AKA Why I can't stand D1 college football or basketball. - Steve C, Team Marina

This stuff drives me nuts, esp as people are lobbying for schools to pay athletes. School is supposed to be about school. Let the NBA, NFL, etc. pay for their own goddamned farm teams. - Spidra Webster

Pay the kid to play football clearly he is not a "student" athlete Speaking truth to power - WarLord

Sure. But let the professional football orgs pay him, not state-taxpayer-funded schools. - Spidra Webster

But the schools are making MILLIONS from football, directly and indirectly it's probably 100's of millions - end the sham pay the athletes And you are right if NFL and NBA want OSU as a farm team let them pony up some actual cash but make no mistake OSU football is making money - WarLord

The funds should be held in trust for the players and the fund only mature upon completion of acceptable grades. - Johnny

I'm arguing for getting rid of these programs altogether if they can't be truly amateur. Just leave intramural sports and leave it at that. There are loads of sports at universities and you can bet a lot of other athletes are also taking physical risks and doing it with a lot less financial & administrative support than these guys get. I don't think you can pay NCAA football and basketball players while treating all the other NCAA athletes (esp female athletes) as lesser than. Just get it the hell out of higher ed. Get athletics back to being about physical education and cooperation. People who aren't serious about being students, people who just wanna go pro -- get a job with the for-profit sports corporations. Of course, it'll never happen because people love their bread and circuses. It makes me LIVID to read a tweet like this from someone with a full ride scholarship that is spitting in the face of it. There are plenty of actual serious students who could use that scholarship and wouldn't waste it. - Spidra Webster

But then we might lose the delightful spectacle of having each state's highest paid employee be a football or basketball coach. - Andrew C (✔)

Indeed. - Spidra Webster

Wow. I'm working at a D1 for the first time at the moment (before I'd never even attended one) and while I'm often sickened by the emphasis on sport, I do have to admit that working with these kids has really opened my eyes. They're not all dumb jocks gaming the system. I've met quite a few student athletes who are incredibly bright and many who are only participating in their sport because it pays for an education that would otherwise not be available to them (one even said the sport wasn't fun, it was just a job for her). I've also realized that some of these kids would be 4.0 students if it weren't for the demanding (I'd argue grueling) practice, conditioning, and competition schedules. This kid is obviously not one of them, but some of the MPOW athletes have really made me change my opinion about highly competitive college sports - Soup in a TARDIS