Pay to Play? Not on the College Level, Anyway

Reggie Bush’s parents lived in a house rent-free, thanks to a sports representative group. The NCAA took away his 2005 Heisman trophy.

San Diego County high school football star Dillon Baxter was briefly suspended, until he donated $5 to a charity, for getting a ride on a golf cart across the USC campus from an agent.

Cam Netwon’s father was found to have solicited his son’s services for $180,000.

Five Ohio State players were found to have traded memorabilia for tattoos and will be suspended for five games next season.

That’s the abridged version of the list, and that doesn’t even include the players who have yet to get caught.

Now everybody thinks that the solution to the problem is paying the college students who compete in sports.

While that may seem like the sensible thing to do, the only problem it will solve is giving the football players a little extra pocket money.

The first issue is how to determine what each player gets. How much more does the star quarterback get than the left tackle who is covering his blind side?

Is there going to be a pay scale? Does X number of snaps in a game get you Y amount of dollars per game?

Do the star players get royalties from their replica jerseys sold by the school?

Already this solution is more complicated than the problem.

The real problem that needs to be solved is how to stop schools from paying players to come to their school. And stopping boosters from giving a player who had a great game a “money shake”—the booster congratulates the player and slips him a handful of cash.

In the end, the athletes should not be paid because of their on-field prowess, legally or illegally, according to the NCAA.

Their true payment is the full-ride (or partial) scholarship to attend a great Division I school.

They can moan and complain all they want, but many times the only reason they are able to go to a top academic school instead of junior college is because of their ability to play football.

A player will then counter with the argument that the school is making millions of dollars off the success of the football team, and they should get a piece of that money.

Fine, that money is used for the FREE education you are receiving.

If you don’t like how this system works, then go to a JC, pay for all of your courses where you'll actually have to do well in class, and play football, then transfer to a D-I school.

Another argument players bring up, which is absolutely ludicrous, is the fact that most times they are left without an education. That's because they blow off class since they are hotshot football players, or they say having to practice so much for football eats away all the time to study and prepare for class.

The hand-holding in education ends after middle school. You are an adult and are responsible for your performance in the classroom. If you look around the team, there are plenty of players that are having no problem balancing football and the classroom.

I might be a bitter, unathletic journalist who is currently stuck in junior college for another year, but football players need to take their free education and shut up.

Observations from the week that was April 3-9:

How many times have the Yankees been on ESPN the past week?!? The answer is three. I understand ESPN is doing it for ratings, but come on, there are 29 other teams and no matter which team you feature, you’re not going to get bad ratings…

The best part of March Madness and opening week of MLB? The NFL lockout is no longer the most over-covered story in sports…

Anybody who's a sports fan should listen to the Dan Patrick Show on XTRA Sports 1360 AM or download the podcast on iTunes. He is the best in the business and I'm afraid far too many people are missing out on the West Coast…

For those that missed Snooki's performance in Wrestlemania, the YouTube clip is well worth the time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed0LaWLy5N8 ...

Wait, was that the college basketball national championship game or a preseason game? Not sure if that was bad shooting or good defense, but Butler shot 18 percent from the field (12-64), which was the final nail in the coffin...

First the Padres miss the playoffs because of the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants, then SDSU gets ousted by the eventual national champion UConn. Can we trade a bit of this good weather for a little sports luck?...

For the record:

The San Diego Padres pitching staff will be better than the Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff at the end of the year. A Phillies team, mind you, that features Cy Young Award winners Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee in the starting rotation.