Why we should pay college athletes

From NYTimes today, "Serfs of the Turf" by Michael Lewis:

If the N.C.A.A. genuinely wanted to take the money out of college football it’d make the tickets free and broadcast the games on public television and set limits on how much universities could pay head coaches. But the N.C.A.A. confines its anti-market strictures to the players — and God help the interior lineman who is caught breaking them. Each year some player who grew up with nothing is tempted by a booster’s offer of a car, or some cash, and is never heard from again.

Can you imagine Nebraska or Michigan or Ohio State football games on public T.V.? What a joke. There are so many issues here, including big intersections of race and class, but I don't feel like writing a treatise.

But I just can't think of one reason why we don't pay a stipend to college athletes. Waiving tuition isn't enough. I went through 12 years of higher education and learned the difference between a tuition waiver and education support. A tuition waiver doesn't help you take your girlfriend to the movies, especially if you are forbidden from having a part-time job because of your D-1 athlete status.

Although, I've never actually heard of an "interior" lineman. We always called them "inside." Whatever. Lewis still has a point.