If you start paying players then you will immediately take a free education away from tens of thousands of kids every year. First, what amount are you going to pay them? Of course it will have to be over the poverty line for each state, so let’s say it’s something small like $24,000 a year. You will be required to pay every athlete equally, so this means that lady volleyball has to get paid the same amount as mens basketball. I believe that UTEP has over 200 student athletes, which at $24,000/each means that UTEP would have to come up with an extra $5 million per year just to pay the new athlete payroll. There is no way that UTEP or any other mid-major school could come up with that extra $5 million every single year. Look at both NMSU and UNM, which have both just dropped more sports because they can’t afford them under the current rules. Now you’re going to start adding a payroll on top of these current expenses that they already can’t afford? If paying players were to ever happen, then almost every mid-major school in the US would immediately start dropping a lot of sports. UTEP would likely be forced to drop all sports except for maybe mens and womens basketball. So say goodbye to our 85 scholarship football team. This means that roughly 180 student athletes at UTEP every year just lost their free education. Then multiply 180 times most of the mid-major schools in the country and you just took away a free education away from tens of thousands of kids every single year.
Oh and now that you are paying these kids, they will have to pay taxes on their income. This means that even though you are paying them $24,000/year, they are only receiving a net of roughly $1,300/month after taxes. So you just took away tens of thousands of kids free educations in exchange so that some kids can make just $1,300/month. Most student athletes already receive that amount anyway through their stipends. Not to mention that some schools in certain states would immediately gain a recruiting advantage over other states, simply depending on if their state has a state income tax or not. For instance a kid coming to UTEP is going to get paid more than a kid going to NMSU, simply because Texas does not have a state income tax taking additional money out of their $24,000, while New Mexico does.
The system is very fair right now. It is up to the athlete to take advantage of it and I will give you an example of this. A couple of years ago, UTEP was recruiting a kid by the name of Caylin Parker. Parker was only a 2 star prospect and according to 247sports, he was ranked as the 3,074 best player in the nation. His only D1 offers were from UTEP, Dartmouth, and Columbia. The Ivy League now has certain ways to get their athletes financial aid scholarships with some recent initiatives and Caylin committed to Dartmouth and he is still playing for them today. In the link below, you will see that cost of an education at Dartmouth is $73,836 per year and that does not even include the free health insurance and professional training that Caylin is receiving by being a student athlete. So Caylin is getting roughly a total value of $80,000 per year, simply in exchange for playing football. This means that in four years, he will leave Dartmouth with a total $320,000 compensation in exchange for playing football. If the 3,074th ranked football player in the nation can work the current system to get $320,000 in compensation just for playing a sport, then I don’t want to hear about how the system is not fair or how athletes are not being compensated properly. Tulane is going to sign a bunch of 2 star athletes this year and the cost of an education at Tulane is $74,806 per year(verified in the link below). Add the free health insurance and professional training on top of that and a bunch of 2 star Tulane athletes are going to be compensated at roughly $80,000 per year under the current system. I read an article about how Harvard basketball is now also finding ways to recruit with the recent changes and they would certainly take a 5 star recruit. If you are a 5 star recruit and you are choosing not to go take a free $75,000/year free education at Harvard, then that is your fault, that is not the systems fault.
https://financialaid.dartmouth.edu/cost-attendance/cost-attendance
https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/cost
Oh and now that you are paying these kids, they will have to pay taxes on their income. This means that even though you are paying them $24,000/year, they are only receiving a net of roughly $1,300/month after taxes. So you just took away tens of thousands of kids free educations in exchange so that some kids can make just $1,300/month. Most student athletes already receive that amount anyway through their stipends. Not to mention that some schools in certain states would immediately gain a recruiting advantage over other states, simply depending on if their state has a state income tax or not. For instance a kid coming to UTEP is going to get paid more than a kid going to NMSU, simply because Texas does not have a state income tax taking additional money out of their $24,000, while New Mexico does.
The system is very fair right now. It is up to the athlete to take advantage of it and I will give you an example of this. A couple of years ago, UTEP was recruiting a kid by the name of Caylin Parker. Parker was only a 2 star prospect and according to 247sports, he was ranked as the 3,074 best player in the nation. His only D1 offers were from UTEP, Dartmouth, and Columbia. The Ivy League now has certain ways to get their athletes financial aid scholarships with some recent initiatives and Caylin committed to Dartmouth and he is still playing for them today. In the link below, you will see that cost of an education at Dartmouth is $73,836 per year and that does not even include the free health insurance and professional training that Caylin is receiving by being a student athlete. So Caylin is getting roughly a total value of $80,000 per year, simply in exchange for playing football. This means that in four years, he will leave Dartmouth with a total $320,000 compensation in exchange for playing football. If the 3,074th ranked football player in the nation can work the current system to get $320,000 in compensation just for playing a sport, then I don’t want to hear about how the system is not fair or how athletes are not being compensated properly. Tulane is going to sign a bunch of 2 star athletes this year and the cost of an education at Tulane is $74,806 per year(verified in the link below). Add the free health insurance and professional training on top of that and a bunch of 2 star Tulane athletes are going to be compensated at roughly $80,000 per year under the current system. I read an article about how Harvard basketball is now also finding ways to recruit with the recent changes and they would certainly take a 5 star recruit. If you are a 5 star recruit and you are choosing not to go take a free $75,000/year free education at Harvard, then that is your fault, that is not the systems fault.
https://financialaid.dartmouth.edu/cost-attendance/cost-attendance
https://admission.tulane.edu/tuition-aid/cost
Last edited: