Should College Football Players get paid? –Matt

Much commotion has been made recently regarding if college football players (or student athletes in general) should be compensated for their play since their sports generate substantial revenue for the Universities.  There is a lot of merit in this reasoning.  Especially when you consider the health risk associated with playing sports.  One wrong move and the player could be paralyzed or killed. 

On the other hand they are given an opportunity for an education and room and board for free if they play a sport at a high level.

It’s a cost benefit decision for the athlete and their families.  Is free education worth the risk of playing a certain sport?

What clouds this simple decision is life after college.  Student athletes in the big 3 sports (Football, Basketball and Baseball) all are playing in college for the chance to play professional.  Everyone is gunning to be in the 2% that make the jump from college to professional.  Considering base pay in the NFL is over $300,000 per year it would make sense to strive to play at that level.  If you are really good coming out of college isn’t not uncommon to have a multi million dollar contract waiting.  The exposure generated by playing at the collegiate level often dictates the amount of the professional contract.  The risk of playing college ball is worth it for many student athletes. 

However, for the rest of the 98%, playing at the collegiate level represents the end of the road.  There is no big payout, no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  It would make complete sense to draw the conclusion that these players, where this is the end of their sporting lives, should be compensated for their play, especially considering the amount of money they generated for the University.

Suppose for a moment there were no professional sports, that the highest level was played on the college level.  There was no big payout waiting for the select few players and everyone played for the love of the game and free tuition.  If this was the case I doubt we would hear a cry for player compensation.  The deal would be simple; play for Whatsamatta U and get a free education.  If you don’t want to risk your safety you simple don’t play.  There are no hedging bets; it is all very cut and dry.  But when you add the lottery of a professional contract to the equation many cost/benefit decisions are skewed. 

In essence the Universities are capitalizing on this skewed decision.  They are getting a very high level of play based on the hope of some 3^rd party contract.  They are simply in the right place at the right time.  It is easy to argue that the College’s are taking advantage of the student, but that isn’t entirely fair.  College’s are holding up their end of the agreement by providing access to educational opportunities (if the player is on a scholarship) in exchange for performance on the field.  They are also indirectly (or directly) providing the players with the exposure to maximize their potential at no cost to the student-athlete. 

Based on this student athletes (regardless of the sport) should not be paid as their contract is an ‘in kind’ contract and not a financial one.  However, I think Universities should be held to a much higher standard when it comes to the academics of the athletes.  Putting a much greater emphasis on academics and ensuring that athlete meet or exceed normal standards should be the norm.  In theory, athletes should be the best performing students as the college has much more invested in them than fee paying students.