To the Point
Should College Athletes Be Paid?
Who works 40 or 50 hours a week without salaries? Student-athletes -- or athlete-students, as more have been calling themselves. Colleges say football and basketball players are "amateurs" who play for the love of the game, but they mean big business for major institutions. The holidays bring another season of bowl games, with a difference.
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readWho works 40 or 50 hours a week without salaries? Student-athletes -- or athlete-students, as more have been calling themselves. Colleges say football and basketball players are "amateurs" who play for the love of the game, but they mean big business for major institutions. The holidays bring another season of bowl games, with a difference. TV contracts are into the billions. Top-level coaches make millions, but when Texas A&M's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Johnny Manziel, was suspected of selling his signature, he was briefly suspended by the NCAA. As America sits down for another season of bowl games, billion dollar TV contracts and embarrassing questions, are young people who risk career-ending injuries being exploited? (We invited the NCAA, several sports conferences and schools to participate, but they declined our invitation.)
