Jay Paterno gives some perspective

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He certainly makes a compelling case. I think he short changes the effort college athletes put in by calling it a "what amounts to a part time job" to advance his argument, but the truth is these kids are putting in way more hours than that.

I agree with him that giving these kids some extra spending money won't stop the endemic problem of illegally paying amateur athletes. That doesnt mean I don't think we should talk about it. Some kids legitimately don't have the financial resources to make it without some extra help.
 

Paying Players

I think the reason Jim Delaney mentioned paying players, and now the SEC coaches just endorsed paying players $300/game, is it's an easy way to distance the large conferences from the smaller ones. Most of the schools in the BCS conferences can afford to pay their players something, but most of the other Div I schools cannot. This may crush non-BCS schools recruiting efforts and make sure the Boise State type schools never sniff a January Bowl again, let alone be in the national championship discussion.

Utah is now suing the BCS and NCAA for anti-trust behavior. With more talk of paying players, the non-BCS schools will try to stop it anyway they can.
 

WAGopher said:
I think the reason Jim Delaney mentioned paying players, and now the SEC coaches just endorsed paying players $300/game, is it's an easy way to distance the large conferences from the smaller ones. Most of the schools in the BCS conferences can afford to pay their players something, but most of the other Div I schools cannot. This may crush non-BCS schools recruiting efforts and make sure the Boise State type schools never sniff a January Bowl again, let alone be in the national championship discussion.

Utah is now suing the BCS and NCAA for anti-trust behavior. With more talk of paying players, the non-BCS schools will try to stop it anyway they can.
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That's exactly right. It most certainly will distance themselves from the non-BCS schools. Many people forget (or just don't know) that most athletic departments are running in the red every year. There are very few that are self-sufficient, and this would only increase their advantage over the others.
 

The non-revenue sports would have a field day with this "pay the players..." crap.
 


gophergrad said:
He certainly makes a compelling case. I think he short changes the effort college athletes put in by calling it a "what amounts to a part time job" to advance his argument, but the truth is these kids are putting in way more hours than that.

I agree with him that giving these kids some extra spending money won't stop the endemic problem of illegally paying amateur athletes. That doesnt mean I don't think we should talk about it. Some kids legitimately don't have the financial resources to make it without some extra help.
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If they can't make it, they can take out loans for whatever expenses they need on top of room/board/tuition/books. Like a normal person.

I do agree that it is more than a part time job.
 

eker0016 said:
If they can't make it, they can take out loans for whatever expenses they need on top of room/board/tuition/books. Like a normal person.

I do agree that it is more than a part time job.
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They should be able to take on a real part time job as well.
 

I'm against paying players. It opens up a huge can of worms with regards to all the non-revenue sports. Who do you pay? How much? Do revenue sports get a bigger piece of the pie? Does Ronny Runningback get more than Roxy Rower? Does Billy Buckets get more than Suzy Swish? Does Steve Sniper get more than Gina Goalie?

I agree with Nate that these guys & gals should be able to earn money with legitimate part-time work. No reason athletes shouldn't be able to earn a little spending money just like the non-student-athletes can. But I don't want to stretch it to outright paying them.

As JoPa Junior points out, scholarship athletes get tons of things & experiences that the average student does not get, starting with their scholarships. Travel to many different places, stay in 5-star hotels & eat in nice restuarants on many occasions, personal tutoring/counseling/study halls that ensure they remain in school and (more importantly for the money-making sports) eligible, and on and on.

Yes, big-time college athletes make a huge time commitment to their sports, but they get plenty of perks in return. And speaking of those perks, do you think regular Joe Blow at Major State University gets this kind of care?

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...oot?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|GreenAndWhite|p
 

eker0016 said:
If they can't make it, they can take out loans for whatever expenses they need on top of room/board/tuition/books. Like a normal person.

I do agree that it is more than a part time job.
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You're correct. I missed that part of the article the first time through.
 



I've long been against paying athletes, but I could see paying ALL athletes (regardless of sport) the same hourly rate for required practice and game time and making that rate be the same paid to the average of all other undergraduate student employees working jobs on campus.
 

year of the gopher said:
I've long been against paying athletes, but I could see paying ALL athletes (regardless of sport) the same hourly rate for required practice and game time and making that rate be the same paid to the average of all other undergraduate student employees working jobs on campus.
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Ok, fine - and then take away their free tuition. I was one of those students making $6.25/hr (or whatever it was back then) and I still received my tuition bill every semester. Let's pay these guys just above minimum wage for their "toils" and take away their scholarships. Let's see how long it takes them to beg for those scholarships and quit bitching about being pampered athletes who can graduate with $0 in student loans.
 

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