College football player should not get paid, but college-age football players should.
NCAA football wants things to keep going as they are. The money being made from college football is at an all time high, and getting higher. The issue of paying players is a hot topic right now because NCAA football’s lucrative success has doomed them by demonstrating that there is a substantial market for 18-22 year old football entertainment. There is no going forward as things have always been. A law suit will eventually wear a hole in the walls of arbitrary amateurism laws and antitrust exemptions. A free market league will eventually exist. The question is, will it be run by the NCAA.
The two choices before the NCAA will be to A) keep going after the money by attempting to run the quasi-free market league, or B) risk losing the big money by letting the blue chip talent go to a free market league unaffiliated with colleges.
It is clear that they will eventually morph into option A (unless a new league beats them to it and forces them to option B). There is too much money involved for them to risk the unknown of B. But option A is shortsighted. Individual schools will suffer. And the game will suffer. This road will further polarize the football landscape with haves and have-nots. Many schools will shut down their football programs. The few schools that have a piece of the pie will look no different than a lesser version of the NFL. Yikes!
I think option B is the better strategy. The quality of college football can and will survive and thrive on the 3 star talent they can buy with their scholarships. We see the powers-that-be in college basketball scrambling to keep free market athletics from happening (with their one-and-done rulings). But we also see that even with the mass defection of talented freshman to the NBA college basketball remains very popular, perhaps more popular than ever (and a case can be made that forcing kids to play a year of college basketball is a bad thing for the game). The same will be true for football. We may even see a better overall product without the top recruits.
But I not only think that B is a better option, I think it will eventually be the only option for true college football. If universities remain in the “business” of football (paying for play) it will also mean that they remain committed to the current school business model. And the school business model, as it stands, is coming to an end. The education bubble has burst. A college degree is not worth the investment, not even close (a big reason college football players are looking to get paid is because of inflation on their current payroll dollar - the education. No one is talking about this). Universities have shot themselves in the foot by watering down their product to maximize their enrollees and streamline their athletic recruiting. If schools don’t change their model they will fail as universities and take their football programs with them. But if they do change their model and make their education valuable again, then they won’t be able to exploit the best football talent. The only way forward is to reform their schools and return to the older version of compensating athletes - with an education that will be valuable to them.
The NCAA will feel that the top option will preserve what they have. And they will think that is where the money is (and it will be in the short term). The landscape of college football has been shifting in that direction for years. But the best thing for colleges and the college football product is to stay in the football game but get out of the business of football. There will still plenty cash to be made. Let the market exist. Let kids earn what they are worth. Players should be paid, but not by schools, not if we want to keep a semblance of the college football that we love.
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