if schools want to pay kids to play, they should be able to. With the money the schools rake in because of these kids, it would only make sense, and I thought this was a free country anyway, isn't it?
...By allowing kids to be paid, they'd be signing a legal contract, which would help give them more security ....
Actually - any and every school DOES have the right to pay kids - and most do - but they must do so within the rules and not cheat and even break federal laws in doing so.
but every athlete has every opportunity to be paid in other ways, too-
each and every one has the opportunity to go play for money anywhere they want - there are 30 NBA teams and 1000 other pro teams around the world...
BUT you want to know why they don't go play pro but go to college instead? Because, simply, they are NOT good enough.
They go to college to gain a TREMENDOUS
benefit - they develop, get exposure, get better and then can go make good money if they choose.
Only a handful of schools WANT to pay kids, but if those schools are a part of NCAA, NAIA or any other amateur organization, they have AGREED to remain amateur and NOT pay the kids. If those schools want to break those rules then they should leave and form a professional organization - but they won't because then they'd go broke. They know lots of students would not want to pay the tuition if that money just goes to pay pro athletes, and the schools might also lose federal and state funding.
Overall, it creates a very complicated situation of their own making. Where do you draw the line - do you also pay all the women athletes as much as the men, because if you don't you're gonna get sued. (Title IX). Do you also pay the rowing team or the chess team or the speech team?
What these schools really want is to be able to cheat and get away with it. They want to have the right to make up new rules whenever it suits them.
Their lust for winning and hauling in athletic revenue has blinded them to what got them here and the spirit of amateurism that schools have been committed to for 120+ years.
They got caught cheating - they need to pay the penalty and then be required to follow the rules they had PREVIOUSLY agreed to play under.
I don't think the problem of cheating will go away if we just change the rules every time they cheat - so that their cheating becomes legal. Then we will see a never-ending cycle of more cheating and they will expect the rules to be changed for their benefit again.
Next thing you know you're gonna have kids at high schools and jucos- even grade schools- demanding to be paid.
It's not broke that bad if they just follow the rules - it does not need a fix that would destroy 80% of all college sports.
) that relatively low-paid reporters from these newspapers can dig into these cases and find massive cheating scandals, while the NCAA with all their billions of dollars remain oblivious and show no interest in acknowledging or even trying to find these cases of obvious corruption or doing anything about it.