The college 2016-2017 sports year is officially underway and the train that drives college sports is back on the track. Football. Some of the student-athletes are performing in faraway places with football games in Sydney, Australia and Dublin, Ireland. Some coaches are making more money than the top elected officials in their state, like Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle who is taking home $595,000 this year which puts him on par with the Iowa offensive and defensive coordinators.
It is not unusual to see football coaches at public universities being the state’s highest paid public employees. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of revenues that flow into college football programs. Cities now bid to get the college football championship and the bidding starts in the tens of millions of dollars.
But does that trickle down to the actual performers? The players? No. While head coaches get millions and assistants get paid handsomely, the real stars of the show, the players get a college scholarship and can get an education if they are not too tired from their real job, representing the school on a football field, and if they can get into a classroom as football takes up an enormous amount of time.
While coaches’ salaries are uncapped, the players cannot make more than $2,000 off the field. The NCAA is afraid certain players may take golden handshakes or boosters no show jobs. There is also the long term health issue. Some football players’ injuries don’t show up until later in life. There is no long term health care from college sports sustained injuries.
The players are fodder, they come and go and the college or universities forgets them after they leave the campus. The players should get something besides a scholarship as without them, there are no games, no trips to Australia or Ireland. Without the players no one will watch a strength coach.
By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.
That is a little ridiculous that a coach can get paid close to 600,000 dollars while the athlete may make 2,000. But I feel that a college athlete should not get paid as an athlete. I feel it would lose their focus on school. I do feel that the athlete should have full tuition, books, housing, any supplies they need for their support and maybe a small allowance for food. College is extremely expensive and would pay more especially since most of the athletes do not have professional sport jobs afterwards.
I understand your argument. However, college athletes are also college students. Their number one priority is to attend school and get an education. They receive scholarships and are able to take out student loans to pay for school. Just like any other college student who is busy with school and extracurricular activities, they have to pay for school and keep up with their finances. You mentioned that the college football player’s “real job” is to play football, and that sometimes football players don’t have time to go to class. False. A college football player’s job is to go to school, and coach’s must give time during the day for these student’s to attend class.