Since the College of New Jersey played Rutgers in 1869 in the first ever college football game (Rutgers won 6-4), college athletics have brought in fans by the hundreds of thousands every week while NCAA matchups regularly find themselves on primetime television, often pulling far more viewers than their counterparts in the NFL and NBA.

In fact, in 2016 the average FBS football game brought in 43,106 fans per game. That’s the average across over 130 schools nationwide, which means some are pulling in crowds that well exceed that number on a weekly basis. University’s athletic departments are often some of the primary sources of funding and remain a recruiting factor for potential students contemplating on which school to attend. Not to mention, we’ve all seen that map that goes around Facebook that shows the highest paid public employee in every state is either a college football or basketball coach. 

It’s no secret that the NCAA has a profitable fanbase; die-hard fans pay hundreds of dollars for tickets, make trips across the country to see their team play and in some instances donate massive sums of money to school’s athletic departments or facilities.

Considering the media exposure combined with the brand that some of these student-athletes build for themselves, it only makes sense that these players get paid. So why aren’t they?

Why NCAA athletes aren’t being paid

The NCAA keeps and handful of excuses in their back pocket as to why they don’t compensate their athletes, the primary reason being the fact that the nCAA is a non-profit organization so theres no legal requirement for them to pay their players. Another popular excuse historically has been the fact that many of these top tier athletes are getting a free education, but are they really?

Anyone who’s been to a big University knows that the football and basketball players are assigned tutors who do their homework and help them take their tests. People who’ve had class with student athletes will tell you that very little is expected of them and they rarely are required to even show up.

If the payment for playing football is a free education, why are student athletes given a pass on the education part? Because the NCAA’s reasoning to not pay athletes is complete crap and they know it.

Athletes are given a pass in the classroom because these universities know that having a good football or basketball team is far more profitable than having a good science or business program. Using education as an excuse allows these schools to keep millions of dollars in their pockets that would otherwise be paid to the players who bring all this money to campus. In addition, having top notch athletic programs also gives schools boatloads of free TV exposure. 

Another reason for not compensating student athletes for their participation is the logic that, “If we pay one team, we have to pay them all”, when in reality, you don’t.

I’m not making an argument that swimmers, gymnasts and track runners should be getting paid thousands of dollars by their schools; only teams that generate large profits should pay their athletes, that’s just how capitalism works. But lord knows if Alabama starts paying their football players the money they deserve (they probably already do), some chicks on their soccer team will demand money because they’re student athletes too. Let me make this clear, if you’re a student athlete playing a sport that doesn’t drive a profit, you should be more than thankful to the University because you’re playing a sport that nobody cares about while traveling the country all on their dollar (aka your classmates’ tuition).

If NCAA athletes are to be paid what they deserve, not a single cross country runner, soccer player, track athlete or gymnast will ever get their share, that’s just reality. Those sports don’t bring in crowds of thousands or make millions of advertising dollars on TV.

Another reason student-athletes aren’t paid by the NCAA is because it “wouldn’t be fair to other students”. This logic can be easily blown apart by a tweet from Ohio State Quarterback Joey Burrow.

I know it’s 2017 and we don’t wanna say anything that hurts anyone’s feelings (even if it’s true), but this tweet hits the nail on the head. Ohio State’s football team is worth 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS, that’s more than some NFL teams and probably every team in the NHL. These players make hundreds of millions of dollars for their schools but if they receive any sort of compensation on campus, the NCAA brings the hammer down and the FBI gets involved.

Even if the NCAA implemented a policy that let schools pay their players, it’s inevitable that some snowflake will start a student protest on how regular students aren’t treated fairly. If you’re part of an organization that’s worth over a billion dollars, you deserve your piece of the pie, end of story.

Another argument that can be made against paying student athletes is that if the NCAA allows payment of student athletes, unfair competition would be created due to some schools ability to pay more than others. It’s no secret that if college football players got paid, schools like Florida State, Clemson and Georgia would have a little more money to throw around than a Kansas State or Purdue.

A salary cap would have to be set up relative to the amount of money each school’s football team is worth combined with the amount of scholarships these teams would regularly be allowed to give. That way you wouldn’t have schools willing to spend $100 million on a good recruiting class. The contracts would also likely have to be performance based, where players are paid at the end of the season. This way the schools aren’t just throwing money at 17 year olds on their college visits.

It’s not my place to be talking about how much money each athlete should be pad, I’m in no position to determine an athlete’s monetary value to their school. If policy changes someday and student athletes get paid their due, there will be experts who are paid to make the decision, so I’m gonna leave it to them. To use Johnny Manziel as a measuring stick, TIME Magazine estimated he would have made $225,000 the year he won the Heisman trophy at Texas A&M. He was featured on TIME’s cover, with the text, “It’s time to pay college athletes”. 

Final reason: The NCAA is corrupt. Simple as that.

For decades, NCAA employees and officials have been caught up in scandals that range from child abuse to hiring escorts for recruits. In fact just this morning, four assistant basketball coaches we’re arrested by the FBI in part of a fraud and corruption investigation. The NCAA is no beacon of light with a moral compass that can’t be swayed. It’s is a greasy organization that makes its money at the expense of athletes who are given nothing.

So why should student athletes get paid?

1. Student athletes bring in boatloads of money to their schools with no reimbursement

If I didn’t mention this before, college sports bring in a TON OF MONEY to their schools. The NCAA has a fan base so large that of the ten largest stadiums in the world, eight exclusively house college football teams. 

College athletics are bringing in huge crowds which come with massive profit margins. If you’re a star athlete on a team who plays in front of 90,000 fans regularly, you deserve to be paid for your contributions to your school, end of story.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the numbers (via Forbes).

Top 5 NCAA Football Teams by Net Worth

Football isn’t the only college sport seeing programs made of gold. NCAA basketball programs nationwide are worth millions despite having just a fraction of the players football has. Despite the smaller overall numbers, each basketball player at these schools are highly valuable. Forbes calculated the average Duke Basketball player to be worth $1.3 million per season.

Top 5 NCAA Basketball Teams by Net Worth

Some schools generate revenue in sports that take a back seat to the big two. Although these profit margins are minuscule in comparison, many of these athletes deserve to be paid for their contributions to their school’s athletic departments. (This data comes from collegeraptor.com)

2017 Top Earner in Other NCAA Sports

Are these programs pulling in the amount that football and basketball teams are pulling? Not by any means. That doesn’t change the fact that the schools are profiting off student-athletes and the players should be paid accordingly.

Multimillion dollar companies that profit from free, dangerous labor? Sounds a lot like what Apple and Nike do in southeast Asia.

     2.) Athletes are put at risk while their schools benefit

Injuries happen, especially in football. It seems almost every week a big name bound for the pros goes down with an ACL or some other injury. Some of these players take out insurance policies to protect their bodies in case of injury, but for most student-athletes, a torn knee can be a life-altering injury.

For example, in week one of the college football season, FSU quarterback and Heisman frontrunner Deondre Francois went down against Alabama with a knee injury and won’t return for the rest of the season. This is a student whose football career is now in jeopardy and unless he recovers and goes to the NFL, will never have a payday to show for it. If premiere NCAA athletes were paid, Francois could at least be reimbursed for his contributions to the school.

The looming reality of a potential career-ending injury weighs heavily on these players, and some have chosen to actually take out policies in case their path to the pros sees some turbulence. Prior to the 2016 NCAA football season, then LSU running back Leonard Fournette took out a policy in case he faced injury in his final season.

According to CBS Sports, “The policies bought by his parents cover him for $10 million in total disability in the event of a career-ending injury and $10 million for circumstances that would lead to him falling from his projected NFL draft spot.”

Luckily the policy was never used as Fournette was taken 4th in the NFL draft by Jacksonville.

If these athletes have enough at stake that they need to take out multimillion dollar insurance policies, it’s a no brainer that these athletes are doing work worthy of heavy monetary compensation.

      3.) Athletes don’t have the time to make money on their own.

The NCAA claims their student-athletes do all their own work (Which we know is a lie), but if they did, how are they expected to provide for themselves? College students often have part time jobs to make money to get themselves through the semester. If you’re a student athlete who has practice twice a day, games every Saturday, travel often and take 12 or more credits, where will you find time to make money? You won’t.

Yes, many for your meals will be provided for you and some living expense will be paid depending on your situation but there’s no way to make extra spending money. You want to buy a new TV so you can watch highlights of the game you played in on SportsCenter? Too bad, because the NCAA says you can’t get paid and your football coach and professors don’t give you enough free time to earn money.

      4.) Being a student athlete can deprive kids of their college experience.

Lets not forget the intense scrutiny the NCAA puts these athletes under just because they play games on TV. Stupid things college kids often do can wind up on the news if done by an athlete. These headlines often cause draft stock to fall. We all remember the way the internet treated Jameis Winston after he stole those crab legs from grocery store. That was just a 19 year old kid making a dumb decision and instead of being punished like any other student would, it became a national headline that luckily didn’t hurt his draft stock. Now, if FSU paid him the money he deserved for winning the Heisman and bringing a national title to Tallahassee, he probably wouldn’t have had to steal the crab legs to begin with.

When these kids go out for the night, they can’t let loose and do the usual stupid shit that drunk college guys wanna do after dark. They can’t take funny snapchats of their friends passed out, they can’t use a fake ID to get into a bar for the night, they can’t be seen at an large event without having 50 phone cameras pointed at them and they can’t fire off a dumb tweet that anyone else would say without it ending up on ESPN. These athletes are forced to walk the straight and narrow and are criticized mercilessly when they step out of that line.

      5.) College sports are (often) a better product than the pros

The debate of whether NFL or NCAA football is better is as old as time itself. NCAA games on average have more scoring, big plays, over time games and turnovers. Not to mention, every college football game leaves everything at stake. The second you lose one, maybe two games in a season, that’s it, you’re not winning the championship. These kids play with their whole season on the line week in and week out while NFL players can lose five games and still make the playoffs while making millions of dollars. College football players deserve payment for their commitment to their programs.

Don’t even get me started on college basketball. NCAA basketball is far more competitive than the NBA. They call the tournament ‘March Madness’ for a reason. In College ball, anything can happen any week. If you’re one of 64 teams invited to play in March, you have a shot at the crown just like the big dogs. On the other hand, with the NBA, we are given a very predictable regular season and even more predictable postseason. 2018 SPOILER: the Cavs and Warriors will play in the finals and Warriors will win in 6 games. Tell me that won’t be the case.

     6.) Athletic Department recruit non-athletes to attend school there

My final point is one that’s often overlooked; being a big sports school betters your campus altogether. Think about how many students have chosen Alabama over UAB, Northwestern over Illinois or Ohio State over Ohio. Schools with massive athletic departments recruit tons of students simply on the basis they they have pride in those teams either as lifelong fans, or they simply want to join the frenzy of college sports. These schools often have bigger greek programs, more extracurriculars (parties) and more reasons for students to get together and rally. Attending a school with one of these mega teams allows for their students to bond and unite with one another in ways that students at others schools simply can’t. Almost all college alumni with a great sense of pride show their support exclusively through athletic competition, you’ll see way more alumni at a tailgate than at a debate. This pull of students accounts for hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition costs and other expenses annually at each of these schools.

NCAA student-athletes bring publicity and money to schools in ways that otherwise aren’t achievable. As long as student-athletes aren’t paid by the NCAA for the sacrifices they make, they’re being ripped off and jeopardizing their careers while the university board members profit week in and week out.  

[CONSPIRACY THEORY]

Texans QB Deshaun Watson gave his first NFL game check to NRG Stadium workers because he was paid under the table when he played at Clemson. Whatever they paid him must’ve been worth it, can’t put a price on a national title.

RELATED: NFL Picks – Week 8

9/25/2017 – A week ago, Vikings fans we’re given a piss poor performance in Pittsburgh emphasized by the last second decision to start CAse Keenum over the injured Sam Bradford. The team struggled mightily on offense while lack of production and discipline gave the feeling that the team was never truly in the game.

Yesterday was a different story. With a winning record on the line and Case Keenum under center for the second straight game, the Vikings came out on fire, jumping to a 28-3 lead that eventually ended in a 34-17 trouncing of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Keenum threw for 369 yards, 3 TDs and a 142 QBR; if any other QB on the roster did that (Sam or Teddy), he would be deemed ‘The Guy’. The offensive numbers produced by this year’s team are promising. The Vikings are second in the league in total offense and have scored 8 touchdowns through three games. These numbers could be smoke and mirrors as the team hasn’t truly been tested by a competent opponent (Pittsburgh counted until their loss to Chicago). I think if the offensive line continues to succeed, the offense as a unit will succeed as well, but not at the current rate.

The defense continues to be impressive as expected, Jameis Winston was under fire all game and star WR Mike Evans couldn’t get anything going against Xavier Rhodes, prompting him to flip over a water cooler in the second half of yesterday’s game. Trae Waynes continues to develop into the player we all expect he can be, snagging another huge pick while covering Desean Jackson. Waynes continues to get picked on relentlessly by opposing QBs, which luckily has given him the opportunity to make some big plays. If this team is gonna be division rival Detroit next week, the defense needs to come out hungry like yesterday.

Mike Zimmer says Bradford remains day to day and will play when medically cleared. This means that if he plays, Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen could be primed for huge games next Sunday. Darius Slay Jr. on Stefon Diggs will be a premier position battle next week, one that’s likely to draw some media attention.

If the Vikings are gonna keep the hot hand and win their first division game next week, three things must come into fruition. First, the defense has to play they way they did against New Orleans and Tampa Bay. If they play like they did in Pittsburgh, Matt Stafford and his receiving core will make us pay. Second, the offensive line needs to continue to mesh as a unit and win the individual battles like they did against Tampa. The fact that their past two performances have been night and day is a scary thought for fans and coaches. At this point the way they pay will either be very good or very bad, we have yet to see any stability or consistency. Finally, our receivers, mainly Diggs and Theilen need to get open fast enough for Keenum to find them without being sacked. As we learned last year, the Lions are no longer a gimme-game and their secondary is good enough to suppress our receiving core for long stretches during the game. To beat Detroit, we need to continue to get clutch, timely plays from Diggs and Theilen.

Dalvin has continued to succeed in this offense and by season’s end will likely have the bests stats of any position player on the team. This shouldn’t be taken lightly as this is the best group of skill players this franchise has seen since 2009. Dalvin Cook is also a factor in the Detroit game, but given the consistency and style of his play, he’s guaranteed to get his (estimated) 80 yards and a touchdown. 

It’ll be a close one and I think offensive productivity, the penalty battle and timely turnovers will decide this game. Keep in mind , if the Vikings win, our  Season Preview will be 4-0 to start the season.

Prediction: Vikings 24 – Lions 20

The Vikings front office doesn’t want to win.

I’m in my 20s and have never (and probably will never) experience a true championship from a team I care about (no offense, Minnesota Lynx or Gopher Men’s Hockey). Despite what you hear on the Vikings’ social media, their radio affiliate KFAN 100.3 or vikings.com’s talking head Mike Wobschall, the Vikings’ front office does not prioritize winning. There are countless pieces of evidence I can use to back up this statement, here are a few:

The People’s Stadium:

The Vikings built a BILLION DOLLAR stadium with TAXPAYER money to replace the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Basically, the front office built venue where the team is more likely to lose and at our expense. Although building a billion dollar stadium seems like a move that would promote winning, it really isn’t and I’ll tell you why.

Remember the Vikings’ heyday when the team dominated the NFC, won NFL Championships (not Super Bowls) and made it to 4 super bowls in 1 decade? They we’re playing at Metropolitan Stadium, an OUTDOOR venue in Bloomington that was pulled down to build the Mall of America *shudders*. When the Vikings played outdoors, they had one major component that established a massive home field advantage; the blistering cold of Minnesota winters. Teams dreaded playing here because no one wanted to play in subzero temps which gave the team an advantage come late season and playoffs. Every Super Bowl appearance by this franchise came when they played outdoors. Just think, every time the Packers or Patriots play a home game late in the season or in the playoffs, sports media always talks about how the cold gives them the advantage. The Wilf family could have built an outdoor stadium for less money and gave the team a better chance to win. Instead they built a giant concert hall with a Vikings logo in the middle. The Wilf’s have been popping champagne every time another event comes to town because they make a shit load of money. When was the last time you popped champagne after a Vikings season?

Remember 2 seasons ago when the Vikes played outdoors? They went 11-5, won the division and would have won a playoff game had Blair Walsh not missed a 27 yard chip shot. The next year at the new stadium? 8-8. Team was piss poor and fans often left in the 3rd quarter. The atmosphere was corporate and the fans brought in we’re just rich bozos who wanted to sit inside a big building and drink 13 dollar beers, not cheer on a football team.

The outdoors embodies a better atmosphere as well, especially when it’s late december and below freezing when the stadium is filled with only the most hard-core and devoted fans. The only game I was able to attend during our run at TCF Bank Stadium was a sunday night dismantling of the Giants in late December where the Vikings won 49-17. So why are the Wilf’s paying more money to throw away our home field advantage? I’ll tell you why. They want to make more money. They don’t care about the fans or the product on the field. Unless action is taken by the fan base, Zygi Wilf will continue to profit at your expense. To any lifelong Vikings’ fans out there: think of how much emotional stock you’ve invested in this team. Now tell me what you have to show for it.

Prioritizing profit margins over on-field results:Because the team plays  indoors, US Bank attracts massive events like concerts, the X-Games, the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, exhibition soccer matches, the list goes on. You know what that means? Zygi used YOUR tax money so they could get even richer while failing to give the team its’ best opportunity to win. You’re unfathomably rich Zygi, you don’t need to buy a  football team. Buy stocks or start a company or invest in Amazon or some shit. Super glad that you’re making billions of dollars at the expense of a fanbase who has never won a super bowl and still watches the piss poor product you put on the field every season. There are seriously millions of ways these clowns could make money that have nothing to do with sports. Let me be very clear: If you own a football team or any sports franchise for that matter, you owe it to the fanbase to do everything possible in order to win. If you’re not willing to do that, go buy 500 Subway franchises, I prefer Dairy Queen anyways. See you in hell.

By the way Zygi is from New Jersey so there’s not a chance he cares about this team the way the fans do. And if you doubt that profit is his primary goal, in 2013, he and his brother Mark were found liable for FRAUD and RACKETEERING by the state of New Jersey. I’m amazed he’s never been charged in Minnesota because this team has been fraudulent for decades.  

Let me state this very clearly: The Wilf family does not want to win; they want to promote false hope and get even richer at your expense. If the owners of a team like the Patriots or Steelers pulled this kind of crap, the fan base would hang them in town square (not actually but who knows). So let’s grab our torches and pitchforks and make it known that this fanbase is tired of the nonsense that the front office pulls on us year in and year out.

Unwillingness to spend big money in free agency:

The Wilf’s  want to operate for as cheap as possible. Granted they’re not the Twins but they’re sure not the Cowboys. Number 1 wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and Eric Decker are free agents right now and who do we go after? Michael Floyd who get released from the Cardinals following a DUI and couldn’t put up even average numbers with TOM BRADY at QB at the end of last season. That’ll work out real well, I bet we can get something out of Floyd that the Pats couldn’t. Get real. Seriously though, when was the last time we got a big name free agent? We got Brett Favre in ‘09, and we only landed him because he wanted to make his ex team jealous then ended up losing in the NFC title game, but that’s a whole different story. 

Don’t get me wrong, I wanted Mike Floyd to succeed on our team but this move was by all means the cheap way out to make up for last years BUST of a first round pick in Laquon Treadwell. Now in perfect Vikings fashion, Floyd likely won’t even play this season due to probation violations, good thing we didn’t go after Eric Decker right? Just magine if we had taken a first round talent at offensive line instead of Treadwell. Do Zygi and Spielman know anything about football? We should run those clowns out of town, have them manage an arena league team in New Mexico or something.

The Draft:

Recent draft picks also put the Wilfs’ commitment to winning in question, or at least their ability to seek out good draft picks year by year.

• Exhibit A-Trading up for Dalvin Cook when Joe Mixon was the better player. The organization did this because they prioritize public perception over on-field results. The front office did it for PR reasons but guess what; Dalvin Cook was accused of hitting a woman too, and has been in bar fights. None of these altercations drew convictions so I’m gonna assume he’s innocent because no settlements were made in his non-guilty verdicts. This is not a slam on Dalvin Cook, I actually liked the pick and I like Dalvin as a player a lot, super glad that he’s a Viking. However, off the field issues aside, Joe Mixon was TOP 5 TALENT in a draft where we DIDN’T PICK IN THE FIRST ROUND. We had a chance for a steal of a pick and ended up trading away more picks for the lesser player, typical Vikes. Remember when we sat AP for a whole a season when we didn’t need to? That was near the end of his prime and we ended up like 5-11 that year. Seriously what did we have to lose there? Could’ve given Teddy a lot of help in his rookie season. Once again, the front office makes these moves citing off the field issues, THEN WE PICK UP PLAYERS WITH OFF THE FIELD ISSUES. For example, Cook (allegedly hit a woman, knocked a guy out at a bar), Michael Floyd (arrested for DUI last season with the Cardinals) or Tom Johnson (disorderly conduct, wound up getting tazed in Minneapolis restaurant) Floyd failed his alcohol tests as a result of probation and probably won’t even be on the field, typical Vikes. These are just current players, this franchise led the NFL in arrests from 2000-2012. Remember the SS Loveboat? Okay nevermind, that was pretty cool. So why are we picking now to get all soft and avoid the PR hit? The Patriots employed Aaron Hernandez for god’s sake and they’ve won 5 super bowls, just saying.
• Exhibit B– We took Anthony Barr at number 12 in a draft where Derek Carr was still available. Look at the Raiders and look at us, who’s more primed to make a playoff run next season? Anthony Barr was unreal his first season and a half but his play has since severely declined. I say the team gives him one more year as a starter before we pursue a new linebacker.
• Exhibit C– Christian Ponder at number 12 in the 2011 draft, nuff said.
• Exhibit D– Treadwell in the first round last year. Rookie stats: 1 reception, 15 yards.

In our last 5 drafts, the only player who is still impactful on this team is CB Xavier Rhodes, so I’ll give them some credit there because X is a true shutdown corner. Our 2 other first rounders from the season? Cordarrelle Patterson who we let go, and Sharrif Floyd who’s been on IR for ever now but I will admit he was good when he played. In addition I still think we could have gotten Bradford without giving up a first rounder, Spielman was desperate and got soft in the negotiating room. I know I’m gonna get ripped for these takes but if you disagree with me, you’re probably a Minnesotan whose accepted their fate as a loser.

The fans:

An increasingly soft fan base has allowed this behavior, the fans are very much to blame. Remember when Walsh missed the field goal and 4th graders were writing him letters and it was on the news? What the hell was that? When I was in 4th grade I would have written him a nice little letter in class that said something like “you failed to do your job at the easiest position in sports. I can’t wait until you work at a verizon store” or something like that. Classic “Minnesota Nice” aka “I have to be nice because I have no right to be a dick because every team in my state sucks”. Why do you think Massholes are so cocky and arrogant all the time? I would be too if we won in ANYTHING JUST ONCE. When the Vikings were 5-0 at the bye I was treating people like dirt, it was awesome. These are just a few components that make up a rich history of losing and disappointment, much of which can be credited to the collective losing culture embodied by the piss-poor franchises in town. If more people start to hold owners, coaches, players and GMs accountable, maybe we wouldn’t lose all the time. Just a thought.