Yes, College athletes should be paid but probably will not happen with the NCAA intact

Aug 7, 2013; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A

The next couple of weeks are going to be as interesting as they can be as college football ramps up for the 2013 season. As expected, all eyes are going to be on Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater, and Jadeveon Clowney. But not entirely for the reasons you would expect.

All three of the players have been linked to autograph brokers in the past week or so and all three football camps, there is a nervous anticipation as to what the NCAA will eventually do about it. Kentucky Wildcat basketball fans have long thought that basketball players should be paid, but it takes a couple of Heisman hopefuls and the best defensive player in college football to bring this to the forefront.

And now, everyone with a pulse is asking: “Should college athletes be paid?”.

The answer is a resounding YES. It’s a simple answer to a complex question.

The fact is that everyone makes money off of college athletes except for college athletes. The whole college football experience has been compared to a prison economy where Johnny Manziel has to sell his autograph like inmates sell cigarettes. That’s a little extreme, but there is no doubt that everyone but Johnny Manziel has made money off of Johnny Manziel:

"If most college athletes are surrounded by money, Johnny Manziel is entombed by it. As Patrick Hruby and Jason Cohen have explained, Texas A&M capitalized on Johnny Football’s Heisman Trophy–winning 2012 season to push through a $450 million plan to redevelop the Aggies’ stadium. On a smaller scale, Manziel’s hometown Kerrville (Texas) Daily Times brought in some extra cash with a special “This Is Our Johnny” supplement that included 49 advertisements. And until this week, when, for perhaps the first time ever, the NCAA was shamed by its own hypocrisy, you could search for “Manziel” on the NCAA Shop website and buy your choice of No. 2 Texas A&M jerseys. (The NCAA has temporarily shut down this online store and will relaunch it shortly, presumably as soon as it gets a shipment of “Mohnny Janziel” apparel in stock.) Everybody’s making money off Johnny Manziel except Johnny Manziel. Unless, that is, the allegations are true and the quarterback was paid by brokers to sign a whole bunch of sports memorabilia. As opposed to, say the Kerrville Daily Times, which cashes in on the local hero in a fairly straightforward fashion, Manziel has been forced—again, allegedly—to make money off his own name in a rather baroque way. The Heisman winner reportedly exchanged a commodity he had in abundance—his signatures—for something he actually wanted: sweet, sweet cash."

Jul 16, 2013; Hoover, AL, USA; Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp talks with the media during the 2013 SEC football media days at the Hyatt Regency. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

You are going to find an overabundance of coaches you think athletes should be paid, especially in the SEC.

"Clowney’s coach, Steve Spurrier, has said for some time he believes players should be paidas much as $300 a game. Muschamp pointed out schools like Florida certainly can afford to pay players when the football program generates tens of millions of dollars in revenues. Florida reported $74,117,435 in revenue in 2011. “There’s no question our players need to have some spending stipend, cost of attendance, whatever they want to term it as,” Muschamp said. “Obviously the money is there, so I think it’s obvious that’s something that needs to happen. When that will happen, I don’t know.”"

So with so many people in favor of it, it seems a no brainer, but it’s not going to happen.