College Athletes and Payments

Here is something that I have tackled in some of my classes (specifically Sports Psychology, shoutout to Professor Ford. Here’s his LinkedIn. Wise man with lots of knowledge and consulting experience.)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrin-ford

First, a little background on what we’ll be talking about.

The NCAA brought in $1 billion dollars in the 2016-2017 fiscal year (and likely more than that the past three years, with more lucrative television deals), with $761 million of that coming from the NCAA tournament, which is the main moneymaker for the NCAA. They also generated $129.4 million in ticket revenue, and another $60 million in marketing. That is a lot of money.

Here are the coaching numbers:

Both top coaches make well over $5 million dollars, and David Swinney is closer to $10 million a year, which puts them on par with professional coaches, such as Jon Gruden, who makes $10 million a year.

The point is, the NCAA is making a lot of money off of sports, and the college athletes are not reaping any of the benefits.

Question: Should college athletes be paid? If so, how would you propose they get paid? Does every sport get paid, or just some?