On Second Thought, Pay The Players
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By DERON SNYDER
The NCAA is patting itself on the back after passing a series of sweeping changes that will make cheating costlier for coaches and athletic programs. The threat of season-long suspensions, lengthier postseason bans and heftier fines is supposed to cleanse the underbelly of big-time college sports.
But all this latest reform does is ignore the driving force behind the sordid issues — money. In the process, the NCAA has lost a longtime supporter of its quaint amateurism.
I give up. Count me among the growing chorus of voices who call for demolishing the current structure, not tweaking it.
“As hard as the NCAA tries to push holdouts like me into the ‘pay-for-play’ camp, I’m still not there,” read words in this space last year. ” I still disagree with the notion that student-athletes should be paid.
“Clarification: I continue to believe they’re paid enough, in the form of tuition, room, board, travel, training, gear and health care.”
That was before The Six Major Conferences continued to act like The Six Major Crime Families, engaging in another round of turf battles. That was before Alabama football coach Nick Saban received a raise and extension, taking his average salary to $5.6 million annually through 2019. And that was before Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch’s 14,000-word report in The Atlantic, detailing the NCAA’s despicable nature.
