Congressman Asks Whether NCAA Should Pay Athletes

What do you mean they are being exploited? They are already receiving scholarships worth at "minimum" $22,000/yr for tuition/room & board ($50,000 at some schools), and getting national exposure that could lead to millions in pro sports...not bad compensation for an 18 yr old kid that will leave in a heartbeat for the draft. Most any other students on campus would accept that scholarship. Besides, so many college athletes are less then good citizens...shootings, fighting, drugs, abusing women...I'm not sure paying them is a good message...besides, the schools primary purpose to educate kids? Not to pay them to perform.

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I think they should cap the revenues a school can receive from college athletics. Lets see what the administrators response will be then. They should be ok with it since their primary purpose is to educate the athletes and not contribute to the billion dollar industry that is college athletics.

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I'm sure big revenue producing school, like Ohio State could afford it, but many schools struggle to make money. Even a small allowance might be difficult for a smaller school.

Although I agree with Kent. Ask anyone paying student loans whether a free education is payment enough.

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Here's a more fundamental question: Why are these guys in "college" at all? Clearly, no noe thinks of them as students. Why not just hire graduating seniors to play basketball under the school's banner?
Scholar-athletes my a**.

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Great....once again the government (well just one of them) wants to take the fun out of something, this time its college football. This would not have come up 5 years ago (or even pre-BCS days). College football is exciting & the fan base is growing.

The universities (private AND public) need revenue to subsidize various programs, structures, logistics, outside of athletics. This is FACT. Government (our tax dollars) & tuitions do not subsidize ALL of the needs of the universities, and this is where revenue generating events MUST take place whether it be theatre, donations, or athletics.

Let's really get picky: Rep Rush said basketball & football players....why just them (NCAA sanction)...why not all sanctioned athletics ALONG with all OTHER non-NCAA events.

Let's face it, the student-athlete does it for the passion of the sport, whether it be basketball, baseball, football, or crew. Student-Athletes are students willing to LEARN more about their selected trade/sport, thus it is an EDUCATION they are receiving in their trade/sport.

Rep. Rush: leave the unviersities alone until something REALLY grievious happens and needs government assistance.

FIGHT ON!

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I think it would be absurd to pay the athletes. I used to work in an athletic department, not going to name the university, and not only do the players get the full scholarship, they also get a "housing pension" which usually gives them roughly $2,000 for their appartment rent when the average rent including water and electricity is around $500-$600. The rest is for them to spend. On top of that, they are given a pension every weekend they have a game usually being anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars into the thousands per player. It would be crazy to allow them to be payed for their ability when they are already getting compensated for their ability by scholarships.

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To add to my comment, I worked in the Training Room and didn't get paid anything for the first two semisters and had to work 25+ hours only to get after those two semisters the scholarships of getting free books and then maybe a paycheck way below minimum wage. Now it has destroyed my resume to put "Work experience: Training room-Pay=$0 per hour." So really if anything there should be a requirement to pay the staff, including the training staff/students and manager staff/students minimum wage and a scholarship of X ammount.

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Below is the cause for Brian's article.....another "woe is me" for the A-A and disadvantage....HEY Rush, there ARE other nationalities and races with those SAME disadvantages....FIGHT ON FOR ALLLLL, don't be color blind!
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Pay-for-play on agenda
Congress may probe compensation for student-athletes
By Jeff Barker
Tribune Newspapers

May 1, 2007, 8:44 PM CDT

WASHINGTON -- A Chicago congressman plans to summon university presidents to a hearing on whether college athletes should be paid, saying athletes are being exploited for their ability to help schools realize extravagant revenues.

Rep. Bobby Rush, chairman of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, wants to know why college basketball and football players, in particular, aren't compensated for logging hundreds of hours for training, practices and games—free labor, he calls it—that can help institutions reap millions of dollars in TV and other revenues.

There is a problem, said Rush, 60, a Democrat and ordained Baptist minister who says he grew up on the cement courts of Chicago. The question is, in terms of these extravagant revenues, is there any way that these athletes can maintain their amateur status and also get some legal compensation?

Rush said in an interview that he wouldn't hesitate to use legislation to compel the NCAA to act but that it's too soon. For now, his goal is to attract the attention of top university officials by holding a hearing on an issue he believes many would rather ignore. "I know that university presidents will probably resist to a certain extent," he said.

Northwestern athletic director Mark Murphy said he has not been contacted by anyone related to Rush's hearing but said he is "very strongly opposed" to paying student-athletes.

"I would rather focus on student-athletes getting their education," Murphy said. "People make the argument that colleges are exploiting athletes because look at the money they are making. Well, our scholarship is worth over $200,000.

"… The fiction is that every school (athletic department) is making a ton of money. In reality it's really just a handful across Division I. Michigan and Ohio State do well, but they also support very broad athletic programs."

The NCAA said it is making about $40 million available this year from two funds to help athletes pay for such things as clothing and trips home. But critics of the system say athletes shouldn't have to apply for money for basic needs that could be covered by their scholarships.

Rush, an eighth-term representative who represents a black-majority district, said he believes the issue affects African-Americans disproportionately because for too many African-Americans sports is the way out of poverty and into respectability.

Baltimore Sun. Tribune staff reporter Teddy Greenstein contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007, The Chicago Tribune

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