Should NCAA "Student Athletes" get paid?

[Anomalocaris]

Not all of them graduate, but there's still a whole lot of Division I and II athletes who may not have ever gone to college that wind up with careers in something other than sports simply because of their athletic ability and the opportunity it gave them.

They stole that opportunity from someone better qualified for college and career.

[SteelCurtain]

Not all of them graduate, but there's still a whole lot of Division I and II athletes who may not have ever gone to college that wind up with careers in something other than sports simply because of their athletic ability and the opportunity it gave them.

They stole that opportunity from someone better qualified for college and career.

I would agree that the ones that didn't graduate absolutely took an opportunity from someone else.

But the ones that got to college on their academic prowess and were successful didn't.

The athletics departments from most colleges are what make them viable. Not all colleges have ridiculous endowments like Harvard or Princeton. So the money that those student athletes brought in, even if they took a slot based on their athletic prowess and not their academic merit, helps buy the laboratory that the guy that got in on his academic merit works in. It helps pay for academic scholarships for those kids that can't pay for school. It helps pay the salary for the professor that teaches 400 students a semester.

[Minimalist]

5Colleges should worry more about educating students and do away with these bullshit sports programs.

While I agree in principle, in reality it would mean cutting a lot of non-sports related programs along with the sports.

Right or wrong, college level sports generates mountains of cash for the schools. Some of it does get funneled back into laboratories, research grants, etc...

Does it?

I recall when Penn State was nailed in the Sandusky scandal....where "protecting the program" was so important that what did a pedophile on the payroll matter...they were punished with the loss of 20 scholarships (out of 80) for football. I wondered how many scholarships were awarded in the physics department? You know, I could never find an answer.

[SteelCurtain]

Does it?

I recall when Penn State was nailed in the Sandusky scandal....where "protecting the program" was so important that what did a pedophile on the payroll matter...they were punished with the loss of 20 scholarships (out of 80) for football. I wondered how many scholarships were awarded in the physics department? You know, I could never find an answer.

That's because you are asking a question with no answer. The Physics Department doesn't get scholarships. The General Scholarship fund does. Kids who apply to schools for physics get academic scholarships through the General Academic/Scholarship fund or the school's endowments.

[Minimalist]

Okay. Allow me to rephrase.

Why does a football program get scholarships while the physics dept. has to compete with marketing, business admin and psych?

Is it a university or a minor league football program?

[JuliaL]

I remember reading some time ago that most of the money generated by college athletics gets plowed back into the athletics departments.
It was a while ago and I don't remember where.
But a quick search:
Myth: College Sports Are a Cash Cow

Only seven other athletics programs at public universities broke even or had net operating income on athletics each year from 2005-2009,

Athletics cost colleges, students millions

Nearly every university loses money on sports. Even after private donations and ticket sales, they fill the gap by tapping students paying tuition or state taxpayers.

Another vaguely remembered point was that the original purpose of the unpaid NCAA 'amateur athlete' was to give an edge to the upper crust college students who didn't need to work. The riff-raff who needed the money couldn't play.

I think the basketball & football industries should maintain their own farm teams like baseball does. Pay the kids there.

[SteelCurtain]

Okay. Allow me to rephrase.

Why does a football program get scholarships while the physics dept. has to compete with marketing, business admin and psych?

Is it a university or a minor league football program?

Fair point. But the football program brings in money, whereas the physics department for the most part, doesn't. Whether it's the right way or not, football/basketball serves its purpose.

The answer to your question is that it's both. The biggest universities are the outliers, but the norm is that academics are the primary focus.

[Minimalist]

Whether it's the right way or not, football/basketball serves its purpose.

That purpose is what I'm trying to ferret out.

[Anomalocaris]

Okay. Allow me to rephrase.

Why does a football program get scholarships while the physics dept. has to compete with marketing, business admin and psych?

Is it a university or a minor league football program?

Fair point. But the football program brings in money, whereas the physics department for the most part, doesn't. Whether it's the right way or not, football/basketball serves its purpose.

The answer to your question is that it's both. The biggest universities are the outliers, but the norm is that academics are the primary focus.

How long could academics remain the primary purpose when it is not academic success, but sports success, that underwrites the academics? Academics is just a cost center, whose reduction makes share holder's life easier, where as sports is the profit center, whose aggrandizement really rolls in the dole, and makes university a place desirable from enrichment perspective to be involved in.

While at the beginning, it may appear sports is facilitating academics. But in reality, it only serves to hide from the public how much the public has failed to underwrite academics needed for its own good, and preferred to lavish on bread and circus instead. It can't be long before bread and circus would be most of all that is left of university.

[SteelCurtain]

That purpose is what I'm trying to ferret out.

The purpose is that they make money for the college, and therefore the general academic fund.