Paying College Football Players: It’s Coming, But How Much?

Posted by | January 2, 2015 07:00 | Filed under: Contributors Opinion Stuart Shapiro Top Stories

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New Year’s Day: when college football takes center stage in the American psyche.  This year will bring, for the first time, modest payments to some college players.  But I think this is just the beginning.  The analogy to college coaches (who are now paid millions) is pointed out by Matt Connolly:

More than a century ago, the very idea of paying coaches was up for debate. The arguments against it looked very similar to the arguments against paying players, right down to the concern for the college game’s amateur spirit.

But as football evolved, coaches were elevated above players, rising to become salaried employees, tenured professors, and, eventually, living legends who could demand millions to ply their trade. They broke down the walls of amateurism at the expense of athletes, whose own push for compensation hasn’t gone much further than paid tuition.

It’s going to go much further in the next decade or two.

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.

58 responses to Paying College Football Players: It’s Coming, But How Much?

  1. Budda January 8th, 2015 at 20:17

    I blame the alumni.

  2. Budda January 8th, 2015 at 21:17

    I blame the alumni.

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