re: Paying the player

quote:

---

Can we stop with this narrative? SEC football players work their asses off, even in 2014. This idea that "oh we had it so much harder back in my day" is arrogant and self serving.

---

No, it is illustrative of the power of using your brain in the down time vs playing xbox 24 / 7 / 365

After WWII you could attend UCLA for about 50 dollars a semester. With inflation that might be like 500 dollars today. Instead that number is more like 15,000 dollars. Throw in room and board and you probably easily double that to 30,000. Nothing has seen such outrageous inflation as college educations over the past generation or two.

Yeah I am older, but I got through college with no debt by working several jobs and averaging 60+ hours a week working. This also meant carrying 18+ hours a semester to get out of school (and turning off the money clock) early. Dad played SEC ball and I was borderline DI but I focused on academics over sports once I got to college as academics seemed the better way to a more assured job after college.

quote:

---

SEC football players work their asses off

---

Some do, and some don't. if you really are working your arse off all the time you are in bed by 11 and you are not out drinking, smoking dope, and getting in sexual assault trouble. Spending actual time around some top players it is much different on how hard they work after practice ends. Some really do use the time and manage it well enough to take that free education and make it work when sports are over. Others are there just to bulk up on their way to the NFL or prison. If you do not acknowledge this, then you indeed are debating with your eyes closed to the actual realities.

If you want to reframe it in a less controversial way than " age of hard work" vs "age of xbox and selfies" then go directly to the real core issue. Time management. If you have a 40 hour a week job to pay for college flipping hamburgers it is the same as having a 40 hour a week job playing sports. Time management is still important in both but if you are paying the freight, you manage your time by eliminating the xbox or dope fix in favor of income.

The difference between a full ride at Vanderbilt and a full ride at free Shoes U is that the kids actually manage their time more effectively which means they are more likely over time to stay out of trouble because they lack the time to do so. If I were in college today I would love access to the academic support some schools provide to their players. That alone would be worth "playing without pay" for 3 or 4 years.