If a player sits for a bowl game for draft reasons, he should have to repay tuition.

[93hawkeye]

college football players also get private training from highly paid experts. Add up the salaries of the football coaches, training staff, etc and let's say its 10 million per year. Divide that amongst 100-ish players and you get $100,000/year the players "benefit"

 

[Johnsoda123]

Nope. D1 Olympic sport recently graduated, but ok.

Curling?

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

college football players also get private training from highly paid experts. Add up the salaries of the football coaches, training staff, etc and let's say its 10 million per year. Divide that amongst 100-ish players and you get $100,000/year the players "benefit"

This is rich. The coaches' salaries are inflated because the schools don't have to pay the athletes. Now you're using that fact to advance the argument that the players shouldn't get paid.

 

[Gonzo Bloor]

college football players also get private training from highly paid experts. Add up the salaries of the football coaches, training staff, etc and let's say its 10 million per year. Divide that amongst 100-ish players and you get $100,000/year the players "benefit"

So how much do kids on academic scholarships "benefit" from all the teaching and advising they get from faculty? I'm guessing the same policy would apply to them? If an academic scholarship kid leaves school mid-year to launch a start-up or transfer, do you add up the salaries of all the administrators, faculty, advisors, admissions, financial aid counselors, support staff, etc., to arrive at the additional dollar figure they've "benefited" and thus owe? What about overhead? The lights at Van Allen aren't going to pay for themselves. Would you take all the overhead costs at the 4-5 buildings where the academic scholarship kid had classes the year he/she left early and divide that total by the total number of kids who had classes in there on the year to get to that individualized "benefit" that academic scholarship kid also owes?

 

[David1979]

Bowl games are becoming completely irrelevant with the playoff. I think they should expand the playoffs and just eliminate bowl games but give all teams x many practices in the winter. What is the point of Iowa playing BC in NYC or ISU playing Memphis? They are simply glorified exhibition games.

 

[speed4power]

This is rich. The coaches' salaries are inflated because the schools don't have to pay the athletes. Now you're using that fact to advance the argument that the players shouldn't get paid.

Honest question. If college football players at major FBS schools are so underpaid like you say, why don't they just break off from the NCAA/Universities and form their own league?

The answer in my opinion is two reasons. First, there isn't a significant market for what would be the equivalent of "minor league football." The Universities draw the fans, not the individual athletes. People go to cheer on their college. Second, the NCAA/universities put the necessary infrastructure in place for all this to be possible. The athletes would be nothing without the universities. Sure, they could maybeee form some sort of minor league and get paid $20K a year to play. But that is less than the value they are receiving at universities. Right now they are receiving $200K+ in value over 4 years + elite coaching + nice facilities and much more, regardless of whether they end up being good or a complete bust.

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

Honest question. If college football players at major FBS schools are so underpaid like you say, why don't they just break off from the NCAA/Universities and form their own league?

The answer in my opinion is two reasons. First, there isn't a significant market for what would be the equivalent of "minor league football." The Universities draw the fans, not the individual athletes. People go to cheer on their college. Second, the NCAA/universities put the necessary infrastructure in place for all this to be possible. The athletes would be nothing without the universities. Sure, they could maybeee form some sort of minor league and get paid $20K a year to play. But that is less than the value they are receiving at universities. Right now they are receiving $200K+ in value over 4 years + elite coaching + nice facilities and much more, regardless of whether they end up being good or a complete bust.

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

There is no viable alternative league for the players to play in. You are correct that fans cheer on their schools - each school has their own brand name. But that doesn't mean the players are worthless. Same thing applies in the NFL. The players need the schools/NFL teams and the schools/NFL teams need the players. If Alabama sucked at football (i.e., didn't have talented players) then they wouldn't generate nearly as much revenue as they do.

A simple question for you - if college football players aren't underpaid, then why do we even need a rule capping their benefits? The simple answer is that without rules limiting their benefits, they would receive much higher compensation.

It's laughable that anyone thinks these athletes aren't underpaid, and furthermore, it's illogical to care about setting a cap on the benefits athletes can receive if you think their current benefits are already equal to what they'd receive at fair market value. In this case, the current cap would have zero impact. This would be akin to arguing for setting a cap to coaches' salaries at $1 billion per year - under the current system, no coach makes that much, so implementing a rule to cap their salaries at $1 billion would be entirely unnecessary.

If you argue for keeping rules capping athletes' compensation, you're already conceding the fact that the athletes are underpaid relative to fair market value.

 

[hawkedoff]

Well there is thr whole antitrust thing. You sure you want to go down that path on trting to establish frer market valuation on player compensation?