Paying College Athletes

[WorkHorse]

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has proposed that college athletes should receive enough money to cover the true cost of attending college. Even a full scholarship doesn't cover everything, and Delany suggests that athletes be given $2,000 to $5,000 a year in addition to their scholarships. This money would cover basic living expenses.

Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

Major conference programs could afford it, especially if it's applied only to sports that must award full scholarships to every athlete who receives aid...football, men's and women's basketball, woman's gymnastics and women's volleyball. Schools are allowed to split scholarships in all other sports.

But there's one huge drawback....what will the non-power confernce schools do? While programs at places such as Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee aren't passing along the cost of major college athletics to their students (except for perhaps a $25 "ticket fee"), smaller schools are.

Then again, let's think about this, is it really such a bad thing to leave behind the smaller schools? Maybe it's time for the power conferences to leave the NCAA, start their own league, give their players a cut of the pie and leave the rest behind in the NCAA.

I have my opinion but would love to hear what you guys think about "paying athletes."

or

[BigdaddyQH]

The reason why it will not work is because if you pay one, you have to pay all. You cannot, uncer NCAA rules, just pay scholarship athletes. You would have to pay each and every athlete in every sport the exact same amount of money.

[chunk]

There is huge money being made in major college football. Lou Saben (Alabama) and Mack Brown (Texas) both make over $5,000,000/yr in salary alone.That should give you some idea.Basketball is no slouch either and the NCAA tourney rakes it in big time. Personally I wish that money wasn't such a big part of college sports, but that is not reality. In theory I would lean(need more information) to giving the players some form of living expense, but in practice I'm sure that it would become much more complicated to implement across the board. Unfortunately, money will dictate many directions that college sports will go in the years to come.

[teecee]

pay a track athlete the same as the heisman candidate running back? freaking hilarious! does anyone watch track and field? the rules imposed by the ncaa are ludicrous, to say the least. pay the people who paid for your scholarship, the same amount of money you get paid. that is rich!

[wookieehumper]

It's not going to work. Athletic departments already lose so much money. How are they going to afford to pay every scholarship athlete from every sport?

[WorkHorse]

I agree Wookiee. Title 9 took care of that.

What about the kids who are working themselves through college. Is Hardees, McDonalds going to give those kids a raise.