by Zach Bigalke

Created on: October 20, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Should collegiate athletes receive payment for competing in college athletics? These student-athletes are already making thousands of dollars a year with their full scholarships and state-of-the-art training facilities and first-class travel accommodations... giving these young men (and women, though I imagine that this centers more around BCS football and the boys of March madness...) monetary incentives beyond this reeks of reestablishing the power structure which pervaded college football in the 1980s and early 1990s. Before scholarship quantities were reduced, colleges such as Nebraska and Miami and Florida State and Notre Dame etc. were able to stockpile the most talented players in the country. Running six- and seven-deep at some positions, these powerhouse teams attracted players to a situation where they might not play in a game for three of their four years. Why would anyone get into a situation where they are riding the pine and waiting vainly for their chance?

As history has brought to light, recruiting violations have occurred throughout the decades. Even in this era, supposedly cleaner and fairer than any in the past with the advent of the computer-assisted Bowl Championship Series, teams seek the unfair edge in getting the very best to take one of their sixty-five scholarship positions. Both Oklahoma and USC have been painted with payment scandals involving boosters and star players. Oklahoma lost a quarterback; USC had its past achievements cast in a damning light as the jury is still out on whether Heisman-winning tailback Reggie Bush and his family received a quarter-million in assets... just so that Reggie could terrorize opposing defenses on any given Saturday...

Big-time Division I-A college football gives these young men the opportunity to showcase their talents, an opening to improve their chances of a fat payday on NFL draft day. And, failing that opportunity, most of these programs are - and I know this might be a real shocker to some - attached and affiliated with a public or private, nationally-accredited institution of higher education. College... these guys are actually still having to enroll there, right? If those Saturday dreams of playing on Sunday never do come to fruition, these young men still have all that knowledge gained Monday through Friday to cash in for a good job in the real world...

Paying these men even more, handing them wads of cash in addition to all those educational bonuses, will only finalize the conversion of

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