UConn students (the ones you make fun of if they stretch to afford to go to Storrs) are already subsidizing athletics. Football sure as hell isn’t making a profit. I love sports, but the Huskies are a money drain. Why should the students subsidize them more?
As for the NCAA, I hate them, but you seem to think they are sitting on an annual $800M profit. That’s revenue. Most of their money is distributed back to schools -and most of those schools are still losing money. Squeeze the fat cats (please) and their excesses, but you aren’t going to come up with another $5M+ per school to pay athletes (and that’s with big cutbacks in offerings). A handful of the biggest schools will be able to afford it. The rest, including UConn, will probably have to reassess where sports fit in.
Lastly, very few kids could go straight to the pros (at most a handful nationwide per year). For most D-I players, if they weren’t wearing the colors of State U, they’d be lucky to make meal money in some minor league. I root for our players and team because they wear the colors. Take that away and most people couldn’t care less. Remember the illustrious Hartford Hellcats.? How about the Colonials? Yup, nobody cared.
First of all, I didn't make fun of any students, I simply said they are under no obligation to attend a school they can't afford. That's a fact.
Second, I didn't say UConn would "have" to pay the students. If UConn can't afford it, so be it, but don't tell me Ohio State can't afford it.
Third, I didn't say it was profit. I understand the difference between profit and revenue. Mark Emmert makes nearly $2 million a year running one of the most corrupt organization in sports, but Jalen Adams can't generate revenue from a YouTube channel.
Fourth, if they reform the rules and allow players to be drafted out of high school, but "stashed" in college, instead of being sent overseas. The NBA can have a wage structure similar to the first 3-4 years of a player's time in the NBA. The team can negotiate a contract with the player. And when it comes to football, most of the P5 schools can absolutely afford to pay their players, and every school can allow them to
Lastly, you, and just about everyone else with the attitude that the people generating the revenue for everyone else should shut up and take what they get is reminiscent of indentured servitude. You pick one source of revenue that could be used to pay the players, when in reality, there could be multiple streams. The schools, the NCAA, the NBA, whoever owns the rights to the CFP and gets that TV money ($7.3 BILLION), private sources/endorsements, agents, the players can generate revenue themselves. There are multiple streams of revenue available. You choose to only focus on two, and say it can't or shouldn't be done. BS.
Every time someone like
@weyuo argues that these players should shut up and be grateful I think of this.