Poll: 58 Percent of College Coaches Believe Players Should be Paid

by Eldon Khorshidi | @eldonadam

CBSSports.com recently surveyed nearly 100 college coaches, getting their thoughts on some of college basketball’s current issues. One question asked was, “Should college basketball players be paid, and if so, how would you compensate them?” The coaches spoke—anonymously, of course—and 58 percent believe college basketball players should be paid, while 42 percent disagreed. Some coaches had ideas for compensation—for example, providing the student-athletes with an end-of-semester stipend—while others simply wanted a change but didn’t have a solution.

Below is a complete breakdown of the poll, followed by some adamant opinions, all courtesy of CBSSports.com:

YES – 58 percent

NO – 42 percent

Suggested methods:

—Build compensation right into the scholarship package with a stipend at the end of each semester: 28 percent
—Players should be allowed to receive endorsement money (Olympic model): 20 percent
—Cost-of-living grants is the way to go: 12 percent
—Make leagues responsible for paying via their own profits: 8 percent
—Want change but don’t have a solution: 8 percent

Notable Quotes

“Absolutely not. They get free college, crazy amounts of free gear and glorified enough as it is. This isn’t pro sports, but if they get paid — even a small amount — it gives the players even more power than they already have. We would start to see more Dwight Howard situations at colleges.”

“Stipends are good. I think it would tough to start talking about someone’s market value.”

“No one is forcing these kids to play. College educations are already so expensive. In a lot of ways, they’re getting paid. I don’t think most schools can afford to pay basketball players, because then don’t you have to pay everyone else playing D-I? That’s not possible.”

“I would give them a piece of the money that the league receives for that league’s team making the tournament. For instance, if we make the tournament, our league gets money that is split between each school in our league. Some of that money should be given to the players.”

“I think athletes should be paid a few thousand a semester. To keep gender equity and Title IX out of the way, they should allow coaches to pay kids out of that sport’s summer camp fund. $2,500 or so per semester. That would be an easy solution for football and men’s basketball because the camps generate enough revenue. If not, boosters should be able to donate until each player receives the maximum amount of money.”

“Would be the possible way to eliminate lure of agents. Need to incorporate GPA and wealth level of family. Household income would be best way. Make the process similar to a college loan process — so there would be some hoops to go through. Maybe 500-1000 a month.”

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Tags: CBS Sports, NCAA

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http://slamonline.com Allenp

PPosse
I don’t care who handles the payments. I just want to see players allowed to be paid. As for recruiting violations, they clearly already exist. They will always exist.
Keep it 100 about why cats really oppose players being paid.
1. They know if schools can pay, some schools will have even more of an advantage based on what they can pay.
2. They think that players don’t deserve to be paid simply because they don’t like players.
I mean, what other arguments are out there? Schools can clearly afford these payments, and so can the NCAA. The player clearly have a marketable and valuable skill. Sports are important enough for coaches to be paid millions of dollars plus perks to manage teams.
So, what really is the problem? Why does it bother people so much? They don’t want players getting anything else. That is petty man.
People celebrate hard work and using your talent to advance, but then support arbitrary rules that limit someone’s ability to do that.
And cats don’t see the cognitive dissonance there at all.
http://gmail.com z

Im glad this debate is being had in more public forums than just slamonline, because its a worthwhile one. The players should definitely be getting a slice of the advertising pie; that’s common sense since they r the reason people tune in to watch. As far as the college paying them, there should be no rules either way (for or.against paying): let it be like the wild west, if you want this player badly enough then compensate said player what you feel they r worth or someone else will. Supposedly thats how merica’s economy works, so let’s apply that philosophy fairly. Of course it goes without saying that the players should have the option to skip college, but stern decided that wasnt good for the quality of play league wide (or maybe, just maybe, the ncaa was pressuring him to stop letting the most talented players bypass their little blaxploitation lol) and outlawed it.
bike

If they pay the players based on profit then the discrepancy between major division one schools, whose athletic programs can afford the large salaries and tremendous benefits that the very best athletes demand, and mid-major teams who simply cannot compete in that arena will only widen. No reason to add another layer of money to this environment. Endorsements from the big companies might be different. A big company isn’t going to pay a player that gets into trouble and the NCAA should not get too jacked up over indirect payments to a player. So let the players that are deserving get a slice of the endorsement pie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndyfsS0bFK8 nbk

Now wait, nobody is saying these athletes should be paid like professionals. They should just be paid. I don’t think any one player should be paid an exorbitant amount more than any other. College sports is about team and learning to be responsible. — They should just be compensated enough to live comfortable while they are providing revenue for the school. — $10,000 a season or so for each basketball player would be realistic with how i see this situation.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Wayno
Let’s be clear. The NCAA is a non-profit organization.
As such, they are allowed certain tax benefits, and they are allowed to skirt other rules in place for every other corporation.
If they want to submit to all of those rules, then they can act like a business.
You can’t claim the benefits without paying the cost.
Again, that’s totally against all publicly expressed American values.
You seem to be saying “I’m cool with blatant hypocrisy. Doesn’t bother me at all as long as players don’t get paid.”
pposse

i agree with point 1 AllenP that you made. I can’t say that i agree or disagree with point 2. But point 1 is enough of a reason why I don’t think they should pay athletes.
FnF

I’m on the fence in this issue. “Free education” is a non-factor in this debate. The NCAA provides a platform in which a player gets to market theirself. Think, open mic nights. If a player is good enough, they will generate a buzz, and someone will sign them. If you aren’t good enough, get the fuq off my stage and be lucky I’m not charging you rent. On the flipside all of these “free” performances you’re doing are bringing in customers and I just so happen to be making a profit selling dvds of your routine and concessions. It isn’t slavery, it is simply an unpaid internship.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

NBK
I had a full ride scholarship, plus the stipend you get from the National Merit people, plus some other minor stuff. And I always got a refund check. And I didn’t make my school any money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndyfsS0bFK8 nbk

Allen, cool so you understand what i’m sayin. are you with me, that player’s should just be paid the same amount across the board? or do you think it should depend on “what they provide” as athletes?
Hook

A school coach: “This isn’t pro sports”. Maybe a school coach that receives more money than a pro coach at the NBA. NCAA is slavery and a headache for the talented players. The one year NCAA obligation before the draft doesn’t respect the USA fixation for the free market.
The Spaniard

Let me get this straight, Wayno is arguing that the NCAA has fraudulently set it set up as a non-profit organization and, at the same time, has (unilaterally) set up a set of rules that gives them a unfair advantage over their workforce therefore the athletes (and anyone who supports their position) should shut up and accept it because that’s how it is. Really? This next statement is an extreme, but valid, analogy. Slavery was legal, slaves got compensated for their work with food and shelter. Therefore slaves should have shut up and stayed in their place because that was the legal system and they got whatever the current boss decided they were worth.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

FNF
1. You don’t have to accept an unpaid internship. There are often paid internships within the same field. Those companies with the proper prestige set their rules on an individual basis. Why not allow schools to do the same thing? Each school decides how it wants to handle athlete pay. The NCAA is made up of independent member organizations, it is not made up of franchises. If a player would rather do an unpaid internship at UNC instead of being paid at North Texas, then that’s his choice. But give him the opportunity to make a choice.

2. Pposse, inequities in recruiting already exist based on school size. UNC doesn’t recruit like LSU in basketball and LSU doesn’t recruit like UNC in football. This doesn’t increase inequities at all. Schools still are limited in how many scholarships they can offer. They will likely be given a maximum amount they can spend on stipends. But even if they weren’t, since no school would be allowed a monopoly, how would this be different from the way American businesses operate today.
Google recruits folks from a random internet startup. That’s just how it works.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Spainard
Exactly homie.
Like I said, for most cats here it’s either about fear or pettiness.
Fear that if payment is introduced the talent disparity and gap will only widen. That’s unlikely. Most likely, it will stay the same. There is a fear of more corruption. Again, also unlikely since we all know the system is awash with money. And finally, fear of change.
The pettiness angle is the idea is based in the idea that people don’t like many of these athletes, resent their ability to get these one-year education and sports contracts, and don’t want them to receive anything else because they think they have enough. There is no valid reason for why they have “enough” in a country that regularly celebrates those citizens who obtain “more” but that’s the way folks feel anyway.
And then we have to get to why that feeling exists, but that’s a totally different can of worms.
IGGI

@Wayno–FYI there is different forms of slavery!!! You can analyze it how ever you want, but at the end of the day the schools are making a huge profit on the back of these kids.
Zabba

“We would start to see more Dwight Howard situations at colleges”
And what is wrong with that? Dwight Howard shoulda stayed in college and learned a decent post move or two.
The Spaniard

This school gap point is a non issue because there is ALREADY a massive gap in talent between the top D1 schools and the “mid majors”.

The problem isn’t that schools aren’t allowed to pay. NO ONE can pay! What kind of sense does that make? I say have all out bidding wars for top talent and if your school can’t pay enough then your school doesn’t field a competing team. The only valid restriction should be academic standing to the university. If the university lowers it academic requirements to allow morons into the school simply to play sports then you will quickly find out about the [lack of] academic integrity of said school.
http://slamonline.com nbk

I read something a while back that highlighted why the American system of amateur sports (High School + College) is so broken. I don’t remember all of it, but it really highlighted the pros and cons and compared them to the system in Europe. All i do remember from that article is i came away from hit hating how our system is set up over here. it’s just a scheme to make money for those who already have enough while taking advantage of those who think they are getting equal value in education. Education that can be taken away as soon as the player is injured or makes a mistake. Players that play for one year and leave get no benefit out of their college experience for example, but they do generate millions and millions of dollars in that one year they were at the school.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

How does an organization that claims to be only interested in the well-being of someone refuse to allow them to be paid for their services, refuse to allow them to leave a bad work environment for a better one with no penalties and refuse to guarantee them a position beyond a one-year contract?
But the NCAA is all about the kids.
I don’t understand how people are so blase about this blatant hypocrisy, and are arguing that it should be allowed to continue. This is similar to lockout situation in that fans are saying that they would rather the entity with all the power and the larger benefit be allowed to maintain that position though any means because… Because what exactly?
At least with the NBA you could argue that it was simply negotiations between businesses. With the NCAA it’s much different.
http://thahiphopcorner.com Kevin

Yeah let me find out athletes are on campus getting free paychecks for doing the one thing that got them to that school in the first place while getting a free scholarship at the same time. Yeah somebody is getting robbed on campus
The Spaniard

And, by the way, I’m not even suggesting some sort of “conspiracy”. The simple fact is, however the system arrived at this point, an arbitrary set of rules have been set up so that a group of higher ups are compensated as professional in their field, while the workers IN THE SAME FIELD are held to some nonsensical “amateur” classification despite the fact that the top workers draw significant revenue that goes directly to the payments of the people in charge of them. And at the same time there is a near monopoly for these workers to display their trade with the people defined as the valid professional source of income. GTFOH.
bike

The argument that college athletes are not getting paid is ridiculous. They are getting paid – full scholarship, free tuition, which over the course of four years can exceed $200,000. They are also provided with housing, textbooks, food and academic tutoring. When they travel to road games, they are given per diems for meals. They also get coaching, training, game experience and media exposure they “earn” in their respective crafts.
However, there is a legitimate argument as to whether they should get paid more.
http://www.slamonline.com Zucotti Manicotti

Hey yall! Let’s go play disc golf!!!
The Spaniard

Great Zues! Allenp, I almost forgot that you can’t simply leave a school and play the next semester without penalty nearly 100% of the time.
http://slamonline.com nbk

bike, no $200,000 scholarship is not a payment. It doesn’t cost the school 200,000 dollars to let a single student sit in classes and turn in homework. Sorry. And everything else in school is paid for. Books are the only “payment” student athletes receive.
bike

nbk, I believe it is a form of payment. If the kid doesn’t get a scholarship, then it will cost him to get an education. The school is footing the tuition bill. Also room and board. What is really being argued is should they get paid more. If so, how exactly is that going to work? Does a third string female vollyball player get the same payment as the starting quarterback?
http://www.slamonline.com Chinese Oppenheimer

Student athletes provide free marketing for major corporations and schools. Why does Coach K and Duke make millions off of shoes and apparel that the players market? I’m not saying the NCAA itself should pay them, but someone needs to compensate the athletes for the money made off of their names and faces. Everyone else gets to profit from their likenesses and images but them.
http://slamonline.com LakeShow

They should get paid the same across the board and it shouldn’t exceed 15k dollars a year in addition to their full ride and free food and board.
http://slamonline.com nbk

bike, the school doesn’t pay tuition for their own student. they just don’t have a tuition. Room and Board is fine, that’s what, 2,000 a semester at the very very maximum? So you the school actually spends $2,500 on a student athlete on scholarship per semester. — How the payments would work out, i’m sure would depend on the sport. If you play football, then you make more than a volleyball player. Now I don’t personally believe teammates should make different amounts, as it is college and not a profession. I just think the athletes should be able to buy new clothes if they need them, or go out to eat something when they have the opportunity. idk, have you ever been around college athletes? have you seen the lives some of them live? It’s not cushy, at all.
http://slamonline.com LakeShow

The athletes are not the only reason people tune into games. Many people are watching their alma mater, or their alma mater’s main opponent because they love their old school. The players are not the same in college as they are professionally. They don’t market to the entire world like the pro’s. They should get a slice, just not an overly abundant slice.
http://nba.com GP23

We could argue all day on here… but y’all know the NCAA will never give in. It will always be this way. Hate it or love it.. it’s just the way it is.
http://nba.com EJ

SCHOOL SHOULD BE FREE FOR EVERYONE!!!
http://thahiphopcorner.com Kevin

@nbk damn near the majority of students attending college live that way not just the athletes. Especially if you not on scholarship and paying for school yourself. I’ve been there and still doing it. No sympathy from me on this. Get a job, UPS is hiring
bike

Nbk, there is Title IX, the law that requires men’s and women’s sports teams to be treated equally. If you pay the football players more than the women’s volleyball players, you are discriminating against the women’s team. I understand the problems that some student athletes face that do not have spending money for clothes, dates, transportation etc. That same problem exists for many students who are scrapping by just to get an education. Who ever said college should be cushy?
pposse

its funny how you guys say that the NCAA is making millions off of these kids. It doesnt matter who the kid is, as long as ANY product is out there on the field, court or gym the NCAA will make their millions and billions. It might be misconception but other than almost all football players, its the ‘premodonna’ type athletes that say that they should be getting paid.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Kevin
they want a job, a job playing basketball or football or whatever. You are arguing that they shouldn’t be allowed to work at the thing they are best at doing. Like I said earlier, you don’t even have to force schools to pay. Just allow them to pay and let schools make the decision on their own. The market will take care of the rest.
Bike
You are misreading Title IX. The rule is that you spend similar amount of money on providing sporting opportunities for men and women. It’s not that everything must be equal for every team. If it was, schools would be forced to have women’s football leagues. Every sport would not have to get the same amount of money just like every sport doesn’t receive the same amount of money from the universities currently, and they don’t have the same number of scholarships. You have a misunderstanding of the rules.
So the basic argument is “Well if other people have to suffer, you should suffer too?”
Really, that’s the argument Americans are running with here? The same Americans who oppose Affirmative Action or wealth redistribution are arguing that the cream of the crop as far as money producing collegians be restricted from receiving payment for their services because everyone else in college can’t earn that sort of money that easily?
That’s so laughable it’s sad.
Like I said, it’s either pettiness or fear. No one has made an argument rooted in anything else yet.
http://slamonline.com nbk

Kevin, obviously you know nothing about college athletics. There is no time for those athletes to get jobs. Hence, they live a worse financial life then many other college students.
.
College athletes are not comparable to a run of the mill student, they are comparable to other students on scholarship. Stop comparing them to the average student, it’s not a similar situation. You have to work hard to get an athletic scholarship. You have to work hard to get an academic scholarship. You don’t have to work hard to get accepted into a school. The only difference between a college athlete working hard, and a scholarship student working hard is free time. Students on academic scholarships have the time to earn an income and pay for their non-school related life. Athletes don’t. But athletes are the ONLY students who bring in revenue for their school. So they are basically an unpaid workforce. Or a workforce who is paid far far far under minimum wage. Considering the hours they put in. And again, stop bringing up tuition. The school doesn’t have to pay the tuition for their atheltes, it is just a non-fee. — Which they also get tax breaks for.
http://slamonline.com nbk

bike, the title ix has nothing to do with this conversation. I didn’t say the football players should be given buses while the volleyball player’s should ride bikes. Giving a stipend to player’s based on what their sport generates has nothing to do with teams being treated equally, it has to do with revenue drawn. Either way, I don’t care if the football players and volleyball players make the same amount, it’s irrelevant. I just think, all athletes who are forced to devote the vast majority of their “free time” to their sport should get something to enable them to live life above what would be comparable to poverty in the US. Since they are making other’s rich in the first place.
http://gmail.com z

Span-iard! Span-iard! Span-iard! Speaking Truth to Pow…well nvm speaking truth to wayno’s conservative ass.
http://slamonline.com Wayno

Sorry, didn’t mean to ditch the convo…apparently door + baby fingers = hospital trip…Now I’m behind on my work.
SERBIA

Definetly no
http://slamonline.com Allenp

I hope your kid is okay man. I’ve been there before. The only reason I didn’t end up in the hospital was because my wife wasn’t home and I made my little boy suck it up.
http://www.fullc0urtpress.com KHOLIDAY

@NBK, I’m riding with you on this one! I was a student athlete and that sh** is not easy AT ALL. We were up and working from 5am when we had weights until 10:30pm when study hall was over! College athletics is a job! Athletes should be compensated considering the money these schools make off of them!
http://slamonline.com Allenp

PPosse
That’s just not true. If the games were horrible, people would stop watching. Just like fans stop paying attention when their schools sports programs suck.
http://bulls.com airs

im always late on the convo
but i agree with AllenP on the point of they athletes being able to be endorsed by shoe companies.
what’s wrong about these students receiving endorsements? it is completely unrelated to the university and the player is able to independently earn money, i don’t see a drawback.
if other companies believe a player is worth endorsement money, why are universities able to get in their way?
http://slamonline.com nbk

Kholiday, i tried to respond idk if it just didn’t go through or what, it was a long comment. But i totally understand. i started off college on the basketball team, just couldn’t do it because of all the time it took up, and everything i would have had to sacrifice to red shirt.
pposse

look, if you start to pay athletes, this opens up a huge can of worms. Who gets paid? How much should they get paid? Who will govern this system of payments? How many other Director/Presidential jobs will now command 6-7 figure salaries to manage all of the individuals who need to get paid. Do you open up an HR department now for employee complaints? I mean the list goes on and on. Will these ‘employees’ now be prone to making up sexual harrassment charges against their coaches now that they have a little taste of money? What about legal representation, how much more will universities have to pay for that? This list can go on and on. How do universities deal with the backlash? To me, the most sensible thing to do is to break off the athlete a certain percentage if their jersey is getting bought (or anything with their name on it), but if you do that then your amateur status is lost i think..so the rules would have to change. Its just waay to much of a headache for me to see this really happening. Hell, what about jealousy from other students? These are kids we are talking about, not mature adults. What if they boycott sporting events?
LA Huey

If players can’t get paid, the salaries of coaches and ADs should be capped. Nobody in positions of power in non-profit, amateur athletics should be allowed 7 figure salaries. The profits generated by the NCAA should be funneled back into grants and scholarships for qualifying students. That should balance things out. Though I think players should be compensated with more tuition + room & board for a year.
http://www.fullc0urtpress.com KHOLIDAY

@nbk, its all good… I see a lot of ppl feel free tuition and room and board are enough, but you can’t put a price on the time and effort it takes to be a part of a program, especially a Divion I program. Granted the free education is awesome, but the work you have to put in is crazy! We pretty much dedicate those 4 years of our lives to the school and sport. You miss Thanksgivings and major holidays with your family. You miss summers because you’re taking classes. You miss the major school events because you’re on the road for games. You miss a ton because once you sign that scholarship paper every year, those teammates become your family and your time belongs to the program! It isn’t easy at all.
LA Huey

pposse, your argument about the can of worms is silly. That’s like saying “If we let the coloreds and women vote how will we keep track of all this? We’ll have to hire personnel to handle the increase in voter registration and ballots. Good lawd!”
Decatur Don

If I was a student athlete I’d get my money by any means like OJ and Reggie was getting theirs….I could give two damns about “Integrity”

Poll: 58 Percent of College Coaches Believe Players Should be Paid

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