Paid 2 Play

[ladyhawke]

Okay....seriously, this discussion is still going on after the link I posted like 800 times?

I give up on the mental well-being of this board.

Interesting article but not all athletes qualify for the Pell Grants. (Federal Pell Grants are made available to students based on a number of factors, all of which are connected to a student's "Expected Family Contribution") As for the Student Opportunity Fund, it may make funds available to the student athlete but it is up to the conference offices, so while this might be available it isn't a given. The Special Assistance Fund is part of the Student Opportunity Fund-again it is limited as to what it can offer. They do get free room and board, can have an occasional meal paid for them by a booster so while there is money out there, it sounds like to me there are a lot of hoops that the player would have to jump through to get it.

Does anyone on this board believe that NU football players don't have access to the things they need? Players that might come from more humble means can take advantage of the funds listed above but the rest of the kids are probably supported by their parents/grandparents or guardians.

Question: When my kids were in college our church sent them 'care packages' at least twice a week. In them were things like toothpaste/candy/chips/pretzels/gum/pencils/pens/sticky notes, etc. Would these college players be in trouble with the NCAA if friends/neighbors/church folks sent them something like this? No money just expendables that I've listed above?

 

[Landlord]

Okay....seriously, this discussion is still going on after the link I posted like 800 times?

I give up on the mental well-being of this board.

Interesting article but not all athletes qualify for the Pell Grants. (Federal Pell Grants are made available to students based on a number of factors, all of which are connected to a student's "Expected Family Contribution") As for the Student Opportunity Fund, it may make funds available to the student athlete but it is up to the conference offices, so while this might be available it isn't a given. The Special Assistance Fund is part of the Student Opportunity Fund-again it is limited as to what it can offer. They do get free room and board, can have an occasional meal paid for them by a booster so while there is money out there, it sounds like to me there are a lot of hoops that the player would have to jump through to get it.

Does anyone on this board believe that NU football players don't have access to the things they need? Players that might come from more humble means can take advantage of the funds listed above but the rest of the kids are probably supported by their parents/grandparents or guardians.

Question: When my kids were in college our church sent them 'care packages' at least twice a week. In them were things like toothpaste/candy/chips/pretzels/gum/pencils/pens/sticky notes, etc. Would these college players be in trouble with the NCAA if friends/neighbors/church folks sent them something like this? No money just expendables that I've listed above?

You're proving the point of the article, though. The players that need the money have access to it, and the ones that don't....well, they don't need it. When will the powers that be put a foot down, say enough is enough, and start combating this gross sense of entitlement among college athletes?

 

[ladyhawke]

Okay....seriously, this discussion is still going on after the link I posted like 800 times?

I give up on the mental well-being of this board.

Interesting article but not all athletes qualify for the Pell Grants. (Federal Pell Grants are made available to students based on a number of factors, all of which are connected to a student's "Expected Family Contribution") As for the Student Opportunity Fund, it may make funds available to the student athlete but it is up to the conference offices, so while this might be available it isn't a given. The Special Assistance Fund is part of the Student Opportunity Fund-again it is limited as to what it can offer. They do get free room and board, can have an occasional meal paid for them by a booster so while there is money out there, it sounds like to me there are a lot of hoops that the player would have to jump through to get it.

Does anyone on this board believe that NU football players don't have access to the things they need? Players that might come from more humble means can take advantage of the funds listed above but the rest of the kids are probably supported by their parents/grandparents or guardians.

Question: When my kids were in college our church sent them 'care packages' at least twice a week. In them were things like toothpaste/candy/chips/pretzels/gum/pencils/pens/sticky notes, etc. Would these college players be in trouble with the NCAA if friends/neighbors/church folks sent them something like this? No money just expendables that I've listed above?

You're proving the point of the article, though. The players that need the money have access to it, and the ones that don't....well, they don't need it. When will the powers that be put a foot down, say enough is enough, and start combating this gross sense of entitlement among college athletes?

Agreed. Where do you think this sense of entitlement originates? I think part of it comes from the coaches like Steve Spurrier who thinks that student athletes from 'revenue producing sports' should be compensated so that they could live like 'normal student athletes', whatever that is!!

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7990235/south-carolina-gamecocks-coach-steve-spurrier-wants-pay-football-players

 

[husker rob]

why is it so difficult to understand that if a student athlete is on scholarship, he or she is getting paid to play. a lot of the players would not be able to afford to go to college with out that scholarship.

how much does a scholarship cover each year. I bet it is worth more than I got with my student loans and working 40 hours a week at McDonalds when I was in college.

 

[HuskerTrucker]

Why not? They are making the schools a ton of money.

 

[lionsfan93]

I haven't read through all the post in this thread, but I think Colin Cowherd had one of the best comments on this subject. He said that money is almost never the answer to any problem; money isn't even the answer to poverty, education is. If we start paying players more problems will arise.

 

[Polarhusker]

Why not? They are making the schools a ton of money.

Explain!

 

[Polarhusker]

I haven't read through all the post in this thread, but I think Colin Cowherd had one of the best comments on this subject. He said that money is almost never the answer to any problem; money isn't even the answer to poverty, education is. If we start paying players more problems will arise.

I can't believe he said that. but it's true.

 

[ladyhawke]

Why not? They are making the schools a ton of money.

Here's something to consider. (I thought this was a good article)-

"If you decide to pay them, that’s going to open the floodgates. When is it too much? The $1,000 a month soon becomes $50,000 a month. It would be out of control because the student-athletes would feel like they weren’t being paid enough. I don’t know one person that feels like their job pays them enough and these kids would be no different.

Have we forgotten that these kids are there for an education? The percentage of football players getting drafted is 2%. That’s two percent! The other 98% will have college degrees if they stick it out. That’s 98% of them that are essentially getting a $200,000 education for free.

You want college football players to be paid to play when the NFL doesn’t think 98% of them deserve to get paid? That’s just silly.

There are 80 scholarship players on each of the 112 Division 1-A teams. This means it costs a university $16,000,000 to pay for an entire roster over 4 years. If you want to pay the players, how do you determine the dollar amount?"

http://1045theteam.c...uldnt-get-paid/

 

['SkersRule]

Why not? They are making the schools a ton of money.

Here's something to consider. (I thought this was a good article)-

"If you decide to pay them, that’s going to open the floodgates. When is it too much? The $1,000 a month soon becomes $50,000 a month. It would be out of control because the student-athletes would feel like they weren’t being paid enough. I don’t know one person that feels like their job pays them enough and these kids would be no different.

Have we forgotten that these kids are there for an education? The percentage of football players getting drafted is 2%. That’s two percent! The other 98% will have college degrees if they stick it out. That’s 98% of them that are essentially getting a $200,000 education for free.

You want college football players to be paid to play when the NFL doesn’t think 98% of them deserve to get paid? That’s just silly.

There are 80 scholarship players on each of the 112 Division 1-A teams. This means it costs a university $16,000,000 to pay for an entire roster over 4 years. If you want to pay the players, how do you determine the dollar amount?"

http://1045theteam.c...uldnt-get-paid/

There are some problems with the numbers here: 1) there are 85 scholarships allowed, 2) there are 117 FBS schools, and 3) a 200K education would probably be accurate if they were all matriculating to Harvard or Yale. However, most state schools are going to run about 50-60K for five years, considering in-state tuition costs. The article basically makes a decent case despite the flawed numbers.

 

[MT949597]

I don't know how this is even a discussion because there is no justifying a kid who's getting over $10,000 a year while going to school to play the sport he "loves" getting paid. You can't do it, you're damn right you're gonna work your tail off 5-6 hours a day, you better be earning that free tuition, books, housing, gear, Ipad, tutors, food, fame, career (whether it's going to be on the field or off). These kids don't realize how great they have it, think about student loans, that is a foreign concept to all these kids, if they really want to get paid then give up your scholarship and accept that 10,000 a year that you get paid for playing football at Nebraska, what are you going to do with it, oh yeah, pay for living, food, clothing, tution, books and everything else that was handed to you, same thing the scholarship covers. I'm not slightlng how hard these kids work becuase they bust their asses, and we show our appreciation every Saturday during the fall, I mean we've sold out every game since the 60's, but that's not good enough, becuase everyone is making money but them. Where do you think the money that these players "bring in" every Saturday goes, oh right back to their athletic department to buy things, like a new addition to the stadium, a brand new weight room, practice facilities, state of the art equipment, helmets, lockers, ect. If you want to get paid to play, bust your a$$ 7-8 hours a day instead of 5-6 and make it to the NFL, until then realize just how great it is to be an amateur college athlete at the University of Nebraska.

 

[ZRod]

I know that paying athletes that participate in other sports has been brought up but I don't know if anyone has mentioned this one yet; what do you do with walkons? They bust their a$$ just as much if not more than scholarship players, but they have to pay their way through school unless they are fortunate enough to receive a scholarship later on. How ridiculous would it be to be paying 80 some odd guys on a team and and then have another 20+ receive nothing for their hard work? I don't care much for Colin Cowerd but he's right. If you start paying these guys you"ll just open up Pandora's box, we'll never see the end of it.

 

[JJ Husker]

Is Ernie Chambers still around? I remember he would introduce a bill every year wanting to pay the football players.

My opinion? No, you don't pay college players. Sure their time, effort, and talent help contribute to the success of the athletic department and university but, with all the scholarships, tutors, assistance programs, perks, etc. they are still financially way ahead of the average stuent. You can't pay them with out ruining what college sports is all about. We have the NFL and NBA if that's what you like. If they can't suck it up and make it through 4 years of full ride scholly, life is more than likely going to be really rough for them.