Q: With college football in full swing and college basketball getting ready to start up, what do you think about compensating college athletes in some way? With all the scandals and violations, it seems like something needs to change.
Kelvin Smith -- Nanos, Florida
Dan Patrick: I feel pretty strongly that there should be a stipend of some sort if you are in any of the big revenue-producing sports. If you play basketball at Duke or football at Florida State, you are an entertainer as much as an athlete. The time demands alone indicate that you are providing a very important service to the university that ought to be recognized. I do not recommend anything exorbitant. But definitely more than they get now.
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| Michael Bennett (above) and some of his Badger teammates were suspended by the NCAA. Would paying players lead to fewer infractions? |
I can hear the complaints already: They get an education! That is priceless!
Fine. I would be the first one to assign a significant value to an education. I just happen to think that student-athletes in the big sports at the big schools deserve more. Because when the school capitalizes on the athletes via merchandise, ticket sales, tournament and bowl fees and huge TV deals, the athletes deserve to share in the proceeds. Duke sold Grant Hill jerseys when he starred there. Same with the Fab Five at Michigan. You can certainly get a Chamique Holdsclaw jersey in Tennessee. Those athletes do not get a share of the money brought in by that personalized merchandise. But when you buy a Grant Hill Orlando Magic jersey, he does get a piece of it. That is not fair.
Another reason to pay the athletes is that, quite simply, they have full time jobs. They do not have much time to study. They don't have time to work a summer job. It's a year round job to compete at the highest level in Division I sports. The demands and pressures on these kids are so great that monetary compensation seems like an obvious way to address this issue in the fall of 2000.
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Predatory agents would have a harder time luring these kids with jewelry and money if their wallets were just a little bit fatter. ” |
I would also propose that some of the money earmarked for the student athletes be held in escrow and given to them upon graduation. That's a sad commentary on today's college athletes but it would be no-nonsense way of reminding everyone that Duke and Michigan are institutions of learning, not the minor leagues for the NBA or the NFL. And while this sum would not entice a lottery pick to go back to class, it might be enough for the guys who won't make their living as professional athletes.
When I played college basketball, we got $15 per month. It was called "laundry money". I'd say we have to give today's athletes a bit more. I bet fewer and fewer college athletes would need discounts at Dillard's if they had some real money in their pockets. Predatory agents would have a harder time luring these kids with jewelry and money if their wallets were just a little bit fatter. They don't need to get rich but they should be able to live more comfortably by getting a share in the revenue they work so hard to produce.
Times have changed. The whole notion of the "student-athlete" is about at current as The Gipper. These young men and women are "athlete-students". We should treat them that way.
