Tag Archive: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets


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Over 300 Arizona, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, UCLA, and Purdue football and basketball players have notified the NCAA  that they want some of the pie generated from NCAA DI, school, and conference TV contract revenue.  These student athletes signed a petition informing the NCAA they would appreciate it if the NCAA, “realizes its mission to educate and protect us with integrity” (ESPN, Petition seeks slice of college TV money pg. 1).  Basically the players are asking through this petition that the NCAA forces schools to cover ALL expenses for ALL Division I athletes not covered by scholarships or grants.  Student-Athletes are faced with added expenses to meet needs of academic requirements. Such as tuition, student fees, room and board, campus parking fees, calculators, and other materials such as scan disks.

Ithaca College and the players’ association conducted a research in 2010 that found student-athletes on “full scholarships” actually end up paying $2,951 annually.  That’s terrible! <—–yes that’s sarcasm.  I’m pretty open and will let you know as a former DIII athlete (Beloit College) I owe well over $50k.  Given it costs a little over $42k a year at Beloit.  Yeah, I was given a lot of help as you can tell.  But, to only have to pay approximately $3,000 a year would have been awesome!

The players have issued a solution to cover this, so called, debt.  The NCAA will put aside an undisclosed amount into an “Educational Lock Box”.  What this means is that both the NCAA and college presidents would set aside money gained in TV revenue each year.  When student-athletes would exhaust their NCAA eligibility but not earn their degree yet they would receive an allotment to cover all educational costs.  Or, if they use up their eligibility and graduate they’d simply be handed that allotment of money with no strings attached.

It’s important to keep in mind that college athletes are amateurs, not professionals.  Which shouldn’t be hard to do with the Miami Hurricanes and Ohio State Buckeye scandals being investigated and all over the news recently.  Amateurism is the main argument against the players solution to the NCAA.  BUT! The Pac-12 just made 12 year agreements with both FOX and ESPN.  These TV deals will bring the Pac-12 $3 billion in revenue.  Also, remember that without these student-athletes there would be no college (specifically DI) football and basketball to watch!

Should NCAA Student Athletes be paid?

The NCAA president Mark Emmert is recommending that the colleges themselves will produce an extra $2,000 to cover scholarship shortfall.  This solution would benefit ALL DI student-athletes as opposed to the “Educational Lock Box” solution which would only cover and pay DI football and basketball players.  This solution was combated by Purdue’s Athletic Director Morgan Burke. Burke stated, “depending upon the number of student-athletes, could approximate $1 million a year.” Burke also made it clear that less than two dozen of the 300 DI schools turned an annual profit last year.  He, as well as many others, question how each school would come up to fund this.  Keep in mind that this fund would be supported and funded by the schools, not the NCAA.  Also, each school has the option to opt in or out of this solution.

LSU’s chancellor Micheal Martin said, “I think institutions like us could clearly afford it, I’m not sure all can.” This would not only give certain conferences, but also certain schools, a distinct advantage when it comes to recruiting top notch recruits, believes Boise State’s president Robert Kustra.

Personally, I think it would be okay to pay these student-athletes to cover additional costs of education.  Obviously, if the school is handing out checks they need to monitor somehow and in someway to see if the student-athletes are using those checks for the intended purpose.  However, I’d like DI athletes to put themselves in the shoes of a DIII athlete.  DIII athletes don’t get to fly all over America to play.  We don’t get to miss classes with excuses of “playing” a game for the school. We don’t even receive any athletic scholarship money at all.  We only receive grants, academic scholarships, and need based assistance. To be  honest once again I’m not sure what these players are complaining about.  They have a good deal but I understand that should receive some additional benefits from all the additional revenue they produce for their schools!

I’d be glad to hear what all of you think and your opinions on whether or not student-athletes should be paid!