I wonder if this story has any traction? I hope so.
this is from Conference-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky.
Well, according to your link, it looks like the SEC and Big 10 officials are interested, so it may have legs. I used to adamantly oppose this kind of thing, but not so much anymore. I’d at least be willing to consider doing something…maybe give them “work/study jobs” where they get paid for a few hours a week…say official practice time counts as hours worked for minimum wage maybe. Give the kids a little pocket money, and save us fans from hearing about “scandals” involving some kid getting a pair of sneakers and a free long distance call to his parents.
I don’t know how this could be workable unless all the D-I teams are in on it. If only the SEC and Big 10 gave players stipends, it would give them a HUGE recruiting advantage. Then other conferences will be forced to go along to stay competitive, and you would see some escalation between conferences.
If the NCAA passed a rule that all D-I school can and must give their football players $X of money per month (say $100), no more, no less, then it would work out fine.
It’s kind of a slippery slope though. Sure OSU football team beings in lots of dough and they may deserve some sort of stipend but what about the pole vaulters or the lacrosse players? Then you basically draw a line between the “real athletes” (basketball, football, baseball) and the “school days athletes” (track and field, lacrosse, all womens sports).
How do you reconcile that without people getting butt hurt by reality?