College Athletes Getting Paid

Should college athletes get paid on top of the scholarship and other benefits that they receive? What ever your thoughts are on this, I am trying to asses whether a move to letting players capitalize on their celebrity would help or hurt U of M athletics?

I feel like if a college athlete is going to make sponsorship money that attending a college with a large surrounding community would be beneficial. The opportunities for a programs top few players would be tenfold in the Twin Cities vs most college towns. I think regardless of how the mechanics work out, any high player that thinks they can make additional dollars in school using their name is going to be more likely to attend say, Miami, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Minnesota etc, versus Iowa City, East Lansing, and most schools in the south.

I think it would be another selling point coaches could use to lure athletes to MN given the local opportunities rather than attending a traditional smaller college town.

Am I nuts for thinking this way, and do you think this is going to happen in the next couple of years?

I think it would hurt because college athletics just aren't that big in the TC compared to most other places. Places like Iowa city, East Lansing, and Tuscaloosa are much smaller but the school is the city.

Paying players probabbly wouldn't be good for the sport.

But probabbly also the right thing to do.

At the very least I'd like to see some bargaining power given to an organization that represent's JUST the student's best interest. Everyone making decisions for these kids benefit from the players not getting paid.... so of course they like that.

GophersInIowa said:

I think it would hurt because college athletics just aren't that big in the TC compared to most other places. Places like Iowa city, East Lansing, and Tuscaloosa are much smaller but the school is the city.

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They are already getting free expensive education, room & board, and a stipend. So IMHO No.

This will open up college football to another opportunity for mischief/corruption, and may lead to further differentiation between the haves and the have nots. How much should you pay players at School A vs School B, Conference A vs Conference B? Are some of the schools going to be able to keep up with the competition or afford the additional outlays required?

Potentially, players will gravitate to the schools that shell out the most money which can become a recruiting advantage/disadvantage.

Are you willing to pay ALL the athletes? Do the women's rowing team get paid the same as the football team?

hungan1 said:

They are already getting free expensive education, room & board, and a stipend. So IMHO No.

This will open up college football to another opportunity for mischief/corruption, and may lead to further differentiation between the haves and the have nots. How much should you pay players at School A vs School B, Conference A vs Conference B? Are some of the schools going to be able to keep up with the competition or afford the additional outlays required?

Potentially, players will gravitate to the schools that shell out the most money which can become a recruiting advantage/disadvantage.

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Depends on how you define "sponsorship."

I suppose in certain cases you could potentially see college players doing commercials for local busineses - but that would be limited to the most visible players, so only a few players would benefit. (possible side thread - what Gopher players would get sponsorship deals - and for what products or businesses? Faalele for a big-and-tall clothing store?)

Now, if you are talking about players getting a share of jersey sales, posters, and that type of ancillary income, that's a different story. But again, it would be unequal in the sense that Alabama and USC sell a lot more Jerseys than Directional State. So again, it would be a have and have-not situation - and another wedge for the powers in recruiting. ("Come to Helmet School X and you'll get a bigger cut of the jersey sales......")

so I guess I have to say, No, I would not be in favor of that type of payout to football players, unless there was some system to equalize it out at least at the conference level, so you don't create another level of haves and have-nots.

Our country needs a Junior Football League and a Junior Basketball League badly.

The product depends on amateurism and the backing of the schools. There ought to be a form of salary cap for the athletic departments, or a luxury tax of some sort. The aim of that would be to shunt the considerable revenues back into the general fund or, gasp, scholarships for deserving students (not necessarily athletes). The student vs athlete ratio is out of wack at times. These are educational institutions, after all. They shouldn’t be “non profit” profit centers. The facilities race is ludicrous.

A salary cap or luxury tax would help to curb the insane salary inflation of coaching and admin staffs, promote stability, and promote a more level playing field. And, it would help to promote actual scholarship and something of societal value if the money can be used to help deserving students.

Or, tuition could be lowered some level per year, across the board.

Nope. Have seen far to many covered in tats n jewelery. I think they are making enough already.


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The NFL & NBA should pay for and create their own minor league FB & BB farm systems. If these premier athletes want to get paid more than their scholies & stipends, let them sign up for these leagues.

Baseball have their own farm systems. Pro FB & BB should do the same.

Just like for baseball, allow the NBA and the NFL to draft players out of right out of high school. The athletes can opt for college, but they have to stay for two years of eligibility (with RS year for some).

Why should universities foot the bill for athletes not intending to get real college education? Let the pro leagues pay for their development.

Stop the so called one and done charades in BB. "Scholar athletes" at Duke, UNC, Kentucky, etc... don't have to play skool. No basket weaving classes or bogus classes for athletes under the guise of them being available to all students. You stay in school for a minimum of two years of academic eligibility.

Allow FB & BB upperclassmen who want to go to the NFL to enter the draft after their second year eligibility. If they decide to go before that, they forfeit all their scholarship.

If they opt for the draft in their junior and senior year of eligibility, they can return to college later and finish their degrees if they left in good standing. If undrafted and in good standing, they can return to college to complete their degrees.

There is a Stipend in addition to room and board for all college athletes on full ride d1 scholarships. I believe it goes up every year.


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They get tuition, room and board and a stipend already. Not only is their education worth the cost of tuition but also earning potential for the rest of their lives, it's very valuable. This should be enough.

Like others have said instead of paying them in college just have a minor league system. I think this would be difficult with football but pretty easy in basketball. Get rid of the 1 and done, it's just ridiculous. Us the scholarships on kids who will get degrees.

I'm okay with the athletes getting paid if they are given a choice: You can get paid for your likeness and a set amount per game or whatever, but you no longer receive a scholarship. They are still required to attend class and maintain grades.

OR

The teams become clubs endorsed by the Universities and all athletes get paid, but they no longer are required to go to school. If they want to attend they can use their salary.

hungan1 said:

The NFL & NBA should pay for and create their own minor league FB & BB farm systems. If these premier athletes want to get paid more than their scholies & stipends, let them sign up for these leagues.

Baseball have their own farm systems. Pro FB & BB should do the same.

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Why should they do this? The NFL and NBA have been doing fine with College football and college basketball being their minor leagues. Why risk the investment? They have no incentive to do so.

hungan1 said:

Just like for baseball, allow the NBA and the NFL to draft players out of right out of high school. The athletes can opt for college, but they have to stay for two years of eligibility (with RS year for some).

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If the NFL and NBA believes that it is best for their league if their players are required to play in college for one or three years then why should they let HS kids who have no experience playing in a high level league be eligible for the draft? The NFL doesn't want to have to evaluate talented guys that haven't played college football.

hungan1 said:

Why should universities foot the bill for athletes not intending to get real college education? Let the pro leagues pay for their development.

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No one is forcing these universities to admit these kids. They are choosing to admit them. If they felt it was in the best interest of the university to not admit likely one and done players that won't stick around then the admissions department would not admit them. Since they do believe it is in their best interest, they chose to admit them.

I know there is pecuniary interests that drive the current system.

The NFL want no skin in the game. Why absorb an exorbitant amount of cost when you can have the colleges do the hard work of developing talent? As mentioned, logistics-wise it is a huge undertaking with questionable ROI.

Let the colleges, the Arena Football League, and the Canadian Football League do the heavy lifting. The NFL can just sit back and draft players from college. They can pluck star players out of the CFL.

Now, the current trend more so than ever before is for teams to carefully analyze the undrafted free agents and other players not listed on the draft boards. There are Adam Thielens of this world to be discovered. Undrafted who are 4 & 5 Star players to take a close look at. You'd have JC Hassenauer and other players that are backups to starters that are worth taking a close look at, etc...

For them, investing in and developing a good scouting system makes more sense. They sit back and monitor players in these type of leagues. They mitigate their risks when signing players that are proven commodities.

The elite P5 schools do have skin in the game. There is prestige and national reputation at stake. Alabama and tOSU just want to keep churning 4 & 5 Star players and win championships. It is what pays the bills and the pay back in other ways is astronomical.

I think there are a lot of good ideas in this thread. I think getting paid if you are a college superstar is inevitable. The college football video games certainly lost the ability to use the likeness of players. At some point there will be a team that just refuses to take the field/court in protest.

I think it could be a good selling point to get four or five stars to attend the U with marketing opportunities for the big stars.

Let the universities share in the opportunities if they are wearing the logo.

Will this bring agents into the fold? I think it should all run through the athletic depths

It is coming, so get prepared!

I don’t think it is inevitable. But I also find the largesse of the school employees not only in poor taste but definitely misallocated resources thus my very socialistic revenue sharing and salary cap proposals in my first post.

I look at the college athletic scholarship as analogous to the crappy rookie contracts NFLers receive. Some perform way above their pay grade and deserve a whole lot more. Some are ok and make 500k per year. The over-producers go on to make bank with their second contract while the dregs are cast off. At least in college the dregs are guaranteed a college scholarship, boarding, meals, stipend.

The legal battles will go on but there’s really nothing new that hasn’t been said. Maybe the right appeal panel or Supreme Court will eventually agree with the players and their lawyers but I think it will be a lengthy battle.

4four4 said:

Our country needs a Junior Football League and a Junior Basketball League badly.

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Our country needs all kinds of things. Not this.

Greed is the engine that drives capitalism. Too much greed is not a good thing. This apply to collegiate sports.

What next? Are player's jerseys going to become billboards for advertising endorsements? Are we not already being bombarded with enough two-three minutes commercials and promos on TV that they have to bring commercialization onto the playing field and court?

We go to live games to get away from that pollution (except for what appears on jumbotron screens) for pure family enjoyment.

Should the refs get a piece of the action too and get some entitlement for ads? Put advertisement spaces in urinal and toilet stalls? When is it going to end? Would you have to deal with referees and player strikes? Don't forget to pay the coaches the money they are entitled to.

Players think they are being exploited? Some feel more entitled than others? How would players feel playing on a team where only a handful of players make the endorsement money? Should they go on strike to get a piece of the action?

There hoes the greed. It is all about entitlements.

To some degree, we are all prostituting ourselves by working for a paycheck. But, we don't go on strike because our CEO happened to slash jobs in a cost cutting measure and move them overseas while getting a 2K fold increase in compensation over the average working stiff for doing such a fine job protecting shareholder value. What happened to the money they saved? Oh, it went to the management team's pockets. They are entitled.

Money money money! More money for certain select players, for astronomically escalating coaching salaries, and new shiny stadia and sports pavilions? Are the Gophers going to raise the remainder of the $160+ million dollars it took to build the Athletic Complex?

Are college football and basketball becoming a victim of their own success? How many schools are going to drop other sports to be able to support athletic programs? How many schools in the future consider opting out of certain conferences?

Well, they still have to deal with Title IX. What men's sports are schools going to drop to fulfill the Title IX balance requirements in the face of dwindling revenues when they cannot keep up with the Joneses? It gets in the way of revenue generation and entitlement. Just like it is all about shareholder value in corporate business, should they cut all non-performing/revenue generating sports? Oh well, maybe the problem is Title IX. Should schools lobby to scuttle Title IX altogether?

Will some schools opt out of D1 altogether, or completely drop collegiate sports?

The Crystall Ball is not kind to college sports or to humankind. Greed will wield its ugly head on college sports. Rugged individualism at its finest. Greed is going to be the end of humanity.

These are just my random thoughts and opinions and and are not necessarily the views of Gopherhole and all its advertisers and promoters. Bogus www.iamentitled.com - chat lines are open for questions about your entitlements.

I woke up with a kink in my neck this morning. (Sarcasm piece)

Whether the players SHOULD be paid is almost irrelevant. There is no way that it is feasible or at least that has presented itself yet. The 2 main ideas are they would be either paid through the schools or be able to receive outside money through sponsorships ala the Olympic sport model.

If you pay the athletes through the schools, you will have to pay all the athletes. Title XI as well as public opinion is not going to allow you to create 2 classes of college athletes at the same school and at the same competition level. And for almost every Division 1 school, it is not economically possible to pay all the revenue and non-revenue athletes and still make it worthwhile to compete at the highest level. As unfair as it may seem to the football and basketball players, they make it possible for almost all the other scholarship athletes to have scholarships. And finally on that point. There is no way schools could afford to pay the big stars what they mean economically to the school and giving them even $5000 a month isn't going to make them not take $10,000 from an agent.

And the other idea of letting them get money from outside sponsorship is probably even more unrealistic. People envision it working just like Olympic sports like swimming, but that is comparing apples and oranges. Sponsorship would have to include everything, not just a big sports apparel deal earned by time a star QB is a senior. But how would it work in practice. For example, a football crazy state like Alabama. Every recruit that was even considering them would be promised sponsorship dollars from a car lots, restaurants, really any business a booster owned. Would that happen here? Or any school with a semi-disinterested fan base. Recruiting and balance of power would only widen.

And finally remember that there is drawbacks to the paid player model. When people say players should be paid what they are worth, everyone thinks of Baker Mayfield or Lamar Jackson. But what if all the players were paid "what they were worth?" Lets say a guy like ex Gopher Moses Alipate. He never panned out, but got himself an education. If people want this like a business you can't expect the U to pay one guy what he is worth and then pay others more than what they are wort, both through pay and scholarships. It is heartless and mean but in a world where the game is treated like a true business, you have to be able to jettison anybody who isn't helping the program economically and get someone in there who will. Right now you can try to run somebody off the team or get them to transfer, but that will have to switch to a simple press release that say "so and so has been released." And I don't think that is what many college sports fans want.

Are we going to become that increasingly heartless in college sports like what seems to be increasingly happening with the rest of the nation?