Paying College Players: The Right Thing To Do

This week at Baylor University, we have seen the pitfalls of the current college athletic system. Silas Nacita, a walk-on RB for the football team, was deemed ineligible and removed from the team after he accepted an offer from a friend/fan for an apartment. Nacita, before this offer, had been living on couches and floors of friend’s places just so he could have the opportunity to play college football.

I do not know all the details to what help Nacita declined from the university, whether any was offered to begin with, or whether or not he knew what he was doing was a violation, but as a governing body the NCAA should be first and foremost in the business of providing for basic needs for their student athletes. Baylor as well should be looking out to make sure that all their athletes have a place to live on a consistent basis. I do think Nacita was at fault for accepting the benefit, btu at some point the university and the NCAA need to have their athlete’s backs.

In addition I do think all NCAA Division I athletes should get payed above their food and housing stipend. Why? The schools get crazy amounts of revenue from sports. For example, I think it was in 2012 alone, the University of Texas made about 100 million dollars in revenue off of the football program. A great majority of that money comes from ESPN-affiliated Longhorn Network, which literally is making money from showcasing student athletes. In professional sports, the revenue generated from TV deals litearlly goes right into the salary caps so the teams can pay the players. How is that any different than college sports. I would aregue colelge sports have the same or even larger fan bases than the professional sports. Yet a dude like Silas Nacita (who doesn’t play much but is a fan favorite) can’t accept an apartment to get off the streets. Instead he now can no longer pursue his dream, while NCAA President Mark Emmert make a cool 2 million dollars off of these kids.

I don’t want it to be this way, but in some way it nears exploitation. College athletes have a right to a majority share of the money colleges make off of them. After all, they are the ones performing on the field, on the court, on the diamond, and on every big stage. Without the athletes, colleges don’t make nearly as much money, and it should, and I think will change in the near future.