Paying College Athletes?

Paying College Athletes?
May 20, 2011
Another year, another pointless discussion about whether to pay college athletes.

I’m referring to the recent news from Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney that his conference members are considering paying their players more money than they currently receive as part of their scholarship agreements
This kind of talk has been batted about for years.  But it seems to have gained traction recently with the rash of scandals that have hit college football–most of them involving players taking extra benefits of one kind or another.
The idea is that if the kids make more money, maybe they won’t be tempted to take cash from agents, street runners and other unsavory characters.

While the idea is well-meaning, let’s get real:  It’s not going to stop a future first-round pick from cashing in his talents in an under-the-table fashion.  What it’s going to do is give us all a false sense of security that the problem is ‘solved’…at least until the next time a scandal hits.
There are two solutions to this problem, but neither will be undertaken by the NCAA member universities because both just make too much sense.
The first solution is less stick and more carrot.  It would simply allow for high-profile athletes to take out regulated and documented loans from colleges during their amateur years, using their future professional earnings as collateral.  Upon signing their first contract, they would pay back the money to the school.  An independent body could be set up by the NCAA to determine a player’s potential draft status and that would set his loan amount and interest rate.  Kid gets the money, the college gets a decent rate of return and if an injury occurs, the loan can be rescheduled or canceled.  Money problem solved.
The other solution is all stick.  If the NCAA truly believes in maintaining its veneer of amateurism, it must make sure that any infractions are met with truly harsh punishment.  That means that even the APPEARANCE of impropriety should result in major damage to player, coach, administrator and school.  These extra-benefit shenanigans continue because the people involved are convinced they can get away with it…and they usually do.  The NCAA would have to increase its enforcement budget and hire more investigators.  It would require a virtual NCAA police state, but it could be done.

The idea of increasing scholarship money is a moderate tack that will have little effect on the problem at hand.  Schools would be better off withdrawing from the NCAA and setting their own policies.  That’s not going to happen any time soon, so what we’ll continue to see is players getting paid, coaches looking the other way and university eggheads getting all huffy over it.
And, as usual, it will be the fans who suffer through it all, as their schools get put on trial by the knee-jerk media and on probation by a corrupt NCAA.
Too bad.  Hopefully, common sense will one day prevail.
What do you think about this topic? MAKE SOME NOISE!
Chris HustonThe Heisman Pundit