I have a degree in Finance and a PhD in economics, and I’m telling you right now that paying players is next to impossible without destroying the college football system. The college football system and all the money it generates is dependent on a certain level of parity. It doesn’t need to be absolute parity, but parity is necessary. Without it, attendance and viewership will decline dramatically, which will result in significantly less revenues. That would quickly devolve into a vicious downward spiral and all that money everybody thinks these kids should be paid would dry up. We are already seeing the impacts of less than ideal parity. Attendance is down significantly across all of college football and ratings have taken a hit as a result of Bama/Clemson fatigue. Don’t believe parity is important? Look at the NFL. They have salary caps for a reason. Same with pretty much every other professional sport.
If not done correctly, with the proper controls, paying players would turn into a Wild Wild West of buying recruits at a level far above anything anybody has seen before. That would result in a very small number of teams being able to compete at the highest level. Any fans of teams outside that small group are simply going to tune out and take their money elsewhere. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to implement with the necessary checks and balances. The only way to do it would be to implement salary caps and a draft, but drafting players at the college level just doesn’t make sense.
Beyond that, people greatly overestimate the value these players generate. Somebody already said it in this thread, but fans don’t tune in to watch the names on the back of the jersey, they tune in to watch the name or logo on the front of it. The school brands are driving the overwhelming majority of the money in the system. You could take the top 500 recruits every year and put them in a minor league, and that minor league would make no money at all while college football would continue to rake in the cash at pretty much the same levels we currently see today.
Additionally, people greatly undervalue the compensation these kids already receive. Their entire benefits package is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year when you add it all up. These schools aren’t profiting off football. Almost every single school spends as much on athletics as it earns, and where does that spending go? Largely, it gets reinvested for the benefit of the athletes in the form of better housing, better facilities, better food, better coaching, etc.
Finally, the NCAA and the schools are not exploiting these kids. For most of these kids, they are giving them opportunities they would not get if not for football. Many of these kids could not get into these D1 schools academically. If anyone is exploiting these kids, it’s the NFL that is using the NCAA as a free farm system. The NFL simply could not survive without college football. As such, it should be the NFL that steps up to find a way to set aside value for these kids without destroying parity.
