(04-25-2019 09:58 AM)dansplaining Wrote: {snipped non-pertinent content}
They should pay the dang players
As the father of a student-athlete and as a college administrator, I would argue that scholarship athletes are paid. They receive their academic scholarship, books, fees, housing allocation, food allocation, allocation for incidentals, uniforms and equuipment, athletic apparrel, training table meals and supplements, training services, counseling, tutoring, and other various tangible and intangible benefits. All of that is real-cost stuff that non-athlete students do not receive. They are, effectively, compensated for playing a game.
Are they compensated in a manner that is in accordance with the revenue generated for the school? In large part that depends on the school. At Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and other such biggies, the answer is arguably, "No." But even at those schools, they ARE compensated for playing a game.
When you look at all the hours they put into practice, conditioning, film and chalk, and playing, it would be interesting to see how that works out into an hourly wage. When you consider the annual cost of tuition, housing, meals, etc., it likely exceeds $20,000 a year, which would put their compensation above minimum wage for a 40 hour work week. And I don't believe these kids are spending 8 hours a day on their sport. This does ignore the whole issue of walk-ons and other non-scholarship athletes. Too many tangents in this issue to address them all here.
These comments will probably piss some people off, but you can't argue these are facts.
