If you had trouble getting a Wii for xmas, here's why

Some of these players on big-conference teams are responsible for MILLIONS of revenue dollars each year. I don't think anyone should give a shit if they get $850 of stuff for the bowl trip. Yes, they get a FREE college education and the experience of a lifetime, but they also risk their health and can't (legally ... wink wink) make enough money to buy the clothes and stuff they want.

Is it really a big deal that they get a Wii or digital camera? Who cares?

 

I have no problem paying these kids to play sports, and even reward them with academic scholarships if they qualify and maintain their high academic standing. But they should pay their way through school as any other university employee would if they are paid employees of the university.

But if this is their employment, how can you mandate that they must retire after 4 years?

 

For the record, though I started this thread, I have no issue with the concept of paying college athletes.

I was a college athlete, and I can tell you that by the time I was done with classes, practice/games and study, there was no time left over to go get a job. The fact of the matter is that even college students with no obligations need money to do things like wash clothes and occasionally eat out. So put me in the pay them camp even without the revenue generation argument. Knowshon Moreno, for example, has generated untold dollars just by virtue of UGA jersey sales. The university is benefitting from his play well beyond the dollar value of his scholarship, and he'll never see a dime of that money under the current rules. To me that's patently unfair.

 

Scholarship athletes get a small stipend check each month.

 

these kids should be getting paid to play ... this is the least they can do. Schools, sponsorts, etc. are making an ass-load off these kids.

 

Yeah. . .at maybe 10 schools nationally. Everybody else is just breaking even, having to spend money on sports that bring no return.

If college sports is such big business, how can you spend millions on a sport and get just thousands in return?