Should student athletes receive compensation?

(CNN) -- The NCAA on Tuesday proposed that athletes receive unlimited meals and snacks, the collegiate sports organization said in a news release.

Member Division I schools could provide their athletes food in addition to the meal plan covered by the student's scholarship if the plan is approved, the release said.

The announcement comes not long after a University of Connecticut star told reporters covering the NCAA tournament that he sometimes goes to bed "starving" because he can't afford food. Shabazz Napier's remarks sparked a new discussion on what benefits athletes should receive. Napier, a senior, is a top NBA prospect.

However, the NCAA has been discussing changes to its meals rules for months.

The decision from the Legislative Council would need to be approved by the Division I board of directors at a meeting on April 24.

"Today we took action to provide meals to student-athletes incidental to participation. I think the end result is right where it needs to be," said council chairwoman Mary Mulvenna.

As of now, NCAA rules say athletes may be provided three meals a day or a food stipend. The new rule would apply to scholarship and nonscholarship athletes.

Other proposals from the council included reducing the penalty for first time offenders of a positive test for street drugs like marijuana during championships and requiring football players to take at least three-hour breaks between practices during preseason.

The drugs penalty will be suspension for half a season instead of a full season, the NCAA said. If approved the measures would take effect August 1.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/15/us/ncaa-athlete-meals/

Since this seems to be an issue that's under the radar at the moment, how do you feel about students getting paid or receiving benefits for playing on their College team?

Bonus

They do receive compensation....a free quality education. Entitlement syndrome runs deep in United Socialist States of America.

College sports appears to be pretty serious in the U.S. Sometimes it feels to be taken more seriously than academia itself so yea I guess they're entitled to certain benefits. However, I don't think food is an appropriate form of benefits. I mean I don't think any public institution should discriminate between its members in such a matter. A student athlete should not go to bed hungry and a non-athlete one should?

No. I know vfibsux is coming from a very ignorant, hateful place, but his point stands. These students should be getting an education because their athletic career will only last so long, and they will have to find another way to sustain themselves. Way too much money is put into the major athletic conferences and major sports. We now have entire TV networks devoted to college athletics, and that just isn't right. The same amount of media attention isn't being given to the academic achievements at those institutions.

How so?

As you mentioned there's a glut of money being generated from college athletics, particularly basketball and football. No matter what happens in the future, that isn't going to change any time soon. So why shouldn't the athletes see any of that money, particularly when the athletes themselves are the primary reason why this money is being generated in the first place? If you're going to school for - say - computer science, you can easily make money off of your skill while a student without any (supposedly academic) institution harassing you. I'm not even saying the schools should be paying their athletes a salary, but they don't even get to touch the money being made off of their likeness by third parties, e.g. video game portrayals, jersey sales, ect. The NCAA has draconian restrictions pertaining to athletes receiving compensation - to put it plainly they just don't want to cut them a slice of the big money making pie that is college athletics.

I don't support the unionization of students in principle but I do support the effort as a mechanism to pressure the NCAA to change. The NCAA will either adapt or die.

Yeah sure

Its like having a full time job when they do sports in college. I'd say they should get some money for that.

@Master_Live: principle of what? Pro athletes have their own unions in the US, why not ones for students?

Considering its a multi-billion dollar industry with coaches making millions, yes they should be paid or at least be aloud to own their own likeness and sell their own endorsements.

I think so. These colleges make a lot of money off of these college students, sometimes requiring them to devote 50 hours or more a week to that sport. Giving them a scholarship doesn't seem like it's enough.

My objection to big money athletics as a whole aside, I agree. If NCAA sports are going to be big business, the students athletes should be able to get apiece of that pie, in some way. Too many people are making money off these athletes. I don't blame them for wanting to leave early and make money, but that only hurts the students in the long run.

The sports that don't make a lot of money get the short end of the stick too.

The schools that make the most money off the biggest sports should be forced to put some of that money into academics, and into support for the student athletes living expenses. Unlimited food and snacks seems nice, but it's probably just a little crumb to keep the students happy.

They already get full ride scholarships to college schools that are not cheap. Stop it.

What's next, high school athletes getting paid (obviously not as much)!?

bam

They are "student" athletes, not "pro" & should not get paid as such.

giving people with tons of advantages and taking away from people who don't

makes sense.

Correct, but this is about the "money makers." And I'd be surprised if they didn't have full ride.

This. I'm sick of a free education being downplayed as not being "enough".

Most of them already do. The scholarship athletes in the revenue generating sports already receive:

• Free access to sport-specific coaching
• Free access to academic tutors
• Free meals
• Free boarding
• Free access to strength and Conditioning coaching
• Free access to dietary supplements
• Free tuition
• Free access to athletic trainers and physical therapists
• Free publicity at top universities

If they want pay for play, they'll have to pay out of pocket for all of these goods and services they currently receive. Those goods and services have economic value and essentially constitutes as pay. They're already receiving between $50,000 - $125,000 per year under the current system.

None of them have the access to the myriad of economically significant services that student athletes have, which constitutes as their pay.

If they play a revenue producing sport, yes.

Compared to the amount of money being generated, it isn't. College football alone is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Of course they should. The amount of money they bring in is staggering--the idea that they should risk personal injury for the entertainment of others and not receive any compensation for it (when their colleges receive millions) is ludicrous.

This is an obvious false choice. Why will they have to pay for these things out of pocket? NFL and NBA athletes don't have to pay out of pocket for those goods and services.

Does the coach and assistant coach get paid? Yes

Does the sports administration staff get paid? Yes

Does the guy selling soda at the games get paid? Yes

Does the guy that covers D1 sports for a living on ESPN get paid? Yes

Stop asking people to work for free. It's bullshit.

They should definitely receive a full educational sholarship including books and meal plans, as well as bein able to make money off their likeness from jersey sales and video game junk.

They should not be paid like a job though. Most football programs simply could not sustain it, and they would cease to have programs at all. People point and baw at schools like UT, bama, Ohio st, etc, but most schools make nowhere near that kind of profit, and outside of the major conferences very few schools would be able to maintain the number of sholarship players needed to maintain a team for a full season in and out.

College sports could definitely use a more robust revenue sharing system in place.

In short there are a lot of problems with the NCAA and college athletics.

@thegerg: the schools that don't have enough scholarships to give away don't have programs. This only invites more of that. What you're proposing would literally kill college sports and any semblance of competitive balance. Whoever can pay the most gets the best players, and so you have the same four teams at the top every year.

I totally agree that the current system doesn't work, but a payment system would have to be capped for competitive balance, which still leaves smaller schools and new programs crippled. I'm all for likeness and jersey revenue being shared, if an athlete reaches that level of popularity they deserve the mkney, corporate sponsorships? Heck yeah. Buy outright pay? No, that's what the education is for. Part of my job is working with former student-athletes who beg to come back and finish their degree because they got drafted and a busted leg/back/opportunity later and their career is done and they didn't finish their degree and have nothing. The degree is worth a ton.

Considering how demanding college athletics are, yeah, I'd say they deserve it.

@thegerg: yes, there are smaller programs that have more walk-ons, but programs can't consistently rely on that. That's why you see a lot of smaller schools being programs in and out.

And all of this payment stuff doesn't stop at the major sports. You'd have to pay the lesser popularity sport athletes, women's sports, women's lesser sports. It's a much bigger picture than just the one team at the few big schools. Our women's soccer program had one of the highest attendance averages in the nation this past year.. A little under 2,000 people a game. That program couldn't float paying athletes here, much less places where you average a few hundred.

sometimes?

I do think they should gets wages, nothing huge, but hourly based on time spent at practice and games. Yeah sure most get scholarships...but the cost of that education is minuscule compared to how much those schools make off those players.

What 20 grand a year in free tuition isn't enough? Entitled student athletes can go **** themselves.

If the Universities want to play hard ball, they'll make the athletes pay out of pocket. It's in the Pro leagues interest to provide these services (coaching, meals, travel, trainers, etc.) They have multi million dollar investments in players. Colleges replace their players every 1 - 5 years, so their investment in the individuals is no where near the professional teams' investment.

Technically they are compensated. They don't have to go to college if they don't like it. Head to training camps for pro teams if they want to go straight to the pros. But without the college experience...I don't see many....if any making it.