasionally) to support academics. I don't think the wrestlers or volleyball players would like to see their sports money redirected into students' pockets.

I don't know if it will ever happen, but one way to pay these students would just be to legalize how they already get paid. Let's not pretend that Reggie Bush receiving "improper benefits" is some anomaly--though boosters would likely poor all their money on the top players leaving most jocks in the same position they are in now.
Someone (I think one of NPR's sports writers, but I don't remember) suggested sever years ago to allow college athletes to sign with pro-agents who would then pay them advances on their (assumed) professional salaries--which, again, would really only help the top players. Still, even if someone was thought to simply be a NFL backup quality ($375,000/year minimum salary) I bet there would be agents willing to take the risk to, essentially, offer the player a long-term payday loan--say $10,000/year (at some interest rate) while at college in exchange for locking them into a multi-year contract to represent them (for the usual additional fee).