> First, there's the "me too" effect. If colleges pay football players, other athletes will want to be paid. They'll ask, "What makes football special?" and the

> First, there's the "me too" effect. If colleges pay football players, other athletes will want to be paid. They'll ask, "What makes football special?" and they'll have a point. What makes it special is that it's what more people will pay to see. There's more demand for it and so athletes should be paid more to play it. I would imagine college basketball players will also rightfully demand large compensation to play. > Then we'll run into some unhappy truths regarding sports. For example: If colleges base compensation on revenue, the wage gap between male and female athletes will be massive This gulf is already massive in professional sports, but I never hear anyone complaining about it. It's fairly well understood that men's college basketball is more popular than women's college basketball for example (at least by any metric that I can think of), and salaries will probably reflect that. > Then there's the problem of mixing sports and education. If these athletes are paid, do they still have to attend classes? Do they have to get good grades? Are they given scholarships in addition to monetary compensation? No, players who are paid will be employees of the university and will receive a salary and benefits. They will not be students. Perhaps there could be a mechanism in place to allow for some players to receive a scholarship in lieu of payment if they choose to (with the caveat being that they need to be admitted to the University under the same criteria as other non-athlete students), but in reality most of these players in top D1 programs are there to play football or basketball, not to go to class. > Can athletes switch colleges if another school will pay them more? Why not? > It seems to me that most of these problems would be solved by creating a minor league separate from college. If people are so attached to college names, then the colleges can sell naming rights. I agree, and that's basically what this will be. These sports teams will be discrete entities affiliated with the University, but their players will not be students.