The Bodda Getta

I can't believe it has taken as long as it has for something like this to happen. The NFL and NCAA have quite the arrangement. In order to get to the NFL, a player just about has to go through the NCAA. The NCAA makes billions without having to pay the players market value. The NFL gets a free farm system.

The response from the NCAA is simple. Fine you want a cut of TV dollars. Your are on salary. By the way while you're here you are responsible for your own expenses to be paid by your cut. Student athletes will now pay their own tuition, books, room & board and food. Oh yeah plus that doesn't include tutors, weight room/facilities usage and medical treatments and insurances provided to athletes. This is all now free and essential to these athletes making it to the next level.

During my school time over 10 years ago that cost me over $100,000 for tuition and all other expenses and that was without tutors, weight room and medical treatments and insurances. Not to mention those that stay into grad school. 10 years later I don't know how much that would equal. Oh yeah add-in out of state tuition to half these athletes. Price just went up 50%.

Do that across all sports that are aired on TV; football, basketball, baseball and others (and thus drive TV revenue); and then across all schools that are on TV and see how the math works out. Around 400,000 student athletes on scholarship around the country. Is TV paying all those students way? Event the top three sports; can it pay for event just those?

If anybody believes that these athletes are playing for free they are way wrong. And anyone that feels these schools are making free money they are even more wrong. 9 out of 10 of these student athlete couldn't afford school even with a TV payout. If this is a farm league as suggested in the article; MLB pays minor league players $1,100 per month first year and tops our at $2,500 a month when active in games. (link below) That is an average of what? $10,000 a year if they play from Sept.-Jan. (most don't play to Jan.) How far does that go into tuition? Can players live on that while they are waiting to go up to the NFL or NBA if it was a farm league? I know minor league baseball doesn't have TV money, but they aren't associated with a college whose tuition underwrites sports as a whole and allows the programs to exist with these amenities in the first place.

None of this is a simple as it seems when someone says "Look how much the schools get paid!" Look how much schools give out and pay for.

My education doesn't guarantee me a shot at a million dollar corporate job anymore than an athlete playing collegiate sports guarantees them a shot at a million dollar pro career. I'll be paying for my tuition for another 10 years. If they bet on their sport for a future the way I bet on my major for a future; good for them. We can all fail or succeed just as easily. Most just get paid on the outcome not the chance to try.

20 years ago schools were willing to pay $250,000 plus the $50,000 a year scholarship for a decent defensive lineman (spuat, Michigan State, and I forget who else was in on the bidding). The NCAA does not allow those schools to pay that. I wonder what the market value of a good defensive lineman is today?