Whitlock v. Gladwell: The Future of College Football

I know this topic has been discussed ad nauseum in recent years on this site, but one thing I think people forget is that on top of the actual tuition, a college degree is worth on average about $900k over the course of a career. 

When you factor this in with covering the cost of four years of tuition, room and board, food, books, coaching, training, and exposure, the argument that college players aren't compensated enough seems pretty ridiculous.

I know this has been discussed ad naseum on this board and the world as far as I know. I think outright paying players is an extremely dangerous slope. However I'd be all for some kind of "Likeness trust" . Something like 30-50 percent of jerseys sales, videogame likeness, and any other marketing they can come up with. This can only be collected if they graduate and keep their nose clean.  I feel like the ones that leave early for the draft probably wouldnt need it. lol

      Aside from that a fund that all schools pay into collectively for any serious life altering injuries occuring on the field.

I'm tired of people saying they don't make money, they do. I can show you how much I pay in student loans and tell you exactly how much they make. That's not even counting getting free room and board, meals, and clothing from the university. I worked in a conference compliance office as an intern and can tell you that any student athlete that complains about not having money doesn't know what it's like to be a normal student.

Like other posters above, I agree that the safety of the players is the most important issue. These kids choose to play a game, but that doesn't mean that they choose to get hurt or suffer from lingering effects(sp?). I do however also think that you can't pay these kids anymore than what they are already receiving by earning a college scholarship. All it does is raise more questions rather than answer them. If some kids don't appreciate their scholarships as enough payment, my guess is that you could find some other kids to play the sports they love for free college and no other additional payment. I will now get off of my soap box.

of course whitlock invokes the "right to act dumb."  he does it all the time.  buh dum bum!

I think that the fact college players at the major D1 level are not paid significantly lacks significantly in what justification.  I think it would be good to ask some of the players currently in the UFL if they feel they were doing better while in school or now while making a base of $35,000 which is probably around where the average AAA baseball player is paid.  

I wonder this as I keep running into Maurice Clarett and a few of the players for the Omaha Nighthawks at the gym I go to, and I would be willing to wager that players like Jeremiah Masoli, Noel Devine would enjoy returning to play in front of larger crowds....with another opportunity to make the NFL vs. hoping for a potential slot on a practice squad being paid like a recent college grad in a low level position.

Those players have a risk/reward opportunity that can put them into the top 1-5% of income earners in the US without having to go into significant debt for the extended schooling it would take the rest of us to potentially earn a small percentage of that.  

"They could say, “We’re going to share this wealth with you as long as you go to class and make a sincere attempt to educate yourself and work toward a degree while you’re here.”" - from the article

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure that this is more or less how a "scholarship" works - the school or athletic department (if you are at a school where the department is self-sustaining) or a combination of both essentially are "sharing the wealth" (through various streams of operating revenue, donations, etc...) and compensating student-athletes with a paid education with the expectation of a nominal level of academic performance. Sounds almost like a job in a sense actually.

As for the question of forming partnerships with the professional leagues, I really don't know what sort of cooperation you would get, especially financially. Football might not have much of an excuse in that department, but if I remember correctly, about 2/3 of NBA teams either break even or run at a loss. I don't see that league in particular very open to forming the sorts of partnerships he would seem to suggest.

We should also look at this from an administrative standpoint too - for the sake of discussion, say the student-athletes at a university were essentially made salaried employees of that school. Now, how is the market rate for their position determined so we can start the salary discussion? Are they full-time staff? There's an extra layer of administration right there, especially if you were to offer the same benefits and incentives to them as you would to other employees. Sure, living inside this structure would be a form of practical work experience, but how many schools would be able to sustain such a model?

I guess that, even if you wanted to start this discussion, you can't just say "share the wealth". Somebody would have to run and monitor this beast, and I can't think of very many insitutions that would want to take on the burden. In any case, if Whitlock is simply suggesting giving student-athletes some set amount per year, I still don't think it would match the value - short and long-term - of what they get simply by having the scholarship, getting the education and having a career, whether it is in the pros or in the corporate world.

I understand that players take on substantial physical risk simply by playing the sport, but it doesn't seem like anyone who says that they should be paid ever has a terribly specific business proposal.

Hockey, soccer (headers), lacrosse, auto racing, baseball (wild pitches), basketball (elbows for peace), diving, gymnastics, etc,

Ban it all. I know in America we need to get more people overweight. That surely will help kids. We need more fast food and less sports. Heart failures and early death is way too cool; pause not!

http://cobbloviate.com/2007/11/

Cobb is a professor of history at UGA

I had thought that maybe Malcolm Gladwell was going to use Jason Whitlock to demonstrate what happens when football players get hit in the head too many times.

I still don't have any idea how these things equate:

Major college football is too big, too expensive, too dangerous and too far removed from the real mission of universities... So, let's pay the college football players...

You lost me at Jason Whitlock.  He makes Drew Sharp look like a professional.  Nevermind, they're both equal assholes.

Who is making all this money?  There aren't many schools that operate in the black every year anyways, so the idea is ridiculous.  The only way to do it would be to create further division by creating essentially a minor league football conference for the schools that can afford to pay big bucks(...which would not include schoosl like UVA or FSU btw amongst others).  Someone should ask the scholarship players on non revenue sports who attend school because of the football money (and bball) if they think players should be paid in place of them receiving a scholarship? or their sport receiving funding.