College Football Players Need To Be Paid

Total College football revenue from the 2011-2012 season.

1. Texas - $103,813,684 MILLION
2. Michigan - $85,209,247 MILLION
3. Alabama - $81,993,762 MILLION
4. Georgia - $74,989,418 MILLION
5. Florida - $74,117,435 MILLION

Alabama's total Athletic revenues for 2013 totaled $143 MILLION, probably around $100 MILLION from its football program. That $143 MILLION revenue total exceeded ALL 30 NHL teams and 25 of the 30 NBA teams. Do they pay their players? 

They are given a free education, that is their salary.

Are these universities really taking a blow by handing out full scholarships to these athletes? The football team this athlete is on just raised your university $70+ Million dollars in one year but you are doing them a favor by letting them learn in your classrooms?

Education and a degree are the most important things these players will take away from going to these universities.

Many of these universities are treating football players like idiots. The University of North Carolina has been involved in a scandal concerning their players not learning a thing while at school. Counselors would pre determine classes for football players to attend, not allowing young men to pick their own schedules. They would be brainless classes created for football players.

Players had some classes on their schedules that they were told they did not have to attend and they would receive an A. They received ridiculous degrees that were useless in the real world and are having to go back to college to learn something. Do you think this is the only university exploiting players like this to have a good football team? This amazing education is the reason football players cannot be paid? 

The snowball effect from a successful football university:

STUDENT ENROLLMENT - Would Texas, Alabama, Oregon, USC, UF, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, etc, etc, etc really be anywhere near this gigantic if they did not have college football? You do not see many of these football powerhouses in the top 50 list of best colleges in the U.S. so why are their student bodies 50,000+? How do they easily fill their 75,000+ capacity stadium if most of the student body are not football fans?

What does massive enrollment mean for a university? The 2013 average tuiton for in-state students at public universities was about $9,000 per year. How much money would a school earn with 50,000 students paying $9,000 in just tution per year. $450,000,000 MILLION. Imagine how much if you added out of state students who averaged about $22,000 per year in tuition.

ALUMNI CONTRIBUTIONS - Aside from the tens of millions of dollars being raked in by the athletic department because of the football team, how much money is raised by alumni because of the football program? Previous football players or just diehard college football fans. 

Boon Pickens donated $165 MILLION dollars toward the rennovation of Oklahoma State's football stadium, not library, or swimming pool, football.

So who really knows the real figure that college football programs contribute to their universities but there is no doubt that it far exceeds those astronimical figures at the top of the page. 

Athletes really do go without meals:

Before Shabazz Napier opened the eyes of ignorant people across the country, scholarship athletes were only allowed 2 meals per day as part of their scholarship. During the 2013 NCAA tournament Napier took an interview to share his experience at UCONN saying there were days he didn't have enough money to eat and would miss meals. Since Napier's confession, scholarship athletes now have unlimited meals. 

NFL Hall of Famer Chris Carter said the only way he could eat a meal with his mom after a college football game was if she prepared a meal at home, brought it to the game, and they would eat it together in his dorm. They did not have any money to eat anywhere else. 

This is the gift universities are giving to scholarship athletes?

Solution:

I do not think they should be paid like professionals. There are around 100 football players on each college football team and around 85 of them are on scholarship. 

They should be given compensation anytime they are on campus because of football activities. They could be paid bi-weekly like a normal job. Just enough for gas if they have a car, a meal at a restaurant every once in a while, some new clothes for school. It could be a University debit card that is only accepted at certain businesses so abuse of the money would be low. They could do $500 every two weeks for every player on the team. How much money is that?

If the team had 100 players, every player made $1,000 per month, if they paid them for 12 months, it would cost the University $1.2 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR. Think Nick Saban could spare $1.2 MILLION out of his $7 MILLION dollar salary to pay his entire team?!

PAY THE KIDS!