Opinion: FSU, other college athletes deserve small salary

FSU players are watching the latest investigation where players and schools will be punished – after the NCAA and the schools made billions of dollars.

In the coming weeks, months and even years, the college sports world will be rocked by yet another scandal where basketball players allegedly received massive amounts of money in order to take their talents to a certain school. Luckily, the FSU Seminoles aren’t among the schools in question, but some of the top names in the sport could go down as a result.

It is just the latest in what seems to be a common story in the world of college sports: player gets recruited by school, school and NCAA makes millions and more off player, story breaks that player took money they shouldn’t have while in school or before getting there, school gets punished. It’s the same rinse and repeat process that drives some people crazy.

Florida State Seminoles Football

There is one very simple way to make sure this problem doesn’t come up: pay the players who are making money for the school and the governing body of college athletics, including those wearing the garnet and gold of FSU.

Now, there is a segment of the population that is adamantly opposed to the idea using the argument that players are getting a free ride for up to five years of college as well as things like books, food and other items covered that’s a hefty coin – at the University of Miami, for example, it equates to over $250,000 for a five year tenure at the school.

For the record, I am not saying to pay a salary like they are in the pros – I will never argue that a FSU athlete or any other athlete needs to be getting a six figure salary while playing for the Seminoles or other schools in part of the fact that a free education is being given out.

However, the facts can’t be ignored that the average stipend given out to college athletes in the past did not allow for students to live outside of the athletic department realm – forcing some players to find other means and people to help survive in college.

Several years ago, the NCAA begin allowing schools like FSU and others to pay a “cost of attendance stipend” to help players out In the 2015-16 season according to CBSSports.com, the COA for the Seminoles was $6,018 for out of state athletes (one of the highest in the country) and $4,500 for in state players – while some schools had it as low as just over $1,000 for each scholarship player.

The simple answer? Pay each player in a revenue producing sport a minimum wage salary for the time they are participating in their sport. Students at FSU, for example, who receive full ride academic scholarships to attend the school as well as other scholarships to help pay for housing, food and more still have a chance to make pizza money by working a part time job.

Using FSU football as an example, players are participating in their sport for essentially a 40 hour work week for a seven month period each season when you include the two months of spring and five months in the fall. With the state of Florida paying $8.25 an hour in minimum wage, that would equate to each player getting around $9,900 a year.

That’s over 50 percent more than the current out of state stipend and more than twice what in state students get – while this rule would apply to sports that turn a profit while the other sports will still receive the set stipend – they may not like it, but if football and basketball are paying for the other programs, their players deserve more.

I would also love to see a “performance bonus” for graduating within a certain period of time – money set aside that a player gets after their schooling is done with more being given to those who do so quicker. Some people may not like it, but to play sports while getting that degree is a full time job and should be rewarded as such.

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Will the NCAA ever get behind something like this or any other proposal that allows players to be compensated more for their work in bringing in the money? Probably not as the governing body loves nothing more than being hypocritical on this issue. Here’s hoping that something changes in the near future to avoid the rinse and repeat story that clouds college athletics each season.