Should Penn State athletes be paid?

I have been on hiatus lately because I have been home in Knoxville, Tennessee. There are a few great things about being home: free food, free laundry, seeing your friends and family, and of course local sports radio. I have an unnatural obsession with Knoxville sports radio. I hate the SEC and the University of Tennessee (that’s what growing up a Big Ten fan in SEC country will do to you) and I love to listen to the delusional radio hosts and the out-of-their minds people who decide to call in. I could go on about Tennessee fans all day (ask me about it sometime in person, I will go on for hours), but I won’t and I’ll get on to the topic at hand.

Read more after the jump!

I, of course, was listening to sports radio today while chauffeuring my sister around the whole of Knoxville. They were talking about the NCAA investigation at UT and if players should get paid for just being student-athletes. Dave Hooker (writes for the Knoxville News-Sentinel) and his two partners started chatting about the payment of players. Dave Hooker and his one partner made some good points against payment and started to speculate on the details on how it could be executed. I was disappointed because they were actually making good sense, unlike the usual babble I have come to expect. Then, as if God were answering my prayers for ridiculousness, the third member of the team decided to chime in with his two cents about why the players should get paid. They were talking about how many players qualify for a $1200 Pell Grant every semester and that’s when the mysterious third member chirped in and said this:

"“1200 dollars? That’s not even enough for these kids to go out and buy the clothes that they need!”"

I didn’t catch his name and I couldn’t find it on the internet or I would have followed him on Twitter, Facebook, and probably would have recorded his every conversation, just to hear more unbelievable things. What he said blew my mind and made me think about swerving into the traffic. I think I may have blacked out for a few seconds. That statement brings many questions to mind, the main one being: What college student buys $1200 worth of clothes in a semester? Let alone in a year?

Besides being blown away by the beauty of local radio, the conversation about paying players brought me back to an argument I have had many times. Should student-athletes get paid?

I think this question actually has real meaning and relevance to Penn State’s athletic program (mainly our football program). The main argument for paying players basically boils down to this observance/thought: These football players are helping their respective schools make millions of dollars, shouldn’t they get a cut of what they helped pull in? It especially applies to Penn State because according to reports, the Penn State football program makes the 4th most money in the nation.

So should Penn State football players (and all student-athletes) get paid for being student-athletes?

My answer is not yes or no. My answer is: they already do get paid in a variety of forms.

The main thing is that the scholarship athletes (the ones who would ultimately be the ones being paid) get tuition, housing, and food, paid for through their scholarship. If you are from out-of-state (like me and half the football team) then you may already know the dollar amount associated with those 3 items. Let me just tell you, it’s a little over $30,000 a year without any financial aid. That means over the course of a 4-year career at Penn State, an out-of-state, scholarship student will get roughly $120,000 for their athletic ability. And honestly, what else are they spending money on while at Penn State? Maybe occasionally going out to eat, going to a movie, or going to bars. That actually brings me to my next point.

These people who argue for payment seem to ignore the fact that at most successful BCS schools, the football players are treated like superstars. Are you going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that Daryll Clark or Derrick Williams never once had a meal or drink bought for them by an alumnus or current student? Also, correct me if I am way off the deep end here, but I rarely see athletes in plain street clothes (unless it’s Friday or Saturday night). They always have at least one article of official team clothing on at all times, whether it be sweat pants, shorts, or a t-shirt. So don’t try to sell me on the argument that they “need” clothes.

The final point I have is that the connections and networks that they are automatically apart of because of football (and other sports) are priceless. While regular students go to networking events or career fairs to network, athletes are automatically connected with many higher ups at Penn State, not to mention former players (see Navarro Bowman-Lavar Arrington), and various, rich friends of the program. Think about how many connections they players have when they finally leave Penn State. You are again trying to tell me that some rich alumnus wouldn’t want to walk around at parties and tell people how he hired a former Penn State Nittany Lion after they graduated? It would probably make their lives. The point is that athletes have more significant connections in the top ten of their speed dial than most people eventually amass in their entire lifetimes. There is no way to put a monetary value on those connections. They are invaluable.

So these players work roughly 20 hours a week (or 30 if you go to Michigan) and all in all make $30,000 a year. That seems pretty fair to me. Oh yeah, not to mention that they won’t have to pay off any student loans in the future and have powerful connections which will lead to much more money in the future, even if they don’t make it to the NFL.

Paying these players (especially at universities like Penn State) would be so excessive that Robin Leach would need to do a special on it. These players wanting to get paid is like Bill Gates starting a homemade earring business to make some money on the side. It is greedy and unnecessary and I for one hope it will never happen.