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.

Should college football players get more money?

A discussion occurred on the topic of paying football players more money.  The comments that got me to respond were these:

• We can't expect these guys to eat all their meals at the cafeteria and do nothing else but eat, sleep, study, and play football.
• He isn't talking about survival, he is talking about a quality of life.
• This is part of the reason why this country's economy is in such bad shape. Too many people trying to live beyond their means. It's not enough to have the basics, they have to have more. If someone wants something beyond that they need to budget and save, not ask someone else for more.

Here's my thoughts:
If college football used the free market they'd be paying millions in salary.  A free college degree isn't nothing

but it isn't close to market value at Ohio State.  Just to give you an example:  The NFL is the only free market football system we have in the United States and their contract requires that player salaries equate to a little over 50% of revenue.  When you consider that Ohio State football brought in over $70mm last year, if college football paid its athletes like the NFL, they'd have to pay $35 million to the players.  If you divide the $35 million by 85 scholarship players you get and average payout of over $400k which is over 10x more than they receive in scholarship benefits.

I'm not sure if you know this but there was a study done last year to calculate the cost of attending college that aren't covered by a scholarship.  It estimated the average at almost $3000 with Ohio State one of the highest with a  $4572 shortfall annually.

I don't have a problem with the current system because the situation is much more complicated than paying fair market as that would effectively end non-revenue sports in the country.  What I don't understand is why we can't pay the full costs of attendance that the NCAA itself acknowledges.  $4572 per player at Ohio State isn't a ton of money ($389k) when you look at the overall budget and it at least lessens the need for players to go elsewhere to look for alternative ways to get money.

The current system was fine 50 years ago but TV has changed everything.  It's well past time to try to make it a little fairer.