My Soapbox on Paying College Athletes

With the recent ruling of a federal judge against the NCAA in the O’Bannon case I’m going to take this time to jump on my soap box. As is standard with all my soapbox episodes, I will offer up a solution at the end, so please read this post in its entirety! Let me start by pointing out two things. 1) I believe college athletes are extremely hard workers. I believe they bust their ass all year long to prepare for their sport and to pass their classes! 2) I know for a fact that there are many college athletes that come from very poor families and struggle mightily when it comes to affording the basic luxuries of life.

However, (there’s always a however), let’s get into the real struggles here and how bad they really are. When you think about the basic necessities of life it comes down to three basic needs, food, shelter, and cleanliness! When you really break this down all three of these necessitates are met! Every college athlete has access to food, now 24 hours a day. I really don’t believe these athletes were starving in the first place. If you believe Terrance Cody had hungry nights, than you ought to sell me that shit your smoking! Every college athlete has a means to be sheltered and clean. There are multi-million dollar dorm facilities at every big-time campus across the country. I think the real problem here is the fact that college athletes don’t have the “play” money they think should be afforded to them! I agree that college kids should all have the opportunity to live the “college life”, which includes partying, socializing, and dating. All three of these things cost money! I DO NOT agree that they should be paid “fun tickets” by the school in which they attend and this is why.

The first reason I disagree with paying college athletes is because college athletics is the purest form of athletics in the world. Other than the Olympics, what other sport is played with so much emotion and so much intensity with no financial incentive? Paying college athletes puts a huge incision in the sanctity of college athletics in so many ways! For instance, say Texas decides to pay their college football and college basketball players. How do you think scholarship athletes of the volleyball, baseball, and softball teams are going to feel when they’re not paid? Paying college athletes is a slippery slope that leads to all kinds of unfair practices that would lead to apportionment across campuses nationwide. The second and most important reason I believe college athletes should not be paid boils down to the fact that they should be grateful for what they were given! If these athletes want to know true sacrifice they should look at their peers who didn’t leave high school for some big campus with beautiful girls, but left for the shithole deserts and mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan! I hear athletes bitching about their standard of living, try being embedded with a Marine infantry platoon in the middle of Fallujah in the summer of 2004! Now I know athletes will argue that it was their decision to join the military, well….it was your decision to sign that scholarship! Last time I checked millions of American students attended college without a scholarship and they’re now facing loans upwards of $30,000 without a damn job! I joined the Corps for two reasons, the first is because I wanted to serve my country, and the second is because I wanted to have a better future! I proudly separated from the Marines in 2009 with an Honorable Discharge and pursued higher education. I graduated with an MBA fully paid for by the beloved Corps! I am so grateful every day that the United States Marine Corps afforded me this opportunity. So what is the difference in my gratefulness for a college degree and the ungratefulness of college athletes? We both put in hard work, long nights, and time away from our families!

Now that I’ve broken down my position on the payment of college athletes I will offer up a solution to the problem. My solution is a two-step process and the first step is the most important. The first step involves paying all college athletes for injuries incurred in the athletic field for the entirety of their life. I’m not saying that the school should send out a check every month to the former player, but I believe that if a football player tears an ACL and suffers from this injury later on in his life his medical bills should be paid! Same goes for all injuries that cause pain and suffering later in life! The second step in my solution affords the athlete to have spending money. I suggest that all college athletes have the opportunity to attain full student loans! If they choose to take out a student loan to have extra spending money they should receive it. However, just like their non-athlete counterparts, they will be required to pay all loans in full after graduation!