Pay For Play Debate Continues

This week at the SEC meetings the SEC coaches came together and issued a proposal to athletic directors that would pay football and men’s basketball players an additional $4,000 in scholarship money per year. The idea would be to return some of the revenue that the big two sports are generating to the players. Which seems to make sense. Most of these players will be going pro in something other than sports all while putting their bodies on the line day in and day out. Not to mention the impossibility of working a part-time job and attending school while being a student athlete. Yet the NCAA stands against a stipend. Just last year they shut down a 2,000 dollar stipend to go to all student athletes. All that while posting record revenues all over college sports. The 4,000 dollar scholarship is one that the SEC could easily afford. Yesterday they announced that all 14 schools would be receiving  a record 20.7 million dollars this year. A number which could be increased by as much 17 million annually once the SEC network launches in  2015. With such a ridiculous amount of money being generated by athletes there is no solid reason why these guys shouldn't be paid. On one hand it may not be fair to the smaller conferences and schools that aren't pulling in the dollars of an Alabama or Kentucky. But on the other if these schools have the money then why not allow it to go to the people that are generating it instead of coaches, administrators, and back to the school. One day these guys are going to be paid might as well get a jump start on the future now.