Should college atheletes get paid? Options

[impala454]

This subject came up at work and we fiercely debated it for a while. We all kinda came to the general conclusion that paying atheletes a salary is a bad idea.

The general argument ended up being whether or not the players deserved anything extra. My thoughts were that it seems pretty crappy to me that a star player can go out and literally make millions of dollars for the school and not be compensated any more than some 4th string tackling dummy who never sees a down in a real game. Do you cut them a check? No... but can you increase their monthly stipend or give them some extra perks? I dunno maybe. Some were saying having a free education & all the services/training the athletics coaching/facilities provides is payment enough. Or that the chance of making millions in the NFL is good enough. Well in a lot of star player's cases, I'd be willing to bet that their contribution to the team made far more money for the school than the cost of an education.

Also on the reverse side of that, do we really need to give a full ride to some guy who goes and plays golf? Or jumps hurdles?

Anyhow I thought it was a pretty interesting topic and figured it'd fire up the college sports forum here

[Epic]

this is a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense to me


college is overall subsidized. between government money, and the philosophy of having everyone pay for everything even if you never go into the library goes into the idea that you pay into a community that provides you services, opportunities, and an education, but you still have to take responsibility for whether you take advantage of it or not.

so i apply this to athletes. keep in mind that the word student comes before athlete in this case. if we pay them for their work on the field in a manner that doesn't support their education, we've flat out said that they are more important as an athlete than a student. since everyone else has to pay money for their education, an athlete pays with effort. yes, a star athlete does wonderful things for the school, but maybe for only a year or two overall can we say that one player is the direct result of fundraising.

its a few years of an athlete's career, and they are paying it forward. just as students in many ways support the athletes to play and go to school, the athletes support the students by bringing prestige to the school.

so should athletes get paid a salary for what they do? I don't think so. Should we pay first string more than the scout team? No, because the tackling dummy knows that he's not going pro and is getting an education and the star knows that his time is coming.

and after all, this is why i love college sports. they aren't playing for a bonus trying to get one more sack when they should have held back and just hit the tackle saving a first down.