Ask someone who graduates with $200k in debt and can't afford to rent an apartment because of the low pay in their entry level job and other bills.
Most of these kids are not going pro in sports. Look at the stats below. Some of these kids will never see the field in a game.
The average person who wants a career has to prove themselves and put in time. How many jobs out there paying a decent wage don't require a college education, or a technical training/certification of some sort? The problem with all of this is an ideology that every kid who plays college football could/would be earning more in a free market. That is just not true. The elite could earn in a free market.....the masses would not. The masses would earn less than what they receive in their scholarship, room and board, meal plan, free gear, tutoring, etc. Now if you're saying none of these kids would want to go to college unless it's to play football.....well there in lies the problem. Look at the stats again. You'd be setting these kids up to have no future.
The biggest problem with the system is not the compensation of the players. It's the compensation of the coaches (and NCAA) and the arms race, making the optics look bad. If money was set aside for longer-term medical benefits, injury insurance, proper stipends if the kids are not allowed to work, as well as to make the overall cost of college more reasonable to others with lower costs, more scholarships/grants, etc......it would make more sense. Then go the route of the likeness piece. At the end of the day, there has to be some level of balance and fairness. It's college, not the pros.
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