Wednesday, April 11, 2012

NCAA Athletes - Pay or Don't Pay

In my last post I said I wouldn't spew about this but I guess I lied.  Should the NCAA/Institutions pay NCAA student-athletes? There are plenty of articles that talk about this subject, but how many of those articles are from people who have lived it, and how many are from people who just peer in from the outside.  How many of those articles come from people who understand both or better yet, understands where this all this money goes.

The NCAA is a multi-billion dollar entity.  Guess what? They are rich for a reason, why would you want to stop being as rich just to pay some players while you get the exact same result, only to bring proffesionalism into college athletics.  We have enough divas in the NBA, MLB, NFL, etc.  Why would we need that in college.  Let's just give an 18 year old kid several grand because he goes to school and plays a sport. We already have enough issues with kids' maturity nowadays with drinking and driving, partying, drugs, etc.  Do we REALLY need to add money to that equation?  "Mo' money, mo' problems".  Literally.  I do think that the NCAA needs to look into it being OK that former AAU coaches or friends of the family can wire funds to a student-athlete WITHIN REASON.  I think all funds supplied to each player from family, friends, former coaches should be filed through the NCAA to make sure a kid can get maybe $200 and not 10 or 15 grand.  Because what college student REALLY needs that much money.

Sorry for the all-caps on some words.

Also, I've noticed a lot of people have not been informed about the checks full ride scholarship players receive each month. This is not to be confused with the Federal Pell Grant. Players already receive $1,300 per month. Those who qualify for the Pell Grant will receive a hefty check on top of the checks they already receive on a monthly basis.

Now we get to the paying of the student-athletes.  Who furnishes that money? the NCAA or the institution.  There is an issue. If the NCAA or the institution decides to pay their student-athletes, who gets paid what?  Do we pay the field hockey players the same as the football team? Do we pay the 2nd string scholarship punter the same salary of the starting quarterback?  People want to get paid more as an incentive.  What is the incentive of getting paid as much as someone who does half of your work? "Uuuuhhh can I get a raise"" will surely come up.  Will these players soon have agents working out deals with school officials or they leave to go somewhere else? Drama drama drama.

Speaking of field hockey, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, so on and so forth.  Those sports would not even exist on campus if football, basketball, hockey (some schools) did not rake in millions and millions of dollars every year just so those sports can stay active. Those sports lose money for the school every year they operate, main reason why the major sports are so big. The teams also put money back into the program in order to cover for travel/hotel/food for staff and players.  In football, one trip is a chartered jet, 2 or 3 buses, 50 rooms, and a crazy food bill.  Put it this way, one time I was drinking orange juice and a staff member told me to finish it because that pitcher was $35.  This was basketball so there were 8 tables, with 2 types of juice on each table.  That's just the juice! Haven't even talked about the food. Imagine a football team which is six to seven times bigger, just to put things into perspective.  But let's pay our players right?


There are three levels of the NCAA. You have Division 1, 2, and 3. Will we pay the Division 3 as much as 1? No. The real debate is Division 1 (it sucks, but that's all people really care about), will we pay Coppin State and Presbyterian players as much as Kansas and Florida basketball players.  Or better yet, will we pay Northwestern football players as much as Michigan football players.  Michigan football brings in millions of dollars more than Northwestern, so if a recruit was choosing between the two, and Northwestern offered $5,000 but Michigan offered $12,000, which one will the recruit choose? Duh. So from a recruiting advantage, it's almost unfair when you're not even able to compete with schools in your own conference.  Plus, could you imagine the snake coaches who will find loopholes, better yet, find a way to add a few grand to gain recruits or get guys to stay?  That's an ugly situation that the NCAA, as well as the coaches who do things the right way, want no part of.


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