A recently analysis shows that college football players are worth a half million each to their respective schools.

Subsequently, Dartmouth College student Joshua Schiefelbein has very free-market based query:

Since college athletics became a lucrative business, there has been constant debate about what constitutes an amateur student-athlete. But in just the past couple months, the debate surrounding pay-for-play has come to a head, with decisions likely to come in the next two years.

The NCAA, colleges and the media have all been investigating and hosting public discussions, attempting to find a solution to the dilemma that’s threatening to remove “amateur” from college athletics.

“One thing that sets the fundamental is there’s very few members, and virtually no university president, that think it’s a good idea to convert student-athletes into paid employees, literally into professionals,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in an interview at Marquette University. “Then you have something very different from collegiate athletics. One of the guiding principles [of the NCAA] has been that this is about students who play sports.”

Dartmouth women’s soccer coach Theresa Romagnolo, a graduate of the University of Washington, does not believe it is time for student-athletes to be paid.

“I understand where it comes from,” Romagnolo said. “Especially football. Football players at the big schools, they’re not getting paid but they’re raising an incredible amount of money for their institutions. At the same time, the other sports can only function because of the revenue football’s bringing. I think that’s kind of what college athletics is about, creating more participation among different sports for males and females.”

Men’s soccer coach Chad Riley agreed, but said some special circumstances warrant financial assistance.

…Dartmouth athletes said the Colleges’ athletics atmosphere differs from major programs and that pay-for-play does not incite as much controversy.“Playing a sport like football is a significant time commitment, but we understand what we’re undertaking,” co-captain Garrett Waggoner ’13 said. “It’s not a burden, and we enjoy the camaraderie.”Dartmouth offers need-based financial aid, and all aid is separate from the football program.Waggoner said he might support students in larger programs receiving small stipends.

“If students are forced to live without something basic because they have no opportunity to get a job to buy necessities because they were playing football, then something additional, within a reasonable amount, should be fine,” he said.

Riley and Romagnolo both agreed that amateurism should be maintained in college sports.

“It’s not a professional sport, and the primary reason people go to college is education first and not to be a professional,” Romagnolo said. “A scholarship to me is like getting paid, because you’re getting some or all of your education paid for.”