College Football Players Bring In $178,000 A Year For Their Schools
In a finding that is really shocking for a league that is supposed to be “not for profit”–at least according to the head of the NCAA–the average college football player has a fair market value of about $178,000 a year. Considering how much student athletes get for being student athletes, this really makes me wonder if some of that money should go to ensure things, such as student athletes never going hungry. I know you can’t eat a fair market value, but it should at least give the universities ideas of what might be a fair way to compensate their guys, instead of taking advantage of them like a freshman stealing beers from rush week open parties. Surely the NCAA has a good reason to take in this much for each player’s performance while still not considering them employees and occasionally letting them go hungry, right?
That’s the modest number, by the way. Big stars like Johnny Manziel, for example, come in much higher. Manziel was valued at a worth of $547,000 for the 2011-2012 season, which is money that I’m sure Johnny Football would have loved to seen some of, instead of getting attacked by the media for signing a few autographs. It’s perfectly okay for the university to monopolize a player’s image, package him in a certain way, and sell his brand. The second a student athlete does it though? Nope. Fuck you. NCAA sanctions, missed game time, and ESPN talking heads will claim you’re ruining the purity and sanctity of the game.
This news is just the latest in a series of blows to the NCAA’s argument that universities can ask student athletes to dedicate 60-hour weeks to their sports without any further compensation than free tuition and a stipend. I’m not saying they all deserve seven figure contracts and gold-plated everything, but come on. College football is a multi-billion dollar industry, as is college basketball. These kids are asking for the most basic protection so they don’t end up fucked by their schools with no degree and no career prospects because an injury caused their universities to drop their support. These student athletes are not asking for tricked out Cadillacs filled with champagne and strippers–they just don’t want be exploited by their schools.
Logistics of changing the league from what it is aside, something has to give. You can’t have a league that brings in untaxed revenues that would put it on the Fortune 100 if it were a company, while at the same time ban schools from taking a player out to a nice dinner on his visit.
[via NBC Sports]
Image via Getty
This is flat out ignorant
11 years ago at 10:31 ammy sister has gone through the recruiting process for soccer and will be playing for a D1 school. she has had no time in high school between camps, practices, tournaments, and travel to get a job and earn money to save for herself for college. She’s receiving a full ride but has no money to buy anything she may need on a day to day basis like extra clothes, or have any money to go out with her friends. just because her schooling is paid for doesn’t mean she is better off than any other student. i say give the kids a monthly stipend to pay for what they need so that they’re not broke as shit as the school gets rich off of them
11 years ago at 10:36 amI do not believe any school has ever gotten rich because of women’s soccer.
11 years ago at 10:40 amim not saying specifically off of women’s soccer, but if you pay the football and basketball players a stipend you’re gonna HAVE to give other sports money too in the name of equality
11 years ago at 10:41 amEquality can never happen. Look at Europe. Take 5 and study economics and business.
11 years ago at 10:46 amYou’re completely missing his point about Title IX. What you pay one sport (like football) you must also provide to women’s sports (volleyball, soccer, etc.)
11 years ago at 12:02 pmIs the soccer program really turning a profit by its self? Or is it getting revenue from other programs, your tax dollars and soccer boosters.
11 years ago at 10:41 amYour sister is a drain on her school’s AD.
If football players are entitled to a cut of the revenue they generate, shouldn’t your sister be forced to pay the difference – out of her own pocket – for the operating loss absorbed by the AD in running a women’s soccer team?
11 years ago at 11:37 amIf your sister needs to earn $50 here and there you can send her my way.
11 years ago at 2:48 pmIf universities treat programs like business paying kids. What happens to the programs like womens basketball / softball, men’s baseball at smaller schools that don’t profit? Some other non profitable sport programs are funded by the football programs alone. This can easily turn into people getting their Jimmy’s rustled fast.
11 years ago at 10:38 amYou can even apply the same logic to football. If the average college football brings $146k to their school, I’d expect Johnny to be making WAY more than 550k per year. What about the guys playing for Southeasy Wyoming state that nobody gives a fuck about? They’re probably not making the school a penny, should they be paid? What about second stringers on A&M that also nobody has heard about, should they be paid?
11 years ago at 2:42 pmHeadline two days later…”This just in: college athletes everywhere feverishly blowing newly allowed pay on tricked out Cadillacs filled with champagne and strippers. No one surprised at all”.
11 years ago at 10:38 amDroll.
11 years ago at 11:00 amI support NCAA athletes, I was one for a semester. I dont think they should be paid royalties for playing for their school but it is hard to see your team mates go out and win a game and be a hero to come back to home to and empty fridge and not be able to eat. The school should provide them with atleast 1000 a month that can only be spent on food.
11 years ago at 12:17 pmThey get meal plans, and they get fed after those games. I was an athlete for 5 years, and I never went hungry after a competition. Or practice.
11 years ago at 12:28 pmI don’t know how to link shit… lets hope this works
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11 years ago at 12:53 pmTaking my lap…
11 years ago at 12:53 pmThey get free school, food, housing, and a stipend to top it all, just to play a sport…I think everyone should just quit bitching. Especially the fucking players.
11 years ago at 10:40 am“while at the same time ban schools from taking a player out to a nice dinner on his visit”
No offense man, but this is exactly what happens on an official visit. Once they’re enrolled it’s a little different, but the whole “we’re going hungry out there” thing is way overblown. How many times have you seen a huge football or basketball player talking about how hungry he was, yet his arms are covered with elaborate tattoos? Those aren’t free, you know, unless you go to Ohio State. Schools are required by the NCAA to provide SAs with full-time meal plans, so the food is definitely out there, not to mention training table meals, snack bars, and other stuff. I’m not opposed to full cost-of-attendance or maybe some sort of licensing-revenue deal with EA Sports (win for everybody there), or to better insurance against injury, but a bigger deal is being made of this than it really is.
11 years ago at 10:43 amExactly. Players that say they are “hungry” are so full of shit. I know at my school, we have 5 dining halls, one of which is 24/7.
11 years ago at 10:48 amI’m a student athletes and every single semester my school provided meal plan has ran out and I have had to add to it with my own money
11 years ago at 12:55 pmAre you a walk-on? Do you not also eat at the training table?
11 years ago at 1:48 pmI’m a scholarship athlete and the way it works at my school. At least is they give you money for the meal plan that you use at campus dining halls, the amount of money given is not enough to last the entire aemester
11 years ago at 9:50 amPay the kids $10/hr for a 20-40 “work week.” No normal college student is going to be making more than that, and this gives them the money they are passing up by choosing to play their respective sport. Other than that, quit bitching about the free tuition, free room and board, free meal plan, free clothes, free tutoring, etc. that the rest of us normal students don’t get.
11 years ago at 10:47 amI agree with you. As an NROTC student I “only” get free tuition and a small monthly stipend (not enough to live on) that can’t even cover rent, let alone food and other things. Thankfully, NROTC isn’t AS time consuming as sports at the college level so I was able to get a job to cover my expenses. These players complain so much but don’t realize how good they have it right now. I think they should get a paycheck for “work hours” too although I don’t think it should be $10/hr. That’s pretty high to me, maybe start at minimum wage and increase every year.
11 years ago at 10:55 amThen what about this: Athletes keep a portion of their jerseys sales that the school sells, can appear at paid camps and clinics in the offseason, and have a designated period of time in the off-season when they CAN sell their autographs? It’s their name, why can’t they make profit off of it? Not saying they should be given a stipend or salary, but come on give them what they deserve. Not a dime out of the regular student’s pocket. I have a few friends that play Big 10 football that live in dorms on college kids’ budgets, yet still devote 3-5 hours a day to football so that you can get drunk and go to something on Saturdays in the Fall without getting denied at the door for not having a 6:1. Texas A&M generated $37M in media attention in 2012, Johnny was given roughly $44K for his 2 years there (in scholarship money). So, the FACE OF NCAA FOOTBALL got “paid” .001% of money he generated. Regardless, if you hate their “bitching” so much then don’t add to the already absurd numbers by going to the games.
11 years ago at 11:19 amNCAA needs to develop a standard wage for all athletes in all sports, just enough for dinner out, etc. If you pay different athletes more than other’s you’ll see the end of small-market sports and most women’s sports.
11 years ago at 10:54 amI’m all for paying them but can we not forget one thing… They get partially compensated with hordes of slams clawing at one another to fuck the next NFL star. This is why Alex Moran doesn’t ask for extra money from BMS.
11 years ago at 11:11 amMens football and basketball will always supplement the shittier sports, there isn’t any way around it.
11 years ago at 11:11 am