Do you think college athletes should be paid?

[shelemm]

No.

I don't want any more of the emphasis on the kids to be about money.

 

[superme80]

No, but they should be able to make money off their likeness being used in video games or their names on jerseys.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Yes I am aware of that and I still say no.

And if a kid isn't performing well enough to keep a scholarship, they'd be the first one fired in a "paid athlete" scenario.

 

[sonnyjane]

And if a kid isn't performing well enough to keep a scholarship, they'd be the first one fired in a "paid athlete" scenario.

Exactly.

 

[rwdavis2]

And if a kid isn't performing well enough to keep a scholarship, they'd be the first one fired in a "paid athlete" scenario.

The coach needs no reason to pull a scholarship. If decides to changes his offense and the player no longer fits then the coach can let him go.

Let's not kid ourselves, college football and basketball is all about the money.

 

[rwdavis2]

Were you an NCAA athlete? Because you're typing quite a bit of information that's inaccurate.

First of all, yes, scholarships can be pulled - but NOT if the coach "doesn't like you". It has to do with your performance on the field as well as your performance in the classroom as well as your conduct when not in school or on the field. In addition to being reduced, they can also be INCREASED each year if your performance improved. It's not as fragile as you make it seem.

Also, the school absolutely pays for medical costs. I was injured while competing and required months of rehab, expensive massage and training treatments, electric stim treatments, prescription medications, all of which were paid for by my school. I never paid a dime. And I was just a lowly swimmer! And to revisit your point before - even when injured, scholarships were not taken away. When a star football guy blew out 3 of his 4 knee ligaments and was told he might never play again, he still didn't lose his scholarship.

And regarding your final comment about abolishing athletic scholarships and having people only play sports via intramurals, are you therefore saying that you no longer want there to be NCAA athletic competition at all?

I've read several articles on the subject and the college has no legal requirement to pay medical costs. But it's the decent thing to do.

Yes, who cares if college sports exists? It's no more important than any other form of entertainment. I like football, mainly NFL. I even watch college sports but if they were gone tomorrow I would not care.

Here is an article that makes the best case for paying players and the hypocrisy of college sports:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-athletes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The coach needs no reason to pull a scholarship. If decides to changes his offense and the player no longer fits then the coach can let him go.

Let's not kid ourselves, college football and basketball is all about the money.

But, nobody's cutting "star" level players due to a change in offensive schemes. Anyone you'd cut would have been borderline already.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

This is quite a heated topic here in NC where college basketball rules all. I do not think college athletes should be "paid" a salary. Having said that, I do think colleges should be required to pay medical expenses related to injuries sustained while performing their sport. I also think that there should be a percentage, however small, of any merchandise related to a specific player's likeness paid to that player. I think it should be held in a fund and given at graduation. They leave before graduation by choice, then the fund goes back to the department. Graduate after 4 years, it goes to the player. All of this being considered, I also think that if an athlete leaves prior to graduation by choice, then they should have to pay back however many years of scholarship they received. None of the above conditions are valid in case of injury. That's as far as I've gotten with it.....

 

[LisaR]

The kids see their head coach pulling in millions each year and would like some of that action. The athletes are risking life and limb, not the coaches. But wait -- the guys also get mega training, improve their skills, and if it weren't for the university, how would the pro-scouts know they exist?

As a PP mentioned, I'm concerned about how much each player would get paid and how much of it would be under the table (like it is today) from wealthy alum. Would there be a salary cap?

The vast majority of coaches aren't pulling in millions.

I don't think they should get paid, but not all college players are on scholarship. Many are walk ons that get no scholarship for at least the first year and maybe not at all. Others may be getting scholarships for academics or alumni scholarships to help but not athletic scholarships and even then very few are full rides.

There was a basketball player (can't remember his name) complaining during March Madness that he goes to bed "starving" some nights. He said he goes to class and then works his butt off for basketball and can't even afford food while the college and the NCAA are making money off of him. While I absolutely feel sorry for him in the same sense I would feel sorry for anyone who can't afford to eat, I had to wonder who he thought paid for the food college kids eat. If he couldn't afford college after receiving his free tuition scholarship for playing a sport, maybe he should have gone to a community college like thousands of other kids have to do.

 

[sonnyjane]

There was a basketball player (can't remember his name) complaining during March Madness that he goes to bed "starving" some nights. He said he goes to class and then works his butt off for basketball and can't even afford food while the college and the NCAA are making money off of him. While I absolutely feel sorry for him in the same sense I would feel sorry for anyone who can't afford to eat, I had to wonder who he thought paid for the food college kids eat. If he couldn't afford college after receiving his free tuition scholarship for playing a sport, maybe he should have gone to a community college like thousands of other kids have to do.

It's been 10 years now since I was a student athlete so may have changed a bit, but when I was in school, the way it worked is that if we chose to live in on-campus housing (and that was mandatory freshman year), our housing was paid for through our athletic scholarship and we received the 21-meals-per-week plan. The football and basketball players actually got a double meal plan because they needed "extra calories". No squabbles there.

If we decided we wanted to live off-campus (as most wanted to do), we would receive monthly allowances to put toward rent and our other expenses. Sometimes the cost of living was more than the monthly allowance, but if that was the case, we could always choose to move back to a dorm. Now, obviously living on campus isn't as "cool" as having your own apartment off-campus, but if you really are on scholarship, there's no reason you should be going hungry.

Now, perhaps in that student's case he wasn't on a full athletic scholarship. In that case, no, his food/housing might not be paid for. That said, if you were on an athletic team and NOT on full scholarship, we WERE still able to work, it just had to be less than a certain number of hours a week. For example, we would have been allowed to be RA's, or work in the library or student center, etc. part time to get extra money if we weren't on full scholarship. I had a couple of friends that tutored for the student center that also swam with me. Bottom line is - there's a lot more to the story if that kid is "starving at night" and playing a sport at a D1 school.

 

[lazer]

All of this. I DID get paid to play sports in college - it's called an athletic scholarship. And if you're going to go dollar for dollar - I made more money swimming in college than I'm making right now! It's hard work but that's what the scholarships are for. Swimming isn't a big money-maker for the school but we still trained 30 hours a week (according to the NCAA some of those practices were 'voluntary' - yeah right). Nobody even came to our meets, so there's no revenue to be generated, but if you're going to pay the baseball/basketball/football guys then I'd expect kickback too lol. And do you only pay in the years that your team is winning? Because folks don't fill the stands the same way if you have a losing record. Talk about a can of worms.... To be honest, I was very, very close with a lot of the football players when I was there because the student athletes tend to stick together. The ones that are good - the ones that are pushing to have agents and be paid while still in college - are the ones that will probably be drafted anyway. How about just shut up and wait until you can get some millions. In the meantime just be happy that you're getting your tuition, housing, and food paid for (again, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS). K? An exception is the Ivy Leagues who don't give athletic scholarships or the DIII schools that also do not, but when I was being recruited by colleges, including a couple of Ivies, it was made very clear to me that "academic monies could be made available to help out"....

Well said. I was a college athlete too (women's soccer). I was getting paid via tuition, room & board. And, when I was being recruited by larger schools and even smaller schools that couldn't give athletic money "academic money is available to cover the difference that grants will not cover".

I also don't agree that college sports are just for entertainment, but that's probably because I am biased and well aware of the doors it opened for me and the experiences it gave me!

 

[Zooshoveller]

The vast majority of coaches aren't pulling in millions. There was a basketball player (can't remember his name) complaining during March Madness that he goes to bed "starving" some nights. He said he goes to class and then works his butt off for basketball and can't even afford food while the college and the NCAA are making money off of him. While I absolutely feel sorry for him in the same sense I would feel sorry for anyone who can't afford to eat, I had to wonder who he thought paid for the food college kids eat. If he couldn't afford college after receiving his free tuition scholarship for playing a sport, maybe he should have gone to a community college like thousands of other kids have to do.

He is a Uconn player and is on the "all-you-can-eat" meal plan (free with his scholarship).

 

[sonnyjane]

He is a Uconn player and is on the "all-you-can-eat" meal plan (free with his scholarship).

OMG a UConn player said that!? Wow. I'm surprised he was able to WIN A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP while suffering from starvation!

I PROMISE you that no basketball player at UConn is going to bed starving unless they are poorly managing their monthly allowance. Even then, free powerbars and protein drinks were always available to us at our training center and out of all the programs, I promise UConn has something similar.

 

[hunner]

While athletics are wonderful, I truly do not understand why it is necessary for universities to have sports programs that require millions of dollars of support. College should be about academics, not athletics. I realize that there are many students who get to college because of athletic scholarships, but in the long term I would love to see a cultural shift to stressing academics over sports at schools, so that more students get to college on academic and not athletic scholarship.

 

[lazer]

While athletics are wonderful, I truly do not understand why it is necessary for universities to have sports programs that require millions of dollars of support. College should be about academics, not athletics. I realize that there are many students who get to college because of athletic scholarships, but in the long term I would love to see a cultural shift to stressing academics over sports at schools, so that more students get to college on academic and not athletic scholarship.

The schools that require millions of dollars of support are the minority, same with the students on athletic scholarship. The athletic numbers are small compared to overall scholarships.

I think there is too much emphasis placed on athletics at certain schools, but they also make a lot of money off those sports. It's a win-win for the school (and community) in most (big school) cases.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The schools that require millions of dollars of support are the minority, same with the students on athletic scholarship. The athletic numbers are small compared to overall scholarships.

I think there is too much emphasis placed on athletics at certain schools, but they also make a lot of money off those sports. It's a win-win for the school (and community) in most (big school) cases.

When there's big money involved at the schools with wealthy alumni, how are the smaller schools supposed to compete? Is it fair for conference championships to be determined by how much $$$$ the boosters contribute to "buy" the best players?

 

[NHdisneylover]

Beyond what they area already paid in the form of scholarships for tuition, room and board, books, training, etc--NO.

 

[tennvalgirl]

Like another post said, they ARE getting paid because they are getting a free ride.

 

[lizzi6692]

The schools that require millions of dollars of support are the minority, same with the students on athletic scholarship. The athletic numbers are small compared to overall scholarships.

I think there is too much emphasis placed on athletics at certain schools, but they also make a lot of money off those sports. It's a win-win for the school (and community) in most (big school) cases.

That's not necessarily true. I attended a school that had recently become D1. The school wasn't bad at most sports but I still think the 11 million dollars they decided to spend on an athletic center was ridiculous. Especially when academic programs were getting cut to make up for it.

 

[ICF]

The coach needs no reason to pull a scholarship. If decides to changes his offense and the player no longer fits then the coach can let him go.

Let's not kid ourselves, college football and basketball is all about the money.

At least some conferences/schools give 4 year scholarships.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/01/big-ten-going-to-multi-year-scholarship-model/