Why you and college athletes should get paid more

I don’t normally write about these kinds of topics on my blog.  However, given the current events in my hometown of Louisville, Ky, I felt compelled to write about it.

I am on record stating that Rick Pitino should have been fired after the whole Karen Sypher story.  I don’t want to rehash that entire thing, but if you are reading this you know what I am talking about.  If you don’t, just google search Rick Pitino and Karen Sypher.

That incident and the fact he wasn’t fired after that charade, told me everything I needed to know about what was important and what isn’t important with Rick Pitino and Louisville Cardinals sports.

But I am not here to talk about the lack of integrity of Rick Pitino, the University of Louisville Sports, or any of the other people included in the string of issues that have occurred at the University of Louisville.

I want to talk about something that I am known to talk about, and constantly do so across all of my social media channels. And that is.

Getting paid for the value you bring to a company, the market, sports franchise, a college sports team, etc.  Everyone wants to get upset about what CEO’s, athletes, entertainment stars, and even certain people within your company are earning.

Lets set some ground rules before diving into this:  Would you agree that you would like to get paid the fair market value (and probably more) for the skills, talents, and abilities you bring to your current employer?  Let me answer for you.  Yes.

The second thing.  Would you agree that companies, businesses, a sports team, etc., have to pay the going rate for positions within any of those entities.  In your company, you have to pay your engineers a certain rate, fair market or more.  Or you won’t attract any engineers to your company.  If you’re a sales person.  A really good one.  Then a company has to pay you a very competitive salary and commission structure for them to attract and keep you at their company. And then lastly, your favorite NBA team, or NFL team, or MLB team has to pay the going rate to attract the best point guard, quarterback, or pitcher to be able to get that player to play for their team.

So we both agree.  We are looking for fair market value for our skills.  And secondly we agree that companies, sports teams, etc. must pay the going rate for positions, employees, and players.

Now that we both agree on this.  You will see my logic on the fact that college sports is a big joke. It is a market or marketplace that has become a very big business. Billions of dollars are generated in college sports on a yearly basis.

College sports is the only business that doesn’t pay its personnel a fair wage for the amount of money that they generate.  We all know that these major college sports programs would not be making the money that they do without good players that are competitive. If the school is not competitive, it is up to the school and the coaches to go out and get the best players so they can become competitive again, and get on television, etc.

College Sports teams are no different from any other business. They have to recruit and retain top talent. If they don’t, they won’t be in business very long.  However, in business you can pay a fair wage and a competitive salary with benefits. In college sports, they are not allowed to do this under the current rules and regulations.

I used to be one of the people who thought college athletes shouldn’t get paid either.  I believed, like others, that the scholarship, the opportunity to go to college, in many cases for free, and all of the other perks they get was fair pay for the work that they did.

Then one day I woke up and said, I am trying to earn as much money as possible for the skills and talents that I possess and continue to develop. Why should I feel any different about an eighteen year old that has unbelievable skills or genetics for that matter, and them wanting to get paid as much as possible for their skills and talents.

We all want to think that a university or a college is different, and we have treated them differently because of the corrupt NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association).  This so-called non-profit that oversees all of college sports.  College Sports is big business and continues to become even bigger business.

It is time to change the rules and allow collegiate athletes to get and earn whatever it is they deserve to earn.  Many of you think, I am just stating this because of the University of Louisville issues that have come out.  Obviously, this issue has forced all of us to take a look at how we feel and think about our positions and opinions on this topic of college athletes getting paid.

I believe everyone should get paid for the value they bring to whatever market they choose to do business in.  I don’t care if it is college sports, business, non-profits, you name it.  We all want to make the going rate of whatever profession we choose to take on.  It should be no different in college sports.