College Sports- Many institutions of higher learning are setting a great example by jumping from conference to conference in search of more money when it’s illegal for the athletes to accept a few dollars for food, toiletries and other basic necessities.
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The problem is that football isn't the only sport at any given college. Should baseball, volleyball, track & field, golf, and other players also get paid?
I've traveled with a college football team. They get free meals, free trips to wherever they are playing, free hotel stays, free clothes, free tuition, free tutors to help them with their classes, free personal trainers (coaches) to help them stay in shape, and free health care.
I didn't have any of that when I was in college. I've also seen college players driving in new cars with brand new phones. I'm not saying how or why they got those perks, but I sure couldn't afford them when I was in school. I can't afford them now.
A football player has a much different college experience than the non athlete student. I don't think starting down the slippery slope of paying them is the right thing to do.
What is the purpose of college? Is it to provide an education or provide a platform for football/basketball teams. Get rid of these expensive over hyped programs and concentrate on providing an education. If a college student is attending college just to play ball they need to be somewhere else. The money spent to support one student ball player would go a long way to support a student who wants to be a teacher, nurse, engineer etc.
What is the purpose of college? Is it to provide an education or provide a platform for football/basketball teams. Get rid of these expensive over hyped programs and concentrate on providing an education. If a college student is attending college just to play ball they need to be somewhere else. The money spent to support one student ball player would go a long way to support a student who wants to be a teacher, nurse, engineer etc. ...............................JJ, your post makes too much sense!!! Glad you said it!!!!
I agree with you guys, but you can't get 101,000 people to pay $74 a seat 7 times a year to watch a teacher teach. There are no television contracts for teachers, nurses and engineers. People are not willing to pay $50 for a jersey or $25 for flag with engineer on it. When you add up the money a school make on ticket sales, television contracts, concessions and memorabilia you'll find that only about 5% of that money goes toward paying for the 85 scholarship athletes’ tuition, room and board. Millions of these dollars go into the University’s general scholarship fund to allow some of these teachers, engineers and nurses to get an education.
Don’t blame the student athlete for attending college just to play sports. Football and basketball generate so much money for the NCAA a player is forced to attend college before turning pro while athletes who participate in other sports that doesn't generate millions of dollars for the NCAA are allowed to turn pro right after high school and in some cases before graduating high school.
My boss had problems hiring college grads, and he got in with the job recruiters at a major SEC university. We looked up and we had 5 or 6 ex-football players at any time in our college grad management trainee program. (School name is deleted, but it was not an Alabama college.)
We were having a TV football party one Saturday afternoon, and a three year ex-starter quarterback was looking at "his team" from 2 years previous. He mentioned that his replacement quarterback was making more money than he was working at a real job. He said cash mysteriously showed up in unmarked envelopes in players' dorm mail boxes.
College football is a business, and it's always been that way.
Some colleges get caught, and some don't. It'll always be that way.
I just wish top quality college basketball players would stay longer than one year before heading to the NBA.
