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Keith Strudler: Pay The Men, Shirley

There’s no better feeling than putting your hands in your jeans or jacket pocket only to find a $20 bill you didn’t know what was there. I suppose finding a $100 bill, or maybe a winning lottery ticket would be better. But we’re talking in scope of reality. That $20, or even $5 is found money, an unexpected boost to your personal economy. It’s why I used to stash Monopoly money in my sock when I played as kid. I hoped I’d forget, which I never did, and find it serendipitously when I hoped to make a small hotel investment on Broadway.

The NCAA, and its Division I FCS football schools just found some money. It’s a bit more than a 20. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 million, in fact. That's a pretty deep pocket. Of course, the organization wears pretty big pants now a days, with their newly launched college football playoff, which made up the vast majority of all of this kings ransom. This is up some $200 million from the now seemingly ancient BCS era, where teams played for a more mythic national championship versus the somewhat real one of today. By simply adding one football game, a game played by paid amateurs by the way, the NCAA has created an economy that would fuel most small nations.

This new found cash will largely go to teams from the five so-called power conferences, places like the PAC 12 and the SEC, where hundred million dollar athletic budgets are middle-class, and football is part of the core curriculum. The other five conferences in the top division will see a much smaller share of this reward, placing them in something of an athletic purgatory. If college sports is a land of haves and have not, then the haves just got a raise. That raises a long list of issues, none the least of which being purely procedural. In other words, how does a small school compete with one with increasingly vast resources? David and Goliath is a wonderful tail, but it wasn't a football game. And last time I checked, David never had to run and SEC schedule.

Beyond the discrepancies created by more money, this largess brings us back to the notion of amateurism in big time college sports. It was hard to call college football and it's bolt system amateur at $200 million a year. At 1 billion, it's laughable. College football administrators have welcomed the new revenue, particularly as they look for it means to compensate their athletes more fully. This largely means full cost of attendance, including things like traveling home and more food. This may inevitably include small stipend for football players. Although those compensations will be in the four figures, not the six or seven. In some regards, though, the money earned will go back into the essential product.

What is evident is two things. First, this huge raise is simply the beginning of a new economic reality. If a four playoff means 500 million, imagine what an eight, or dare I say 16 team event might yield. As much as college presidents speak of containing manifest destiny of the college football season, remember that everything has a price tag. Integrity included.

Second, while the sport of college football may still be amateur, this new physical reality lays the groundwork for something new. Athletic directors are taking money and giving it back to their athletes. It may not be a salary per se, but it's getting closer. In fact, one might say that one man's stipend is another's paycheck.

I always assumed change in college sports, at least around compensation, would come from a revolution. Unionization, walkouts, things like that. I may have been wrong. Change here may come from those within the circle, like the networks, the sponsors, and all the others that now make the core of the college football economic world. It's more whimper then bang, but it's still noise. And for the athletes, it might just be the extra change they were looking for. Even if it's not market value. And let's face it, there's nothing better than finding some spare change in your pocket.

Keith Strudler is the director of the Marist College Center for Sports Communication and an associate professor of communication. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler

 

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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