After reading the "Greedy NCAA needs to pay its athletes" (SN 9/13) column, I could not help but completely disagree with paying athletes. When the article claims that athletes are "hoaxed into rigorous training to make money for their university," I can only laugh. The NCAA structure that is presented as an evil villain is the same one that provides the opportunity for these athletes to earn scholarships, the chance to improve their talents and perhaps, one day, earn million-dollar paychecks in the NFL or other sports leagues. Now they should pay them, too?

The article mentions the revenues of the universities through ticket sales, merchandise and other sources of income, which are implied to go straight to the NCAA and universities' pockets. The universities are said to be, "rolling in dough." What is not mentioned are the million-dollar contracts for the head coaches at major universities, equipment costs, traveling, field maintenance, utilities, whole weight rooms and practice fields and the cost of the scholarships. These costs negate the profits of ticket sales and such pretty quickly. Not to mention the fact that most university sport programs don't even make a profit, especially non-spectator sports like swimming, lacrosse and field hockey. At a lucky university, maybe one or two of the sports programs makes a major profit for the university and the NCAA itself, but the other teams most likely lose a significant amount, which negates any real profits for the colleges. If the NCAA were to pay every player, I doubt that it would be able to survive.

At the end, it mentions that athletes can't find jobs with their hectic schedules. This is true, except they don't play the whole year. I'm sure these athletes could find a part-time job during their off-season. Frankly, I don't know where all this money to pay every single athlete would come from.

To implement such a plan, tuition would have to be raised to help the NCAA bear the cost, which I don't think would go over too well with most students.

Paying athletes just so they can afford a few more Jimmy John's sandwiches in their spare time is not a logical or economical problem for any university or the NCAA to even consider.

Robert Mead
advertising junior