re: APU - where do you stand?

Not all players get Pell grants and the "stipend" pays for room and board and meal plan. Back when they had Athletic dorms you did not get these monies.

This is not just about free money for playing football. It is about schools only,having to honor scholarships for one year and about not paying for medical related expenses once an injury occurs or once that is a chronic injury sustained during play at the school.

...and the of you don't like it, quit it thing is obviously a sophomoric jab. If you do not like Americas politics leave it.... Right?

Most big football schools have a football team that pays for ALL the other teams and still donates to the school... Also, the teams increase the exposure of the school which is important to them beyond the tangible dollars.

Coach Dooley made $250k towards the end of his career. mark Richt makes well over 10x that and he does not have a NC under his belt. ESPN.... Billions... Nike Millions... They make directly off the play of the players. It was not like that just 20 years ago.

This is such a money maker that schools, even good ones, all but disregard their academic standards and create programs to process these student athletes through the money making system. It is a system that by design, is made to keep kids available for football play and when they can not play, they are left with all but useless credits or degrees and debilitating injuries.

It is easy for grown ups to judge the decisions of 18 year olds, but the people the 18 year olds trust are in the business of keeping them eligible,..

Someone brought up taxes... Good point... Then what about workman's comp? How many players get hurt on the job? How long do NCAA sanctioned football teams continue to pay for injuries sustained whilst on the job? A person working 12 hours a week at the student bookstore has more workman's comp rights than a football player who gets paralyzed.
The affects, long term, of football are debilitating. These are things 18 year olds can not comprehend. Most guys by their early 40s have advanced arthritis and way too many die of heart disease due to enlarged hearts due to steroid use.... Which is passive aggressively encouraged...

I'd love to go back to regional TV, no corp sponsors for Bowl games, and players recruited from student body. It would still be fun to watch and the G would be more important to me than anything else.... But we are so far removed from that now