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Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
Only two of the sports you mentioned give full scholarships (football and basketball).
And yes, those players do receive a tremendous range of benefits. They also generate BILLIONS of dollars in revenue for their athletic departments and the NCAA while going to school and working a full-time job (and a manual labor type job, at that. How many people could work a full-time construction or roofing job and carry a full class load and thrive?)
The system makes it illegal for them to have part time jobs (which is necessary, otherwise you'd have the Roger Morningstars and Bill Lauries of the world setting guys up with "jobs" that pay six figures for "summer work."). Many of the players comes from abject poverty... this leaves them without cash in their pocket to buy a pizza or take someone on a date to a movie or buy a pair of shoes. That's why under-the-table cash is so prevalent and sought out.
The additional stipends schools pay out now definitely are a step in the right direction... they reduce the dependency on booster cash. If those went a tad bit further, even better.
It's also worth noting that many of the players are pushed through degree mill programs so their eligibility will be maintained, education and future prospects be damned.
They do receive tremendous benefits. But there are also still some cracks to examine.
College football and basketball players at power 5 programs subsidize a lot of people (the entire NCAA office, coaches making millions, every athletic program that isn't football or men's basketball, every program outside a major conference, etc.) They deserve a little bit more of the pie they're baking.
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Full-time job my ass. There isn’t a Division 1 athlete in the country who is “working” on their sport 10-12 hours per day like most construction workers and roofers in your dumb ass analogy.
The degree mill argument is dumb ass well. If the athlete isn’t smart enough or willing to work hard enough to advance towards a legitimate degree, they have options besides playing college athletics. Life isn’t fair and it isn’t easy. If you want something bad enough, you’ll put in the work to achieve it.