By: Cedric Robinson Sr.
It’s time to end this idea of amateur college football player and let the athletes share in this billion dollar entertainment industry. Now college football is no longer very different from the NFL. The only different is that college players don’t get paid. But please, please, please don’t tell me that college football players get a free education. The problems with that are so does academic student, band members, cheerleader and numerous athletics from other sports (with the exception of basketball) all get free education, but bring in little to no money for their respective school. College football trails only the NFL for the hearts and minds of the American sport viewers.
I’m certainly not the first to call for players to be paid, but it has been resistance by NCAA administrators and many coaches. The national average for the cost of tuition, room and board at a public university is approximately $14,000 a year. In the BCS conferences, the average coaching salary is $1.5 million and the universities make tens of millions each year. Remember with all the practicing and traveling to games these players go through, a part-time job is out of the question. Also a vast amount of these players come from low income family and are looked at by their family as a way out of that lifestyle. I’m not trying to make these guys rich, but they should be given a respectable amount ($250-$400 weekly). This might be a small amount to some, but is plenty for a college student and could possibly help some of their family.
It’s time to stop using players as cheap labor. It’s time to do right by the players. Colleges are acting like big businesses. The problem is big businesses pay their talent. College sports have been operating for so long that we’ve come to think it makes sense. But it doesn’t. And it’s past time that somebody did something about it.
Let me know what you think.
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