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by Zanta 1822 days ago
An argument presented in this case is that increased pay to college athletes will incentivize them to spend more time on their athletics and less on their academics. How convincing do you find that argument, applied to athletes in a) Top Tier D1 Football programs, b) D1 programs but for less hyper-commercialized sports (say track, or volleyball), and c) D2 or D3 athletes with little-to-no aspirations of a future in professional athletics
3 comments
jalgos_eminator 1822 days ago
I think that argument is dubious and the money would only affect a very small subset of athletes. It would even be a small subset of football/basketball players. You would want to set up professional feeder leagues and give kids the option of going pro or going to school. Honestly a proper developmental league would go a long way to fix/alleviate many of the problems with college athletics.

This is how baseball works, and all the baseball players I met actively wanted to be in college. Some of them even turned down $100k-$500k draft signing bonuses to play college ball.

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tw04 1822 days ago
You have to maintain a certain GPA regardless to continue competing. Unless they're cheating in school, the incentive to study will be the same either way. If they are cheating in school, then they were never serious about the education in the first place.

Honestly the focus (or lack thereof) on education starts at home.

source: also played college sports.

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elpakal 1822 days ago
former D2 athlete here, never had aspirations to go pro. I don't think it's possible to spend "more time on their athletics" even at D2 level (can't speak for D3, though from my friends playing D1 it seems to be more time consuming).

my experience was waking up before the crack of dawn to pre-train, going to school in the morning, and then spending the rest of any free time I had after training (be it weights, cardio, practice etc). and then you watch film. all for the love (scholarships were nice) - so anyone that suggests there is more time to spend on athletics at these levels, and that paying athletes will somehow encourage them to do so vs academia, deserves a flan in the face.

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