The best argument I have heard yet for college athletes to receive some benefits for their athletic prowess and for what they bring to the university's table... "A couple years ago as an engineering student, recruiters from potential employers would regularly treat my peers and me to $150 steak dinners and box seats at NBA games along with picking up obscene tabs at bars and in some cases strip clubs. We also got paid twice what we were worth for internships, which for many involved a week in Las Vegas or Orlando. My wife received similar treatment from major accounting firms along with a $5000 signing bonus for a twelve week (yes, twelve week) summer internship for which she got paid $25/hr while doing no meaningful work. My point is, how are these benefits different than the ones Reggie Bush allegedly took? If the NCAA wants "student"-athletes, then athletes should be allowed benefits consistent with those that many non-athlete students receive. Keep in mind the allegations against RB involve no money from boosters and no money from USC. In order to sustain success, corporations need to hire the best engineers, the best accountants, the best lawyers, and yes, the best football players. The money that gets thrown around during recruitment is just part of the process. – AP A: Your wife got drunk in bars and went to strip clubs? Sweet. I’d try to argue for you, but you’re so dead-on that I have no real comeback outside of the antiquated and childish notion of amateurism. For most students, getting paid to do work in their field is a must to being prepared for a future job, and in the real world, expense accounts, tabs, and perks are all part of the costs of doing business. College football is a business. A big one. Lots of people are making lots and lots of money off of it, but the NCAA keeps it’s bizarre rules in place because 1) it’s able to maintain more control, 2) it’s able to keep all the money from the corporate sponsors, and 3) because the players aren’t around long enough to form any sort of a cohesive unit to challenge the system. Recruits and players should be allowed to take cars, cash, ham sandwiches, whatever they can get from anyone who wants to provide them. Many already do. It should be allowed and not seen as some sort of an evil. From MCG: my thoughts are ditto on the guy's wife...... :twisted: :lol:
Free tuition, room and board are not enough? An opportunity to earn a college degree at no charge.... Being treated like a celebrity. They are being compenasated as far as I'm concerned. If you don't think so then maybe you haven't put any kids through college yet. Start paying these kids money and then you'll have agents , sponsor deals etc. Do you really want that?
Good points George and yes I have a senior at WMU. Who would police it is a hard question to answer and where would be the limits.
Uh, let me point out that there are a LOT of students that don't have a "field" that recruits them like was mentioned in start of this thread. I worked my way through school, but not as an intern. No steak dinners, and strip clubs for me. I think I should go back and demand my cut!! :wink:
One question, numbskull (and anyone who sides with this idiot). Were you and/or your wife on a 4-year full scholarship with a possible 5th year to earn your masters if you were redshirted at any time during the first 4 years? That story has no relevence whatsoever to the situation with college athletes, but it is an example of the type of twisted logic used by those who don't understand - and are not willing to accept - the facts of life.