College Football Players Derseve to be Paid?

[DJR313]

Academic standards huh, like athletes follow those standards. I had many scholarship offers out of high school for baseball. MY GPA was a lazy 2.6. my tests scores were avg ACT-20 SAT-1100 Duke offered my a scholarship guaranteed admission. The girl that sat next to me in my math class was second overall in our class of over 600 students GPA 4.3 on a 4.0 scale, ACT and SAT top 10% She wanted to go to Duke more than anything in the world ADMISSION DENIED. True story i was there i witnessed it i was a part of it. Dont tell me there are standards. Half of the ND football team couldnt get in follow normal procedures. All of these athletes go to D1 because they want to play in the NFL very very few want to get a degree first and play football alongside. We use these kids. if we didnt then they couldnt get in to the Highest Academic Learning Institutes period. We erase the boundaries allowing them entrance with the hopes that they will bring greatness to the athletic Dept thus increasing revenue and income.

 

I wouldn't say it is as harsh as "use" but I do agree. Athletes are allowed to get into school by the minimum standards while others get turned away because of the benefit that they will provide to the school. They get an education from a good university, eat for free, don't pay rent and have many other things paid, in exchange, they give up their bodies and all their free time for their team.

[mahoney]

I wanted to let this topic die but it looks as if it won't <sigh>.

They are paid right now. How greedy does one have to be. Most are getting out of state tuition paid for them at a university of their choice. They also get a monthly living stipend to do nothing other than keep grades up and play football.

If you don't like that the college players aren't paid like the NFL players then boycott ncaa. I'm sure they couldn't care less.

I think everyone has seen the commercials that say something like ncaa athletes, most are going pro in something other than sports. So really ncaa is providing life long lessons and education to get them through the rest of their life.

 

Quit whining about the poor college student!

[HUSKERJIMMY]

Paying college athletes ......especially football would kill the sports appeal and popularity...can you imagine a bunch of 18 year old Terrel Owens walking around Lincoln....God help us. College football mercenaries would kill the game and the popularity would wain...bad idea. Also I don't hear anyone whining about poor college wrestlers or College base ball players.

[DJR313]

I wanted to let this topic die but it looks as if it won't <sigh>.

They are paid right now. How greedy does one have to be. Most are getting out of state tuition paid for them at a university of their choice. They also get a monthly living stipend to do nothing other than keep grades up and play football.

If you don't like that the college players aren't paid like the NFL players then boycott ncaa. I'm sure they couldn't care less.

I think everyone has seen the commercials that say something like ncaa athletes, most are going pro in something other than sports. So really ncaa is providing life long lessons and education to get them through the rest of their life.

 

Quit whining about the poor college student!

 

Great post!

[FriscoTXHusker]

whining? y'all must have tinitus.

[HUSKER 37]

How about paying min. wage for all the practice time, film sessions, games, etc?

 

Just to help out and compensate for not being allowed to work?

 

Maybe tie half of it in maintaining grades in core courses (Towards a degree) payable upon graduating.

[gamecocks]

How about paying min. wage for all the practice time, film sessions, games, etc?

 

Just to help out and compensate for not being allowed to work?

 

Maybe tie half of it in maintaining grades in core courses (Towards a degree) payable upon graduating.

 

Where would this money come from? My bet is that we would see a hike in ticket prices before we see a pay cut from any of the front office people.

[HuskerBob4]

As a former college student-athlete, I agree players should receive more money than they receive now. Here is the typical day in the student-athletes shoes:

 

5:30 Wake up

6:00 Morning Weights

7:30 Breakfast

8:00-1:00 Class

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Practice

6:00 Conditioning

7:00 Dinner

8:00 Study Hall

10:30 Home/Sleep

 

As you can see, there is hardly anytime for other things, and absolutely no time to make money at a job (unless you are Rhett Bomar)

 

I do think living expenses should be included in the equation because it is unfair for student-athletes to use student loans or credit cards to pay for regular, everyday items.

 

Fortunately, my parents helped pay most of my bills that I couldn't cover with financial aid and I had some spending money but not much...BUT, many of my friends and teammates were pinching pennies just to pay for toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant, basic neccessities...even with the monthly stipend which is maxed out at $650 (Rent in most apartments is at least half of that)

[bennychico11]

As a former college student-athlete, I agree players should receive more money than they receive now. Here is the typical day in the student-athletes shoes:

 

5:30 Wake up

6:00 Morning Weights

7:30 Breakfast

8:00-1:00 Class

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Practice

6:00 Conditioning

7:00 Dinner

8:00 Study Hall

10:30 Home/Sleep

 

Any student can have that hectic of a daily schedule. What about the students who are taking 22 credit hours, or triple majoring, or the student who is a teenage mother...

Just like the regular students, the athletes CHOOSE to live this life. They choose for three to four months out of the year to have a crazy schedule. They know very well getting into it what is to be asked of them. And that's what I like about college football. It's NOT about the money. The students love the sport and WANT to do it. Unlike how it has become in pro.

 

 

I do think living expenses should be included in the equation because it is unfair for student-athletes to use student loans or credit cards to pay for regular, everyday items.

 

again, what about the non-student athletes? I went to a school that didn't have an athletic department, but had me going to class about 12 hours a day. With class schedules changing every month. I had to take student loans out just for living expenses.

If you think that's ridiculous for athletes to go through, write your congressman about the current student private and federal loan interest rates.

 

 

The fact of the matter is the University's are a BUSINESS. They're in it to teach students, yes...but they're also there to make money. We're the consumers who pay to get an education. And it costs the school to get the things they need/want.

Although I will agree that maybe the salaries of coaches, athletic directors, and the like are a little crazy. But who am I to complain how much we pay them...as long as they lead us to a National Championship.

 

The idea of paying students to go to school is ridiculous. Next we'll be talking about paying high school students who play for their athletic programs when they're 16-17.

Paying students won't only ruin the historic integrity of college football, but will create a great number of pompous, prima donna, ass holes in every school.

[951 Husker]

As a former college student-athlete, I agree players should receive more money than they receive now. Here is the typical day in the student-athletes shoes:

 

5:30 Wake up

6:00 Morning Weights

7:30 Breakfast

8:00-1:00 Class

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Practice

6:00 Conditioning

7:00 Dinner

8:00 Study Hall

10:30 Home/Sleep

 

Any student can have that hectic of a daily schedule. What about the students who are taking 22 credit hours, or triple majoring, or the student who is a teenage mother...

Just like the regular students, the athletes CHOOSE to live this life. They choose for three to four months out of the year to have a crazy schedule. They know very well getting into it what is to be asked of them. And that's what I like about college football. It's NOT about the money. The students love the sport and WANT to do it. Unlike how it has become in pro.

 

 

I do think living expenses should be included in the equation because it is unfair for student-athletes to use student loans or credit cards to pay for regular, everyday items.

 

again, what about the non-student athletes? I went to a school that didn't have an athletic department, but had me going to class about 12 hours a day. With class schedules changing every month. I had to take student loans out just for living expenses.

If you think that's ridiculous for athletes to go through, write your congressman about the current student private and federal loan interest rates.

 

 

The fact of the matter is the University's are a BUSINESS. They're in it to teach students, yes...but they're also there to make money. We're the consumers who pay to get an education. And it costs the school to get the things they need/want.

Although I will agree that maybe the salaries of coaches, athletic directors, and the like are a little crazy. But who am I to complain how much we pay them...as long as they lead us to a National Championship.

 

The idea of paying students to go to school is ridiculous. Next we'll be talking about paying high school students who play for their athletic programs when they're 16-17.

Paying students won't only ruin the historic integrity of college football, but will create a great number of pompous, prima donna, ass holes in every school.

 

No one is talking millions of dollars a year, just a couple hundred dollars a week to live, all the regular students are allowed to work when and were they want and they are also allowed to receive gifts and money from anyone that wants to give it to them.

 

When’s the last time 90,000 fans came to watch a regular student take a final

[bennychico11]

No one is talking millions of dollars a year, just a couple hundred dollars a week to live, all the regular students are allowed to work when and were they want and they are also allowed to receive gifts and money from anyone that wants to give it to them.

 

When’s the last time 90,000 fans came to watch a regular student take a final

 

the thing is the schools are trying to keep the "celebrity" status to a minimum. Some students DON'T work...I know I didn't have time to.

And when does receiving gifts and money go too far? Where do we draw the line? Grandparents giving a birthday check? Car dealerships allowing the kids to work 10 hours a week, but get paid for 45 hours? Nike asking students to endorse their shoes?

 

Now, I'm not a University admissions/scholarship expert, but I wouldn't doubt if the kids already are getting living expenses. To pay for what they need during University life....food, place to live, and some side money. At least the people I've known who have had full rides do.

All I'm saying is kids have been able to play football and go to school at the same time for over a hundred years. Now we want to change that and start paying them for going to our schools? Pay them extra to get an education?

 

Now someone please tell me...the root idea of college IS education still isn't it? Not a sports team?

Just wondering.

 

And then of course do we stop at football? What about tennis, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse? Hell, why even let kids move on after college...why not just keep 'em at the University and turn all the teams professional. Then we'll let wealthy corporations buy out the schools and manage them how they see fit?

 

 

Come on guys, keep college....well...college. It's where you go to learn. Learn math, science, history, and football. "Classes" that prepare you for AFTER college. Just as a law student studies to become a lawyer, our football players study to become football players.

[California Husker]

 

When’s the last time 90,000 fans came to watch a regular student take a final

 

A few points here. First, 951 is absolutely right. I can’t believe the crap I’m reading on this board about all of the poor non-student athletes who have to pay their own way. When I finished with my first MA I had a combined debt of $35,000 and I had paid out-of-pocket another $25,000 for tuition alone (Some at a public university, some at a private university). And nobody gave me anything to help out. But, then again, nobody was paying to come and watch me go to school. And, at least part of the time I had an income in the $35,000 - $40,000 per year range. And the NCAA didn’t care.

 

Here is the point that many of you seem to miss. I was able to help out my family by earning a decent income and there weren’t any of the NCAA Nazis coming around telling me I couldn’t work. Now I realize that if they loosen the rules on how and where players work we can run into all kinds of abuses like the cliché of players being paid to watch the sprinklers go on and off. So to avoid that, throw the players some bones. I don’t think anybody is talking about multi-million dollar contracts here. I think all we are talking about some cash so they can take their girlfriend on a date, or buy some decent non-Nike, or non-Adidas, REAL clothes. Why do you think some of the athletes walk around in team issued sweats and sneaks all the time? It’s because that is all some of them have to wear. And don’t start with the “Some people would love to have team issued clothing” crap. What I am saying is, since those players are bringing in millions to the university, they should be able to wear some decent threads if they like. They shouldn’t have to tell their lady “sorry babe, I can’t take you on a date, but I do get some great food at the training table.” Or “I can’t take you to that nice club because all I have is this cool Adidas sweat suit and the club has a dress code.”

 

If I couldn’t afford to take my wife out when I was in school, that was my problem, I was only bringing in the cost of my tuition to the school. Nobody was at the Adidas store paying big bucks to buy a jersey with my student ID number on it. And, by-the-way, if a friend wanted to pick up the tab for a couple of beers at the local pub, I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to make sure the NCAA Nazis weren’t there accusing me of receiving “benefits associated with my status as a student athlete.”

 

If the only way to pay for the stipend is by raising ticket prices, then so be it. How much would it take? Five dollars per, or even ten? I’ll make you all a deal, if they raise the ticket prices even $20 per ticket at Nebraska, and if anybody turns in their season tickets because of it, I’ll be the first in line to buy them.

 

Some of you have said “what about the schools that can’t afford to pay the players a stipend?” TO FREAKING BAD! I hate parody anyway. I hate scholarship limits; I can’t stand the constant efforts by the powers that be, to make things "FAIR. " After all, that is what all this is about isn’t it? You don’t think it is fair that athletes get a free education AND spending money? Well, wake up and deal with it. That is life. If you could run a 4.3 forty or throw a ball 50 yards and thread the needle between defenders, you would get all the benefits too. I think this is nothing more than jelousy. If you want everything to be fair and equal there are places where the government takes care of that. But last time I checked, in this country we do reward greatness. I wish I could have been a good enough athlete to play at NU, but I don't hold it against the players that can. And I don't think they should have to live like peasants while the Steve Pedersons of the world live high on the hog.

 

As long as people are willing to lay down $60-$75 bucks for a regular ticket to a game, and as long as ESPN, ABC, CBS, FOX, TBS, NBC, etc are willing to shell out hundreds of millions of $$$ to televise, and as long as fans are willing to pay insanely inflated prices for hot dogs, popcorn, and warm beer at a game, and as long as fans are willing to buy t-shirts, jerseys, hats, banners, pennants, and anything else with the team logo on it, then I think the players deserve to benefit from it. I know they get a full ride scholarship. But if the university is already giving them a benefit that is worth anywhere from $30k to $50k a year (or more depending on the university), then what is a few hundred bucks a week more?

 

 

And also, why doesn’t anyone complain about the extra money the coaches make. As if the million dollars a year for base salary wasn’t enough, the coaches rake in the endorsement money and TV money, etc. BC makes big bucks for a weekly interview show, but if a player goes on the same show, he gets nothing. And one last thing…and anyone who knows me had to know this was coming…if they would just fire that worthless piece of crap Coz, they could split his $300,000 among the players.

[Ringer02]

I don't know if this has already been brought up, but they are getting paid. The get to go to collage for free and have national attention. Something very few people get to do. Out of state tuition is nasty the only reason I'm going to be able to go to NU next year is because they won't charge me out of state cause my parents are both alumni.

[California Husker]

I don't know if this has already been brought up, but they are getting paid. The get to go to collage for free and have national attention. Something very few people get to do. Out of state tuition is nasty the only reason I'm going to be able to go to NU next year is because they won't charge me out of state cause my parents are both alumni.

Yes it has been brought up, and I think the point some of us are trying to make is that since football is enough of a money maker that the university is willing to trade an education for the service to the school, then why not throw the players a few more bones in spending money. Just remember, when you start classes, nobody is going to buy a ticket to watch you take a sociology exam.

 

I don't know what non-residence tuition runs at NU, but when I was working on my fist MA out here in Cali, I went to a private school that charged $485 per unit (and that was a while back). I feel that the educational opportunity at NU is worth at least that much (whether they charge that much or not). So, why not up the ante a little and give them a reasonable stipend?

 

And another thing that has not been mentioned, what about walk-ons? Do they get anything for playing at NU, besides the uni? Are they allowed to eat at the training table? I would assume they are, but they certainly don't get their tuition and books covered, and they work just as hard in practice (and some on game day) as scholarship athletes.

 

My solution is to tell the NCAA to screw themselves, get rid of scholarship limits, and let the university pay a reasonable stipend to players. I seem to remember a story of one of the Husker players getting a sandwich on a plane ride (I can't remember if he was flying to get medical treatment or what), and later had to reimburse someone for the sandwich because it was considered "benefiting from his status as an athlete." That kind of stuff is just stupid! The idiocy and hipocracy needs to be taken out of the rules. Nobody is saying that we should make them millionares, just make it so they don't bolt to the NFL because they can't even afford to go to Applebee's for dinner.

[mahoney]

First, I want to say I am against the idea (see my above post).

 

Now, I would like to know where all this money that we are going to pay all of these little Terrell Owens' is going to be coming from.

 

Do you think that there is so much money left in the universities budgets that they can just start handing money out? If there was all kinds of spare money just laying around, then don't you think NU would not have had to suffer through an $80million cut? Does anyone remember these vertical cuts that the chancellor had to make back in 2003? I know for a fact that NU has attracted some quality math students due to a hiring of a great mind in algebra. I believe he defected from Purdue to come here because his wife wanted to study some disipline that N offered but Purdue did not. With great young students coming to Nebraska that means more research is done here and more notarity and more money from the people who graduate from here because they are now rich etc etc....

Now let's back up here and instead of cutting $80mil let's cut $100 mil so the players can get "theirs." Here comes a vertical cut to the math department (it really doesn't matter what dept gets cut because there is someone on this board that believes that dept x should not be cut for any reason). NU loses credibility in that dept. With the cross-discipline of academics, we attract less quality for the CS dept (again doesn't matter what dept) and then our computer program goes to pot. The cycle continues until the university is a laughing stock.

 

Oh wait, the money we are going to be paying these Eli Mannings does not come from the general fund so we wouldn't be cutting any academics, right?

 

OK so where is this huge stockpile of money sitting? Oh it is being spent on supporting other sports. Since the other sports operate in the red they should be dropped. News flash there are only two sports at dear ol' Nebraska U that operate in the black. One is football the other is women's volleyball.

 

So then should the volleyball players get paid?

 

So there's the great idea, we'll cut Nebraska to a two sport school.

BRILLIANT! (picture Guiness beer commercial, that's how I said it)

 

Oh no you say, I am taking this way too far we only want to pay them just a little bit. Maybe that can come out of the pocket of the coaches.

 

BRILIANT!

Any coach worth a crap goes to the NFL.

 

BC is not getting paid that much from the university as far as I remember. I thought his contract was for over a million or two but most of that came from TV and radio. I thought that what he actually got from Nebraska was $300k. I could be wrong on that though (feel free to correct me on this).

 

OK so let's not take it from the coaches, let's take it from Harvey himself. Bad idea, hopefully you see why if not go back to school as I am getting tired of typing.

 

Back to the original problem where is the money coming from?

Well if you don't give them that much it wouldn't be hard to find it somewhere right?

 

They do get a monthly stipend. They do get paid for living expenses. I don't know how much they get now but when was the last time you saw any of those football players wearing rags?

 

Oh well that is only because they get free clothes from Adidas so that doesn't count right?

 

So let me get this straight:

They get free clothes

a place to stay

monthly stipend

food

free tuition, learning from the finest faculty Nebraska can buy

free one on one tutors

the greatest (up for debate, granted) coaching to further their future

free travel

trips to bowl games

hot chicks

life long bonds

the college life (remember many of these people would not experience this if it weren't for their game)

and this is still not enough?

 

Just think we could have had Reggie Smith playing for us if we would have just paid him enough.....LAME.

 

One of the reasons I watch college sports is because it is about the game. Players play because they love the game. It is true for any college sport.

 

Pro Basketball sucks because it's all about me. I'm gonna get mines. I deserve this, look at me, it's all bi-ness, look at my bling. LAME

 

Pro football there is no loyalty just who's gonna pay me. I want mines. Show me the money. Gimme gimme gimme.

 

Pro womens sand volleyball......... now that's just hot!

 

I'm done now. I'm going to pour myself a nice, big, tall glass of Captain and get drunk. If I happen to post again tonight, I apologize in advance for drunk posting. I'll try to refrain.