re: Dell McGee signs 2 year extension

quote:

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4 years of tuition with room, housing, parking passes, meals, books, classroom materials is more than $75k.

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That $75k value is only realized if the reasons those things are given are also realized (i.e. a Bachelor's degree and/or an NFL career of 7-8+ years). Unlike $75k, you can't put room, housing, meals, and books into a money market account to build interest and draw on later. Unless those various things result in the aforementioned degree or longterm career, a player has received nothing for their efforts but 4-5 years of a place to sleep and food to eat.

So, it's not that players in general are never compensated for their efforts. However, if a school recruits an academically underprepared kid and sells him on the idea that he'll be a surefire future multi-year all pro without a meaningful effort to also help him earn a degree when that original pitch inevitably goes to shite (statistically speaking), then they've shanghaied that kid into working for free. The problem is that the exact scenario I just put forth happens all the time all over the place. It's not every football player but it's enough to require some change (fwiw, I don't think schools should be writing students checks but the NCAA should give up the amateurism charade and let guys like Gurley and AJ Green profit off of their own likeness if they so choose).