why and how NCAA athletes should be paid

Historically, I've not been a fan of payment for college athletes, though I have forever been a strong supporter of the awardance of athletic scholarships. But with maturity - and age - our ideas and perceptions of the world in which we reside often change, and on this issue mine certainly has.

College athletes bear responsibilities and face pressures other college students do not. Their schedules are packed with practices and road trips that take them out of class and away from their peers. It can be difficult for athletes to effectively immerse themselves in their campus communities. And for the star athletes at the major programs in the "big-money" sports, life is far more complex. These young men and women are asked to live celebrity lives on their respective campuses, on a less than meager college student budget. Thus, it's not surprising that prominent college athletes are often involved in scandals involving illegal financial perks.

As a current grad student, I have an assistantship that pays me a modest stipend and offers me enough tuition remission to cover all the credits I'm taking this year. NCAA athletes are often granted the latter, but why not the former. They serve their institutions just as I am serving mine, and dedicate a comparable number of hours per week - 20 in my case - to their sport. If athletes were given a stipend - nothing extravagant but enough to have pizza and "beverage" money and a little pocket change left over - I'd like to think that the temptation to take illegal financial handouts would be lessened. I'm not about to take the leap to believe that it would be negated and do acknowledge that this proposal does not address the dirty side of recruiting at the big time schools.

Ultimately, I do think this is the type of action the NCAA ought to be considering - too often it appears to be a reactionary agency. Also, I want to make clear that if a system of athletic stipends were instituted, there should be no differences made across sport, conference or division. The starting middle linebacker at the University of Texas should receive no more or less financial compensation than the backup left small forward on the women's basketball team at Lebanon Valley College. I know student athletes receive a significant advantage in the admission process, but their admission is complicated by factors the majority of students never have to consider and their value to their institution is one that I feel is unquantifiable, and thus should not be categorically prejudged resulting in the dismissal of such outside-the-box thinking.