NCAA players have started to circulate a petition asking for more than just a scholarship in exchange for their participation in college athletics. They’re not too clear yet on what exactly they want, but things like extra years of tuition money seem reasonable to me. Especially at any of the large schools where the marginal cost of adding another student to a class is basically zero.
I’m against any plan that would pay players, however. If anything, I’d like to see college sports make less money and get back to true amateur status. If a university wants to field dozens of non-revenue sports, it’s time they learn to do so not on the backs of the football and basketball players.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports goes as far as suggesting the players should boycott a major bowl. Players will never do that — going to a major bowl and playing well means too much to their potential future earnings, but a boycott is about the only way players can hope to effect change on the system. Now, getting the players to agree on what they want — like the Occupy Wall Street hippies — is another story entirely and not likely to happen anytime soon.