Northwestern Football Players are now Full Time Employees

[moparal7]

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/16905/

[RichardPenny43]

Like most your posts, just a link, I value my time too much to read them.
I hope they all get 1099'd now!
Sooo stupid!

[barrytrot]

This is just the first in many changes to college sports. In a couple years they will not only be employees but the basketball, football, and some baseball players will be making decent salaries.

[Hawkeye]

My question is how is this going to effect other teams. The football players might start to get paid, but what about the women's field hockey team? How much do they get? I seriously doubt there will be any common sense used anywhere, so I'm assuming that eventually, if one team gets paid, all other teams will have to be paid equally. I think they are going to eventually regret this move, as I can see it leading to the elimination of various sports programs and, by extension, the elimination of the scholarships that go with them. Can open... worms everywhere.

[hobo finds]

My question is how is this going to effect other teams. The football players might start to get paid, but what about the women's field hockey team? How much do they get? I seriously doubt there will be any common sense used anywhere, so I'm assuming that eventually, if one team gets paid, all other teams will have to be paid equally. I think they are going to eventually regret this move, as I can see it leading to the elimination of various sports programs and, by extension, the elimination of the scholarships that go with them. Can open... worms everywhere.

How about if they get hurt on the job?

[johnbrickner]

I totally support this change. By paying the athletes outright you can remove all the BS that goes with college athletics: Booster club $100 hand shakes; the lack of a real education obtained by the athletes; athletes loosing their scholarships due to injury; athletes who's career ending injury was caused by playing a team way above their heads regarding talent for the gate $$ split; teachers without tenure required to pass specific athletes; athletes getting away with murder (literally;) not to mention the petty misdemeanors swept under the rug; and these are just what I saw during my undergrad in the field. I even wrote a paper in one of my classes supporting it back then. Good change comes slow.

It's a job/profession they get paid for. If they get an education or not, passing grades or not, etc. it no longer matters. They are employees of the university, who make money for the university. No more athletic scholarships! They get hurt on the job it's still the same, the university employee insurance covers it instead of student athlete insurance. Players get paid whatever the university can afford. Very similar to how it is now only they get money instead. I'm sure the athlete will get paid their worth with various schools getting into a bidding war for the best. Women's pro golf gets paid less than men's and so it will be with paid college athletes. The market will bear what it can just as it does with the pros.

Sports programs may be eleminated but title 9 demands equality between men's and women's with regard to total number of teams each. That will not change. Heck, I've seen teams dropped because of non-profit making status (the university can no longer afford) all over the place. This will not change either. Thank god this is finally happening as it will get rid of a lot of stuff fans never see and make the whole thing more transparent for what it is, a stream of revenue for the university.

[Sheikh_yer_Bu'Tay]

My son went to school on a football scholarship. From age 14 on, football was a full time job for him. If I could do it all over, I would have never let him play a single down of the game. Once at college, he had to do "five-a-day" practices until classes started. After classes started, football was still the priority. Studying and making good grades for a career outside of football was not.

Oh, sure, it works real well for the truly gifted ones. Multi-million dollar contracts. Fame. It's a money maker for the elite schools.

For the rest of us it is a financial drain on our resources. School is suppose to be about teaching academics and vocations.