Paying Players

[CycloneErik]

Paragraphs are a nice way to make a point. Sometimes even making several short ones when you change points. That's a difficult post even for a professional reader to follow.

Basically, their demands are difficult, that's why they're called demands. At the same time, every student on campus faces demands, choices in priorities between family, friends, work and school.

I've been sympathetic to the idea of paying athletes before, but it looks worse and worse the more I look at it. Sure, it's a FT job, but everything is paid for. Unless you're going to make these accommodations for other students, paying athletes isn't going to work.

 

[cyinne]

Here is an article from today written by Joe Paterno's son Jay. Jay is the qb coach for his pops. Pretty interesting read about how athletes that get scholarships are already so far ahead of those that are just regular students.

Student athletes should be given facts like these when they sign on the dotted line for their "free ride."

State College, PA - Jay Paterno: Pay Student-Athletes? They're Already Getting a Great Deal

 

[kingcy]

It seems they have plenty of money get get tattoos and video games. What ohter extras are they getting with the money the get now. I remember a pic of Stinsons and WB's apt and they had a huge TV in it. If you give them more money what are they going to blow it on, because they wont save it. When you are in college there is only so much money you need.

Dont forget many of these athletes also get a leg up once they enter the job market as well. With their free college, free room, free food, under the table money and gifts, free clothes and free tutors they are not getting a raw deal.

 

[Tre4ISU]

We already give them a stipend. I fairly decent sized one at that. It's enough to live off of when you are forced to pay for exactly nothing. The system is just fine the way it is. It just needs more enforcement. I don't really blame the NCAA for that. They can't afford to hire people to make sure every athlete is on the up and up. This falls on the coaches and administration.

 

[Tre4ISU]

Also, I know at least a few of our players hold jobs this summer. I thought it was nice to hear.

 

[Tre4ISU]

You really dont know what it is like to be be a Division 1 athlete. First of all, all athletes do not qualify for Pell Grants. As far as working, I know first hand of players with summer jobs working 30-40 hrs/wk and alot of times into the evening To 10-11 o'clock and weekends. Now do you get up at five in the morning to lift weights and work out to be followed by a rushed breakfast and then to class,followed by afternoon volunteer work and study time, and time spent during the week for passing league and running. They are required to be on campus. They have one week after classes end in spring to come home and another at the end of July before starting preseason camp. As far as working in the fall they cant. They carry a full caseload and + for many with the same early morning lift schedule and meetings/pracitice/treatment etc. starting at approx. 1:30PM and extending into the evening followed by supper and then study with some sleep and start all over. Dont forget the time for travel and missed work that they also have to make up. THIS IS A FULL TIME JOB PLUS SCHOOL. THEY DESERVE WHAT THEY WORK SO HARD FOR. Not saying that they should be paid but money is tight if no grants. Now does is sound like you could handle this job with its physical demands on top of all this. Dont criticize unless you have been in their shoes!!

There's some issues with this post. I understand the commitment, I really do. The problem is that there are students who do that and still have to pay for college. Most also don't carry a full classload. I don't want to degrade players or anything but when I watch a football game and they show majors, it's not even close to average, plus most will take pretty light loads in terms of credits because they can spread it out. Don't forget, they all choose to do this as well.

I laud the schedule athletes put themselves through but don't give me the "They're getting a raw deal" argument. An out of state player will have a scholarship valued around, what, 35K? I haven't checked lately on tuition and housing. Then you through books on that plus your meals and it's not hard to get to 40K. Then you have a stipend. I have no idea what those are in terms of value but Jay Paterno mentioned 10K. It's likely less at ISU. There are very few jobs in and around Ames that a college kid could make that money at. Very few. Athletes are just fine.

 

[SCNCY]

While I will say that I do not agree with playing players because they are getting there tuition, housing, food, and academic help all for free. I will say that this is something that could help ISU more than a school like Texas. As long as every school can pay the same amount, ISU will benefit from this due to the cost of living. The cost of living in Iowa is lower than a lot of the United States. Therefore players who come to ISU will get to pocket more than someone who goes to school at Michigan, OSU, Florida.

 

[CyDude16]

You really dont know what it is like to be be a Division 1 athlete. First of all, all athletes do not qualify for Pell Grants. As far as working, I know first hand of players with summer jobs working 30-40 hrs/wk and alot of times into the evening To 10-11 o'clock and weekends. Now do you get up at five in the morning to lift weights and work out to be followed by a rushed breakfast and then to class,followed by afternoon volunteer work and study time, and time spent during the week for passing league and running. They are required to be on campus. They have one week after classes end in spring to come home and another at the end of July before starting preseason camp. As far as working in the fall they cant. They carry a full caseload and + for many with the same early morning lift schedule and meetings/pracitice/treatment etc. starting at approx. 1:30PM and extending into the evening followed by supper and then study with some sleep and start all over. Dont forget the time for travel and missed work that they also have to make up. THIS IS A FULL TIME JOB PLUS SCHOOL. THEY DESERVE WHAT THEY WORK SO HARD FOR. Not saying that they should be paid but money is tight if no grants. Now does is sound like you could handle this job with its physical demands on top of all this. Dont criticize unless you have been in their shoes!!

So which athlete is this?

Let me know when the worlds smallest violin stops playing.

 

[cycoOJfan89]

Pay them... it's pretty easy to see that multiple interests make millions from their play! Maybe not at ISU but elsewhere. Pay them, tuition is not enough for their exploits

 

[kilroy]

Just putting my change in the bucket.

Dumb, dont pay them. They already get paid, full ride scholarship, thats like 20k a year, plus the education if they stay. Start a minor league system if you must but no pay for college.

Whats next, paying students to go to class?

 

[CyDude16]

No college tuition debt when they graduate
Don't pay for books
STIPENDS
Room and Board
Meal Plans
Academic help that is free i.e. tutor, academic success center services
Clothes
Easier class loads, sad but true for a majority of athletes, not all.

Pretty sure thats quite the rate of return for the commitment they make year round.

But no thats unfair, the athletes need to be paid!!! :skeptical:

 

[IcSyU]

Pay them... it's pretty easy to see that multiple interests make millions from their play! Maybe not at ISU but elsewhere. Pay them, tuition is not enough for their exploits

It isn't just tuition.

Room and board.
Food.
Clothes.
Stipend.
Books.
Free tutors.

Heck, if most of them got a real degree in something useful they'd really have it made.

I make about $30,000 per month (give or take) in revenue for my employer. I don't get anything CLOSE to that in salary. Athletes, welcome to the real world.

STIPENS

There's a 'd' in there after the 'n' there, skip. :wink:

Honest question: How many people on this board had the money to buy whatever they wanted in college? How many of you actually worked if you wanted to buy something? How many of you had loans if you wanted something?

I don't feel a bit of sympathy for athletes. You get paid to lift weights, watch video, practice, rarely get a degree that will get you anywhere, and come out of school with zero debt all while having your living expenses covered (within reason). The average student at Iowa State takes a full class load, earns some kind of degree, and walks out with $30,000+ in debt, and has to pay for their food, clothes, housing, tuition, books, etc.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Fourteen years ago, the maximum Pell Grant award was $2700 per year and the average award was $1700. It's never been higher than it is right now ($5500 per year max).

I just passed on what I was told. Maybe there was some other aid included in that $4500 figure. All I know is what I was told by the boyfriend, which was that she received over $18k in aid that went straight into her pocket and had zero for expenses.

Even if it had been half that amount, I know I could have lived pretty well on $9k a year if I had no expenses when I was in college.

 

[Tre4ISU]

Pay them... it's pretty easy to see that multiple interests make millions from their play! Maybe not at ISU but elsewhere. Pay them, tuition is not enough for their exploits

So how long until people see that we already do pay them? They don't pay for a single frickin thing they need. All they have to pay for are the extras. According to the following, ISU is right around $5000 a semester paid as a stipend. That includes your housing payment though, I would guess. I lived in probably one of the most expensive places in Ames (Cyclone Plaza) and it cost me less than 6K per year. So, using that, then there's $4000 extra. I don't know if all that is correct but if the money is simply managed a little, it should be plenty.

CFB Explainer: How do scholarships and stipends work, again? - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF Blog - Yahoo! Sports

 

[IcSyU]

So how long until people see that we already do pay them? They don't pay for a single frickin thing they need. All they have to pay for are the extras. According to the following, ISU is right around $5000 a semester paid as a stipend. That includes your housing payment though, I would guess. I lived in probably one of the most expensive places in Ames (Cyclone Plaza) and it cost me less than 6K per year. So, using that, then there's $4000 extra. I don't know if all that is correct but if the money is simply managed a little, it should be plenty.

CFB Explainer: How do scholarships and stipends work, again? - Dr. Saturday - NCAAF*Blog - Yahoo! Sports

Knowing a few athletes, it's a little bit more than that right now. I have a really expensive apartment ($1,200ish after rent + utilities + DTV for 2 of us) and that'd still leave me with $240ish extra per month. That's a ton of money when you don't need to buy clothes nor do you really need to buy food. Throw in the fact that the majority of the athletes don't live in apartments that expensive, and they have a ton of extra money. A bunch of the football players live in West Ames in 4 bedroom apartments that are $1,200/month + utilities, basically leaving them clearing about $500/month.

 

[Skyh13]

This along with Title 9 shoot a huge hole in paying College athletes.

Bingo. And honestly, that's a good thing.

I was watching Chicago Tribune Live the other day, and as much as I disagree with him and think that most of the time he's a complete idiot, David Kaplan made some GREAT points about paying players.

First thing he said was, "Okay, what about female athletes? Then they should get paid, too."

And the other sports writers were arguing "No, that's impossible", "the schools couldn't pay for it", etc etc. They tried to argue that men's basketball and football bring in money, so they should be the one's being paid. And Kaplan says "What about the UConn women?"

If you're going to start paying players, it's gotta be fair. The athletes for sports outside of men's basketball and football work very hard, too, and just because it isn't a billion dollar industry doesn't mean they should be ignored. These are still Universities, right? Not Pro sports?

This is aside from the fact that, again I agreed with Kaplan, paying players wouldn't solve a **** thing. It isn't going to stop boosters from trying to pay players even MORE to play for a school, and isn't necessarily going to stop a player from trying to get extra money by selling autographs or something. IMO, people who think paying players will alleviate these problems are just fooling themselves.

 

[CyJack13]

Every pay the players proposal I've seen so far calls for equal pay for all football players. Can anyone give me a reason why the fifth string tight end deserves as much as the starting QB? If you come to college and under perform and are a backup your whole career, why the hell should you get any extra money? Shouldn't you be paying money back to the school?

 

[flycy]

You really dont know what it is like to be be a Division 1 athlete. First of all, all athletes do not qualify for Pell Grants. As far as working, I know first hand of players with summer jobs working 30-40 hrs/wk and alot of times into the evening To 10-11 o'clock and weekends. Now do you get up at five in the morning to lift weights and work out to be followed by a rushed breakfast and then to class,followed by afternoon volunteer work and study time, and time spent during the week for passing league and running. They are required to be on campus. They have one week after classes end in spring to come home and another at the end of July before starting preseason camp. As far as working in the fall they cant. They carry a full caseload and + for many with the same early morning lift schedule and meetings/pracitice/treatment etc. starting at approx. 1:30PM and extending into the evening followed by supper and then study with some sleep and start all over. Dont forget the time for travel and missed work that they also have to make up. THIS IS A FULL TIME JOB PLUS SCHOOL. THEY DESERVE WHAT THEY WORK SO HARD FOR. Not saying that they should be paid but money is tight if no grants. Now does is sound like you could handle this job with its physical demands on top of all this. Dont criticize unless you have been in their shoes!!

They already get everything they need. Tuition, room & board. I'm not concerned about 'spending money'. I did not have spending money when I went to school because all my money went to the things they already have paid for. I also did not recieve pell grants and did not get money from home I know what it is like for money to be tight. These are amateurs, they should not be paid in any way. If you don't want to play for love of the game, you should not be playing. Yes I recognize that they cannot work most of the year, but recognize that the compensation they already receive exceeds what they would be able to make working the same hours. Most of the talking heads advocating this are former college Div 1 atheletes so no surprise what their opinions are. If players are paid, I'm done with college sports, just like I have no interest in the olympics since paid atheletes were allowed in.

 

[temperflare]

I wish those of you who are proponents of paying players were equally as passionate about the pay for enlisted men and women in the military. They only defend this country at a fraction of the pay and compensation that these "hard working" athletes get. And considering their lives are on the line... I'd say student athletes are welcome to shut up.

I don't see anyone going to bat for those students in research who come up with innovative ideas and technology that become intellectual property of the universities and the universities make millions as a result of those students' efforts. You don't see or hear those kids ******** and whining about not being compensated enough.

I feel no sympathy for student athletes.

 

[FootballinTexas]

Once again, I'm not advocating paying players. However, if the ATHLETIC department wants to give an additional stipend during the season I'm ok with it. You do understand that the Athletic department's budget is separate from the university's general fund. So, the money paid out for their tuition, books, housing, meals is money that the players have generated from playing their sport, tv revenue, apparel, ticket revenue, etc. BTW, that money is paid to the university and it benefits non-student athletes like you. Believe me, these kids pay for their college experience. Maybe it's not what you had to do and they come out of it debt free, but they do pay for their education.

Now, if you don't like what they get and how it's handled, stop supporting athletics or just petition to have athletics removed from the university. I will tell you this, without athletics, you would be in much greater debt because cost of tuition would be much higher. The 2011 projected athletic department payment to the university for scholarships, facilities, utilities, meals, etc is $16.7 million. If athletics were dropped, ISU would have to increase your costs to make that up. So, don't ***** about paying an increased ticket costs or players getting a little extra. That's far less than what your debt increase would be. Or.........just quit supporting athletics!