There have been a lot of articles, ideas, and debates going on about whether or not CFB Players should be paid (more). T. Pryor’s side business of selling jerseys sparked some of this, as some said ‘heck, why shouldn’t he be rewarded for his play?’

To those folks, I say: He already is. In spades.

The average college tuition is $8,000 per year. So, players are currently ‘earning’ $32,000, assuming they stay for 4 years. The return on that investment, is much, much higher than $32,000 – college grads are much more likely to find employment, and they are likely to earn more, than non-grads. So it’s not just about the current ‘pay’ – these athletes also get set up to be much better off down the road (assuming they actually study/learn something and then go out and pursue a career. This is hardly guaranteed, but the opportunity is there should they decide to take advantage of it).

With such a small fraction of players going pro, the incentive should be to graduate and maximize the free ride they’re getting. And since better schools are more expensive, players should be knocking down the doors of the better schools.

Think about this: ND will cost a student ~$200,000 over four years. That means ND players are ‘earning’ more than 6X the average. SCORE! Plus, ND players are set up with a Top 10 ROI on that investment. ND ranks #9 with a 30 Year ROI of $1.38M and the football players don’t pay for the degree. So they get the opportunity for a ton of benefit with very little up-front investment. That’s huge.

(Side note: This should be a huge factor for current recruits/players. A player will ‘earn’ so much more by going to a good school. ND, Stanford and the like are much more expensive so you’re getting ‘paid’ a lot more to attend, and the post-school benefits are much, much greater. Note that only two schools other than ND – Stanford at #6 and Cal at #16 – play relatively big time college football.)

So now we know that players are getting a ton of value (if exploited) in the free education. Let’s pretend like we don’t care about that. like we’re from the SEC. Graduation doesn’t matter. It’s just not important. Okay then, players also get paid in a ton of other ways:

1) Free gear

2) Free training and healthcare

3) Free tutoring and academic help

4) Free trips all around the country/region 6-8 times per year

5) Relative fame and an extreme edge in the dating game

6) TV exposure

7) Huge stage/multi-year interview for a potential employer that can make them millions

8.) Bowl Game Schwag

9) Amazing networking opportunities that the average student simply cannot replicate

10) They get to play a game that millions upon millions of others would give almost anything to play

As it stands, college football players get a ton of compensation. Tossing them a few hundred bucks a year is a pittance compared to what they’re already getting, and student loans are available to those that need a few bucks for day to day stuff.

I’m not sure that we can quantify exactly how much players ‘earn’ today. I’m also not sure that we can accurately assess how fair that is vis a vis the dollars they help bring in. (It also gets really messy when you start trying to assign value to individuals vs an average – how much more is a starting QB ‘worth’ than a second string CB?) But to me it’s pretty clear that players get a ton of value/compensation today. Unless we collectively want just another NFL (I Don’t), paying players just doesn’t make sense. And it’s simply not needed. Today, kids are doing all they can to get into good college programs. Granted, they don’t have many alternatives. But clearly they see a lot of value in playing ball under the current system. This is why we see more and more talent, and landing top scholarships is getting harder and harder: kids want in, and the competition gets tougher.

It’s also pretty clear that there is much more value to be had by going to a better school. Granted, there will also be more work there, but I’d love for this line of thinking to get more play in the recruiting game. “Come to ND, we’ll give you $200K of value, while others will only give you $32K”.

Finally, some folks would suggest that we can’t simply pay players directly, but we should let them earn their market value on the side (e.g. through jersey sales and the like) through an Olympic-like model. It’s the most interesting solve I’ve heard, but it falls apart pretty quickly and results in direct-pay one way or another. Boosters would start to pay outrageous sums for signed pictures, multiple times per year, to spread the word that “Coming to School X = More $’s for your signature” and it just becomes a straight up pay-to-play scheme in short order. Because of this, I still say no way.

Net-net, being a college football player is a great deal for the kids. They get a ton of once-in-a-lifetime type experiences, and they get a lot of other things that other students will never get. They also get a degree (we’re no longer pretending we’re in the SEC) and all the benefits that go along with that. Oh, and they get it all while not paying to attend college in the first place.

Doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. What say you, Her Loyal Readers? Pay ’em? No way?

Note: This topic was being debated in 1987.

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