Paying athletes is the single worst thing that could happen to college sports.
Without even getting into the potential abuse and issues enforcing the amount given to student athletes, this is a bad idea, and not needed.
This topic generally comes up with respect to football and/or basketball, but is rarely ever discussed with respect to sports that don't generate money. No one seems to consider the fact that if you start paying football players you are going to have to pay EVERY athlete equally. Lacrosse, swimming, golf, women's volleyball, etc. I don't think anyone considers how small of a stipend would be available to the athletes when you also consider that it would have to be an amount that smaller schools could afford.
Also, even if we just focus on football and ignore the other sports. These young men are not being forced to play football. They are doing it for one of a few reasons.
1) they just absolutely love the game and the competition
2) they earned a scholarship, and this scholarship is the only way that they could attend the school of their dreams and get a college education
3) they believe that they are NFL material and are in college to prep for the NFL
With respect to group 1, these young men don't need to be paid because they are doing what they love while getting a college education. They are given the opportunity to play in front of thousands of people, be highly regarded and well known on campus, and have the time of their lives.
With respect to group 2, these young men are given the equivalent of 30-40k in tuition a year. On top of that they are given free room and board (let's say another 15k per year). They also get free tutoring and mentoring (let's say another 5k per year). Guess what - this is payment for their services. There is no other way to describe it. They agree to play football in exchange for these benefits (roughly 50k-60k/year). In addition to this, they also get the advantages of group 1. Not a bad gig.
With respect to group 3, these young men are not allowed to enter the NFL until their junior year of college. Assuming that they are NFL caliber players, they have two options. They can train privately for 3 years, or they can play college football for 3 years.
If they decide to play college football, they are provided all of the advantages of groups 1 and 2, and additionally provided professional coaches (position coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, etc), the best conditioning facilities, the best equipment, great medical care, and the ability to play against other top talent players. This costs the school millions of dollars annually. They are also provided a stage on which they can showcase their talents 12 weekends a year.
If one of these group 3 players wanted to train privately, it would easily cost them $100k/year to obtain the services that they are getting from the school. Additionally, they are provided a back-up plan if the NFL thing doesn't work out (you know, that thing called a college degree). Thus, the value that these young men are receiving is at least 150k per year.
What does the school ask in return? That they play football...
general retort - its hard on the student athletes. Yeah my job is hard too and all encompassing. I make sacrifices at home, etc because they pay me a lot of money. Not only that, it is a fact of life the people running the business make more than the people who do the heavy lifting. I make my company about 3-4x of what they pay me. Do I think I deserve more - of course, but that isn't how things work.
general retort - but the schools are making millions off of sports. Not really. Most schools don't make any money off of sports, but rather spend money on the sports programs - remember there are a lot of non-revenue sports.
general retort - but football makes money, and jersey sales, etc. short answer - Title IX. Longer answer - if joe wasn't #4 (the jersey everyone wanted), someone else may be the favorite athlete - say #10, and everyone would buy that jersey.
general retort - these guys don't have any spending money. Tough **** - neither did I when I was in college or grad school, but no one paid my meal plan to make sure that I never went hungry. I didn't have an ipod, or a cool gaming system. I lived.
Oh yeah, and they have these things called student loans. You can get ~20k/year to spend. I racked up over 100k of student loans through my many years of school - sucks to pay them back, but that is life.
