I've never been a fan of any college sport but I have always wondered one thing. If the players aren't even allowed to accept a free dinner without getting into trouble where does all the money go? They make millions off these kids. Way more money than the scholarships they give the players would cost. So where does it all go? Is it split up between the Universities and Colleges?
CelticBomber wrote:
This issue crops up from time to time. There are many who believe that schools like LSU are somewhat nefarious when it comes to football profits. Included in the list of gripes is ad nauseam complaints of abhorrent head coach pay.
A few years ago LSU addressed this as it pertains to them. LSU supports many many sports. Most of which operate at a lost. In a normal situation, a university would have to choose to support these programs at a cost to academic programs, or to cut them out completely. In LSU's case the profits from football operations fund a wide variety of sports including women's basketball, men's and women's lacrosse, etc... Without those profits and in the face of falling state revenues leading to cut backs in, among other things, higher education those programs would cease to exist. In addition, the athletic department also funds construction programs all over the campus.
The issue of coach's pay is in a class all by itself. Many wonder why anyone should be paid ~$4-5M a year to coach football. This parallels the private sector and as such the same arguments are had by each side.
The prevailing wisdom is to pay a top tier coach a salary high enough to keep him from being lured away. Is it prudent to pay a man ~$5M a year to lead a team to a top 10 ranking every year which packs a newly renovated stadium with a 100,000+ person capacity and leads to highly profitable TV contracts? Or should they choose the more politically correct idea to cap the salary. Most big time programs believe doing so will yield a lessor coach whose team will more likely than not finish further down or even out of the rankings and generate WAAAAAY less revenue than is saved in salary.
Personally, I wonder why anyone would consider cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Which brings us to paying college athletes. Make no mistake, scholarship athletes are paid. First off their tuition is waived. At LSU basic instate tuition is per semester is $4370. A meal plan costs $2000 per semester. A dorm room is is about $3200 per semester. As such a student athlete receives at least $7770 per semester. I would also assume their books are paid for. At a minimum they receive at $16,740 in in-kind benefits from the university towards their education.
Add to that access to a state of the art health and fitness center who's membership is highly restricted. Such a facility includes all the weights and machines at your neighborhood health club, but without having to wait much for machines and weights. In a addition, access to top flight trainers and such. Gym benefits are prolly worth $100 a month for the eight months a year they are enrolled bring the total to at least $17,540.
Absent the other un-reported perks a student athlete at LSU makes about $2192 per month for the eight months out of the year they are enrolled. If that athlete wants, he can work the other 4 months to supplement that amount.
So for anyone who would say student athletes aren't paid, it would seem they need to look at the entire picture.
