What ****ing D1 school costs $100K+ for 4 years?

That's the issue. These kids all think they are going on to the NFL, NBA, or MLB and make millions of dollars. That is true for just a small fraction of student athletes. If they would realize this and understand that a free education is nothing to sneeze at, I doubt they would be so quick to thumb their nose at the opportunity in front of them.

Why can't the NCAA require schools to pay their athletes at least the average of all work study jobs on that campus? They could even institute a profit sharing payout where the NCAA pays a percentage of the hourly wage paid to each player for worked hours.

Room, board, tuition, books?
A whole lot of them...

Most scholarships have work study tied to them, ie. set hours to work to earn some of the money. At some universities, attendance is reported and thus, the student must attend to maintain their scholarship. Grades must be upheld in all academic scholarships in order to maintain them. Everything you laid out is a criteria for most every major academic scholarship.

Completely untrue. If you look at the costs, no university makes more than ~$38M from their athletic department.

Assuming we are talking walkons as well ( because if they aren't part of the union, that is definitely not fair )...

( taken from LSU's rosters )

120 football players +
~35 baseball players +
20 softball players +
15 basketball players +
15 women's basketball players +
15 volleyball players +
~20 soccer players +
~55 combined swimmers +
~85 combined T&F +
16 combined Tennis +
~15 sand volleyball +
~20 gym +
~15 combined golfers +
~20 combined cross country runners

~= 466 players. LSU is one of 7 major universities that is not subsidized. In 2012, at $114,787,786 coming in and $101,989,116 going out, that's a net of $12,798,670, putting LSU at 8th in net revenue.

Right now, that goes back to the university to fund shortages on the educational side, but I guess you would argue that the money should go to the players instead?

What happens to Missouri, who was last in net revenue in 2012 @ -$16,261,224? Can we get the players to pay the university for its losses? I mean, why stop at 'employee' - they can be stake holders and share in the fruits & losses of their success or lack thereof!

I can remember when as a college athlete, you'd see your 'likeness' in a video game and be completely flattered - not angry because you didn't get paid for it. Over 100 years of college football and this generation is the one that is so arrogant that they feel entitled to 'their share' of a bigger pie instead of valuing the reward they have.... sounds about right, sadly. Its cutting one's nose to spite their face.

I've known about a dozen athletes at Mizzou when I worked for the athletic department, and the majority of them did not think they were going pro. Most go on to coach somewhere related to their sport.

And it's still better than the NFL, NBA, and MLB.

I suppose it depends greatly on in state vs out of state. In Columbia, most of the athletes to do not live on campus.

I don't know where you went to school but nowhere around here is work-study required as part of accepting a scholarship.

Scholarships are scholarships, grants are grants, loans are loans, and work-study is work-study.

Notre Dame tuition and fees for the 2013-2014 school year are $44,605. That doesn't include books, room and board, or food. That is a total of $178,420 over 4 years. These athletes deserve more I tell ya.

Northwestern probably costs about 200k for four years...

So private schools and public schools in Kalifornia.

And the ones that know they aren't going pro know they don't have the time to major in a productive field as well as take advantage of summer and term internships because of in season practices and off season workouts.

Yeah, Johnny Manziel looked swamped with his football commitments this offseason. :rolleyes:

Here's my view. If the ncaa wants to be a nonprofit then act like it instead of creating this fat cat system where a ton of profit off the indentured servitude of unpaid players. And loosen the unbelievably stupid rules about player payment outside the ncaa. Let good players get sponsorships and after their college years over, at least let them get paid for their likeness.

It's not enough to say they get free tuition. The average football player practices 45 hours a week. That is a full time job plus overtime. And unlike regular students, they can't earn a single penny elsewhere. Can't work another job. Can't even get a free lunch, let alone sell their own stuff online.

And the idea that these kids are getting a free education is silly in a system that wilfully cuts scholarships at will if the player becomes ineffective, and where players are constantly practicing or on the road. If you want to call it an educational benefit, then commit to a better student life for them or at least let them stay in school beyond their football years.