A new take on paying college football players

For the last few years the topic of paying college football players keeps popping up.  A sane way to reward college football players for their participation.  While many would argue that the cost of an education is more than adequate compensation, it really isn't close when you look at the facts.

I was reminded of this when I was reading an article the other day that there is a push that Major League Soccer pay local club teams money for similar to what happens in the Premier League in England.  If you aren't familiar with the concept, in soccer (or football if you prefer) leagues are loosely aligned and the best teams are the ones with the most money.  Over time it was determined that it wasn't fair for a rich team in the Premier league to take a player from a lower English league without compensasion of some sort and so the idea of a "transfer fee" was introduced.



I looked up the amount for the Premier league and the amounts are staggering.  For the last 20 years they have AVERAGED 121 million pounds.  Not dollars.  POUNDS!  That is over $190 million depending on the exchange rates.  When you consider that the NFL generates the most revenue in the world, it is amazing that they are able to get another "league" to house/feed/train them until their bodies are mature enough for professional competition.  Of course this comment is somewhat in jest but training college football players is expensive despite the recent television contracts.

After 4-5 years of training, college football's rules insist these players move to the next phase in their career.  I understand why college football is set up that way but the investment they make in the players is significant and the main beneficiary is the NFL.  So why not insist that the NFL pay for that training?

Now here's the twist.

College football is making a ton of money through television contracts and they are not able to pay players due to the fact they are mostly public institutions and Title IX would preclude them from treating one set of athletes different than any other group.  However, no one can stop a company from paying college students for their services.  The only stumbling block is the NCAA has rules that players cannot receive money but that is easily fixed with legislation.

Here's how I'd see it:

Every year professional football sets aside $50 million and donates it to the "NFL Draft Trust".  This money would be given to players.

If you think that $50 million is too much think about the fact that this equates to about $1.5 million a team or the cost of a backup guard.  Of course this amount could be adjusted but I like $50 million as it is a nice even number.

There would be two stipulations to receive the money:

• Sign a National Letter of Intent binding them to a school and receive scholarship money.
• Obtain a 4 year degree from that university within 5 years of their first class

That's it.  Of course you'd have to make some stipulations for transfers and players that get kicked off the team or get in trouble with the law but qualifying is meant to be very simple and has a great secondary affect of encouraging players to get a degree.

As the money would be paid out after their college career is over I'm sure many would think ... well that doesn't do them any good when they are poor college students!  The key is the "NFL Draft Trust" would work with banks to help them get periodic payments against the "Participation Grant".  A condition of the loan process would be to give the trust/lending institution full access to the players student records to make sure they are making good progress towards a degree.

The biggest question is just how much money could an average student expect to receive.  Most draft picks come from D-1 so it only makes sense that a lion's share of the money would go there.  The issue is you can't have a difference between the top schools as it would create too much of a competitive disadvantage (for instance if you gave the SEC 10% more than the B1G it would incent even more top recruits to go there) but on the flipside you can't afford to give every college money (nor should most lower level schools get much money).  My suggestion would be to use the "rule of 2" for dispersal.  Basically what that means is if your conference has an average of 2 players drafted for the past 8 years then they get a 100% share of payments.  Anything below that is scaled down as a percentage.  Below is a table that would give a rough idea of how it would have paid out using averages for the last 20 years.


Draft/Yr
Share
Pac 10
          3.2
      2.0
100%
SEC
          3.1
      2.0
100%
Big Ten
          2.9
      2.0
100%
Big 12
          2.7
      2.0
100%
ACC
          2.1
      2.0
100%
Big East
          1.9
      1.9
94%
WAC/MW
          1.1
      1.1
57%
CUSA
          0.5
      0.5
25%
Mac
          0.4
      0.4
19%
Sun Belt
          0.1
      0.1
7%

Looking at this list, you can see that most of the BCS schools qualify though the Big East is slightly under the threshold.  We will come back to this in a moment.

To calcuate the actual payout, you need to first get an estimate of how many will qualify each year.  Using the assumptions that there are 120 schools in D1, an average of 20 players in every class,  and 50% graduate in 5 years.  The calculation would be to 20 x 50% x 120 or 1200 players rewarded every season.  $50 million divided by 1200 players gives you an approximate payout of $40,000.  This number would need to be adjusted as there will be expenses to administer the trust and to account for the fact that only half of college football would be getting the full 100% payout so the real number might be nearer to $50,000 instead.  Think about what that would do.

• You are a poor inner city kid that arrives on campus and sign your form to get a monthly stipend.  With an estimated $50,000 payout you could get a loan against that to receive $500/month to help pay for expenses.  Knowing if you flunk out you have to pay it back so you work hard to keep your grades up.  After graduation you take your degree and the $10,000+ remaining of your grant and enter the workforce to begin the next step on your journey.

• Your parents are well off and cater to your every need and you realize that the NFL is a pipe dream.  You work hard, keep your grades up, and play an important role on your team.  After graduation you receive a $50,000 check in the mail that you can use as a down payment on a house, use as seed money to start a business or blow on sports car.  After all, you put  in the work and you can figure out how best to spend the proceeds of your effort.

• You are a football player and have decent grades with a $500 monthly payment and in your junior year you get arrested and kicked from the team.  No other school will give you a scholarship so now you are faced with $12,000+ in debt, no college degree and no grant.  This is going to happen so the system isn't perfect.

It's long past overdue to pay college football players.  The only issue is figuring out the best plan and I think this is solid.  Of course the NFL owners won't agree to this easily and it would probably take some sort of lawsuit/negotiations to get them to comply but ultimately this would be the right thing.  There is no doubt that college football provides a huge service to them for no compensation.

There are other considerations as well:

• Will high schools have the same complaint for colleges and it turns into a court case?
• Will it be Title IX proof?
• How do you handle injured players?
• Is there anything that can/should be done to minimize players that leave school early and end up in massive debt?  Is there a value that should be given for only finishing 2 years of school?
• What happens when a player is "encouraged to leave" a top end school and ends up at a lower level school?
• How do you reward independents like Notre Dame (perhaps set the bar for individual schools at 3 players get 100%, tricky part is not further encouraging schools like BYU another incentive to break from their conference)
• The amount can't be so high that it encourages the NFL to create a competitor

It's not perfect but I like this idea a lot.

Follow up note - After thinking about this a bit I'm wondering if it wouldn't be an improvement that the money is set aside after successfully completing each 20% of credit hours for graduation.  It would equate to 15% for each fifth of course work and 25% for graduation.  Money would be paid out 5 years from first class taken unless a player graduates earlier but I'm sure banks would loan money based on the payout guarentee (you can't move payout earlier as that would incent players to leave school).  This would limit the issues of player cuts and also keep players out of debt.  It would still incent players to focus on their coursework.  The downside is because the players eligible for money would be expanded, the payout would be less but this system seems fairer all around.