I’ve gone on record to say that I’ve typically been in the camp that I don’t think college athletes should be getting paid, because they’re in essence already being paid with college educations, room, board, feed and all sorts of non-monetary privileges that are the things that typically drown all ordinary people in student debt for the vast majority of their lives.
I’ve read numerous articles and arguments both for and against the idea of paying student-athletes, and I most certainly see both sides of the coin. And although I still feel strongly that college players shouldn’t be paid money, I do feel like I’m softening on the idea that the reality still is that college players receive very little for their blood, sweat and tears, while the coaches, staff, schools and the fat cats of the NCAA are making literal millions of dollars.
I now think the idea of allowing players to make royalties off of their name is fair, and/or the idea that student-athletes should receive some sort of annuities or flexible scholarships that will allow them to protect their lives with educations and more usable degrees, instead of forcing them to make all sorts of essential decisions while they’re still eligible amateurs, often times still teenagers or just past. The inequity of what students receive versus what the NCAA gets is wider than a Kardashian’s asshole and it just doesn’t seem right to me anymore.
However, going back to the headline of this post, shortly after Clemson put the finishing touches on Alabama in round 4, and winning their second National Championship (which is a disgusting thought in its own right but that’s another diatribe), the recently re-booted XFL made a strategically subtle reminder to the world, that they are “not restricted by the rules that exist in other professional football leagues,” which is basically saying “unlike the NFL, we don’t have rules saying you have to be X years old or have completed X number of years in college,” which to the ears of the young and ambitious sounds a lot like “you can go high school to pro and start getting paid sooner… in the XFL.”
Money is the impetus for everything in the rotten world we live in, and it goes to say that money is main reason for how the world of fútbol americano is the way it is today. Underclassmen in the college ranks are coveted and exploited because they’re young, have fresh legs, and are malleable to a school’s system. Subsequently, their young age makes them appealing to the professional ranks since their window of peak physical performance is open longer at 20 than it is at 22, so they can be exploited and milked for longer.
The rich get richer, which is why college football has seen four straight years of Alabama vs. Clemson. Kids want to play for winners, which is why the top schools always have their veritable picks of the litter, with there being a trickle-down effect of the top prospects often times going to the most winning schools that will have them. Upstarts often happen when the unheralded and underrated rise to their potentials, or more often times, when a disgruntled former prospect grows tired of riding the bench and being forced to wait their turn, and then they transfer to another school with hopes for actual playing time and exposure, but none of them in recent years have still been able to actually topple a powerhouse.
