I knew, back in the day, that when Bobby Bowden signed the first $1 million contract, things were headed for a change. Some change is good, some regulation is good. It is currently wide open, best I can tell.
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Despite being marinated in cash, however, college football is still technically an amateur sport.
The players on whose backs the multi-billion-dollar industry operates are not financially compensated by the universities for which they play.
They receive scholarships to cover tuition, housing and food, as well as monthly stipends for expenses. Some scholarships are not guaranteed, however, and they all can be revoked for non-athletic reasons. And while healthcare is provided for those enrolled in school, it does not continue after collegiate careers end - even if the injuries sustained on the field linger.
College athletes who violated rules were subject to severe punishment.
In 2010, for instance, five Ohio State football players - including the star quarterback - were suspended and had their names erased from the college record books for trading sport memorabilia for free tattoos at a local Ohio parlour.
It is an imbalance that has struck many college football observers as inherently unfair.
Consider the following reasoning:
"Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate.
"Enormous sums of money flow to seemingly everyone except the student athletes. College presidents, athletic directors, coaches, conference commissioners, and NCAA executives take in six- and seven-figure salaries. Colleges build lavish new facilities. But the student athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing."
Those words were written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in an opinion concurring with a landmark 2021 Supreme Court decision striking down limits on compensation for student athletes.
The million-dollar hustle changing US sport
American student athletes, who previously only received compensation from universities in the form of scholarships, can now earn money for endorsement deals. It is changing campus bank balances and the shape of stateside sport.
www.bbc.com
Despite being marinated in cash, however, college football is still technically an amateur sport.
The players on whose backs the multi-billion-dollar industry operates are not financially compensated by the universities for which they play.
They receive scholarships to cover tuition, housing and food, as well as monthly stipends for expenses. Some scholarships are not guaranteed, however, and they all can be revoked for non-athletic reasons. And while healthcare is provided for those enrolled in school, it does not continue after collegiate careers end - even if the injuries sustained on the field linger.
College athletes who violated rules were subject to severe punishment.
In 2010, for instance, five Ohio State football players - including the star quarterback - were suspended and had their names erased from the college record books for trading sport memorabilia for free tattoos at a local Ohio parlour.
It is an imbalance that has struck many college football observers as inherently unfair.
Consider the following reasoning:
"Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate.
"Enormous sums of money flow to seemingly everyone except the student athletes. College presidents, athletic directors, coaches, conference commissioners, and NCAA executives take in six- and seven-figure salaries. Colleges build lavish new facilities. But the student athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing."
Those words were written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in an opinion concurring with a landmark 2021 Supreme Court decision striking down limits on compensation for student athletes.
