Group Wants Fans to Pay College Athletes
The N.C.A.A. has aggressively pushed back against efforts to pay athletes.
The New York Times reports.
If Colleges Can’t Pay Athletes, Maybe Fans Can, Group Says
The Clemson Tigers, with a 13-0 record and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, are perched atop the college football world. Their dream season has produced priceless exposure for the university and a multimillion-dollar playoff payout for the Atlantic Coast Conference, of which Clemson is a member.
Now, a group with strong ties to the university wants to make sure the next wave of players is paid for its efforts. And the group’s members think they can do it without breaking N.C.A.A. rules.
The answer to the riddle of putting money in the hands of amateur student-athletes, who according to the N.C.A.A. cannot be paid, is crowdfunding, said Rob Morgan, a Clemson business school graduate and an anesthesiologist based in Greenville, S.C. His new website, UBooster, started on Friday with the goal of soliciting payments for high school recruits from fans, and delivering the money to the athletes after their college careers end.
If Colleges Can’t Pay Athletes, Maybe Fans Can, Group Says (The New York Times)
Comments
Fans already pay via parking fees, ticket prices, concession prices, and by the goods and services that fans buy from advertisers. If college athletes will earn a salary, then draw from the existing monies that fans pay. More payments would be outrageous. Time to change the business model.
That has been the point from the beginning. College sports are cash cows for big universities, all built on the false premise that it’s good for the athletes because they are getting college educations (which most do not). The reality is college sports are simply State subsidized farm systems for professional sports, mainly football and basketball.