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

[theIncredibleEdi...]

That's great...for statistics from 2003. Trust me, I've already read that document...in fact I read it before you posted it. Perhaps you should try getting the financial documentation from tech.

Yes, Basketball and Football pull in revenues, but what about the other smaller sports that end up being in the hole? What is made by the big sports ends up covering costs for the smaller ones. You're acting like the athletic program has MILLIONS of dollars in overflow....if they do make a profit its barely above breaking even.

As for the movies/football team, they do that EVERY HOME GAME, and im not talking about just housing the players...they house all the players and the entire staff, and they're not staying in the cheap rooms either. They also feed them and entertain them however they want. For an entire season, THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY. Football and basketball spends a lot of money on the players, they aren't exactly shopping at the Dollar General and buying tickets on priceline.com.

120 people, each gets a hotel room at about 150 bucks a pop. Each gets fed, average 30 bucks per person. Then there is whatever entertainment they want, say average 20 bucks a person (and thats being cheap). That sums up to about....$24,000. And that is leaving out some expenses. Do you have 24+ grand to blow on a single night of fun? That's done for every home game for the football team.

The problem is that you're just looking at Football and Basketball...of course THOSE programs make money, but in the overall picture, most programs barely break even and thats in Division 1A. In order to meet one of the stipulations of Compliance for NCAA/Title IX they have to provide equal opportunities between men and women or women's opportunities in sports is near the percentage of female enrollment in the University (the latter being the easy route), being that women's sports rarely make a profit or only make a small profit, the profits from the men's top grossers (football and basketball) would have to cover costs for those that don't make as much money (many womens sports, and smaller interest sports like the Olympic sports). I dont know about you, but the many Lady Raider games that I have been to DONT sell out every time. Same with women's volleyball. Sure there is money to build great stadiums and facilities, but its not as if the University has paid those off within 5 years of being built. Those are paid for for many years, and operating costs arent exactly cheap. Did you know that they power the ENTIRE United Spirit Arena every day for the teams to practice. I doubt thats very cheap to do.

Lower divisions are in the hole every year and have to seek assistance. Pulling in an excess of money would afterall defeat the purpose of the NCAA being a non-profit entity. As for your comment about getting rid of women's sports to get a great stadium....thats a FANTASTIC idea. Only flaw is that the University would fail to meet Compliance and lose its spot with the NCAA.

[impala454]

That's great...for statistics from 2003.

if you look at that document, it shows a drammatically increasing profit trend from 1985 to 2003. if you think between 2003 and now the trend has taken a downturn... i'd be interested to hear why.

Yes, Basketball and Football pull in revenues, but what about the other smaller sports that end up being in the hole? What is made by the big sports ends up covering costs for the smaller ones. You're acting like the athletic program has MILLIONS of dollars in overflow....if they do make a profit its barely above breaking even.

did you read the statistics? the total average PROFITS for div 1 athletics programs was 2.2 million dollars. not revenue, profits (as in, the money left over after you've paid for all of your expenses ).

Lower divisions are in the hole every year and have to seek assistance. Pulling in an excess of money would afterall defeat the purpose of the NCAA being a non-profit entity.

yeah div II and III are generally in the hole, because they don't sell 50,000 tickets a game. but that's not what we were talking about. this thread is about big time schools. you said that there is only 3 or 4 div I schools turning a profit at all. look at the data and you'll see how wrong that is. and the NCAA being a non-profit organization has nothing to do with a school's athletic program. the two are separate entities.

120 people, each gets a hotel room at about 150 bucks a pop. Each gets fed, average 30 bucks per person. Then there is whatever entertainment they want, say average 20 bucks a person (and thats being cheap). That sums up to about....$24,000. And that is leaving out some expenses. Do you have 24+ grand to blow on a single night of fun? The problem is that you're just looking at Football and Basketball...of course THOSE programs make money, but in the overall picture, most programs barely break even and thats in Division 1A. In order to meet one of the stipulations of Compliance for NCAA/Title IX they have to provide equal opportunities between men and women, being that women's sports rarely make a profit or only make a small profit, the profits from the men's top grossers (football and basketball) would have to cover costs for those that don't make as much money (many womens sports, and smaller interest sports like the Olympic sports).

this is absolutely preposterous... you think those 120 people all get their own room? i'll give you the benefit of the doubt though, ok $24,000. how does this offset the several million dollars a game in revenues?

As for your comment about getting rid of women's sports to get a great stadium....thats a FANTASTIC idea. Only flaw is that the University would fail to meet Compliance and lose its spot with the NCAA.

See #3 here

And hey I don't mean to come across as an asshole, but if you're gonna come and tell me I'm wrong and "the idea that collegiate athletic programs make a profit is a falsehood" I'm gonna come back at you with data. and the data doesn't lie in this case. it's also straight from the NCAA.