CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The college football season will be starting soon… and I enjoy college football as much as the next guy. But you can spare me the talk about the “student athletes” on the field.
In this day of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) payments, the players are very much employees of the schools whose jerseys they wear.
Wisconsin’s football players will share in $24-million in NIL money. $15-million of it comes from revenue sharing from the Big Ten’s best-in-the nation media rights deal. The rest is fundraised. And some of it comes from you and me – the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers reached a deal with the UW last year where the state absorbed $11-million for the Badgers new football training facility, and the school had the same amount of money freed up to pay its players.
And Wisconsin’s football team is a bargain. Oregon and Ohio State are paying $40-million to their players.
That means when classes begin, there will be some football players who will be making more than their professors, if these professional athletes actually wander into a classroom from time to time.
All of this lays bare the old proposition of college sports. Students, many of them from disadvantaged homes, could get a free college education if they were good enough to play football. That trade-off was a lie. Football season used to be confined to the fall semester; now there are spring and summer practices too. Since the players are being paid, their business or english or chemistry degrees are needless distractions. Some schools like Oklahoma State have a long and colorful history of giving diplomas to players who are illiterate.
Enjoy the upcoming college football season. But remember, for the vast majority of players who won’t be drafted into the NFL, their paydays are here and now. Whether they’re actually learning anything beyond the Xs and Os is up for debate.
Chris Conley
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