re: College football players are they being taken advantage of?

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i would say they have it pretty well

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Not the thread. If the thread asked if football players have it pretty well, I would have said yes. The question is if they are being taken advantage of and the answer is also yes.

Those are not mutually exclusive.

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but the compensation is disproportionately low relative to the revenue generated

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So was Steve Jobs compared to the guys building the iphones.

The point some of you are missing is that the schools give the kids the platform for future earning potential, whether it is an education or a big NFL contract. All those A&M fans wearing JFF football jerseys this year will be buying someone else's A&M jersey next year. Sure Heisman winners might sell more jerseys but the reality is that fans are buying merchandise base on the name on front of the jersey.....not the back.

The fans are fans of the school first....not the player. The fans will continue to support the school long after the player is gone.

I don't know any LSU fans looking to buy season tickets at FSU because Winston won the Heisman.

you wrong. plenty of fans will buy a LF jersey who never bought a jersey before. coaches are making a ton of money, schools and confs. are getting mega tv deals, confs. are re-aligning for money. players are getting nothing.

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free education
free tutors for said education
free apartment
free food
free access to top of the line workout equipment and supplements
free access to trainers, medical care, etc

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Yes the schools make a ton of money. They use it on all this!! Yes, coaches make a ton. Don't like it? Train for a shot at the NFL in your backyard with a Walmart weight set and some youtube videos.

The facilities and training are huge benefits no one talks about. Plus and education. Plus tons of gear-- hell, how many pairs of shoes did JJ have in his closet? 49?

Yea, they are getting rooked.
Please....

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Yes the schools make a ton of money.

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Do you have any idea how many police officers and staff are required for a gameday at a place like Fresno State much less a place like LSU? A lot of you forget the cost element.

Yes, LSU, Texas, Florida State, Ohio State, and Alabama are all profitable. Meanwhile the majority of schools barely break even on their programs after expenses and facility debt payments.

First, the idea that college football players receive a "free" education is simply incorrect. Each scholarship player enters into a contract with the university, whereby the university agrees to pay for the student athlete's tuition, fees, housing, meal ticket, and some other itemized expenses, such as the cost of student athlete's books, all in exchange for a service that the student athlete agrees to provide the university, which is his participation in intercollegiate athletics in the sport of football. This contract is for one year only, but can be renewed annually for up to five years (essentially, the football player gets 5 years to play 4, if the scholarship is renewed each year, but his 5th year on scholarship doesn't count against the 85 if he's already exhausted his 4 years of eligibility). Make no mistake about it, the university, at the direction of its head football coach, does not have to show any cause in deciding not to renew a player's scholarship. They can even choose not to renew it if the student athlete simply does not live up to be the player he was expected to when they originally signed him. And this does happen on occasion.

And this service that the scholarship player agrees to provide the university in exchange for his scholarship involves a vast amount of time doing a job that any would categorize as hard labor. Anybody that's been around a college football programs knows that the 20 hour rule is a joke. A players typical work week during the season is around 50-60 hours a week, and this obviously does not include class, study hall, etc. And this doesn't include fall camp before school and the season start, where the players are kept isolated from everyone outside the program for 2 1/2-3 weeks, and spend virtually every minute from 6 am to 11:00 pm either at practice, in the training room before and/or after practice, in meetings, or in the weight room. I may be off base, but I doubt the workload that many other students are subject to in order to help "pay" for their eduction is similar to the workload described above.

That being said, do I believe college football players are being taken advantage? Yeah, to an extent, especially considering that some staffs, including our own, is scheduled to make a combined salary in the neighborhood of $8M next season. But do I think that the players should be paid large sums of money? No, there's already a league that does that, and it's called the NFL. However, I wouldn't mind seeing the NCAA allow the schools to pay the players a small monthly stipend. But there's a ton of issues that would have to be sorted out before this ever happens, such as Title IX, further separation between the big boys and the smaller programs who can't afford it, etc. Also, I don't necessarily think it would be a bad thing for the schools to put some of the money aside and set up a trust that former players would eventually have access to down the road, since they helped generate millions upon millions of dollars for the university during their time at LSU. I think this would be reasonable, especially for players who suffer some sort of serious injury playing football in college from which they will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives. Again, a bunch of issues would have to be sorted out before this ever happens either.

I get it is only a one year contract and is not necessarily renewable, but those cases are few and far between.

At the BCS schools the "football" work load is definitely more burdensome than the smaller schools and every kid who decides to sign with LSU could have easily decided to go to McNeese State if they don't want the added work load.

All of these kids who sign with major colleges want the prestige and notoriety of playing on TV weekly with a chance to win a NC and an opportunity to play in the NFL. Not to mention the opportunity to play Xbox with their likeness.

I have never heard 1 player say that signing with a D1 school was not worth it and if they had it to do over again they would not have even played or would have signed with a smaller school.

You miss the point.. AD's, coaches, etc are making gross amounts off of their efforts and dreams and loyal fans are paying for the Ad's and coaches free ride.. Check the record of the teams we beat this year.

The biggest problem with paying football players is where does all this money come from? Sure, schools in the big conferences make money and could do it, but the smaller conferences don't make enough. There simply isn't enough money in the system to compensate everyone at all the schools.

The other problem is how do you compensate football and not the other sports. What about basketball? What about women's sports with Title 9? That's a lawsuit waiting to happen if they don't get paid.

The best solution is to leave it alone. These athletes benefit greatly as it is, even if its disproportionate to the revenue generated.