I've had this discussion many times with many different people. There's also this side of it:
FTA:
"My scholarship was not worth the amount of hours," said Morris, now the principal at his own commercial real estate firm in Atlanta. "We were probably working for somewhere between $3 and $5 when you work it out.
"I could have worked at McDonald's and paid my tuition with the money I got."
Even those who think the tradeoff is fair believe players should be getting more than they do. When clothing, transportation and other "miscellaneous" expenses are tallied, the difference between the value of a scholarship and the total cost of an education can be as much as $6,000. Athletes already miss out on part of the college experience because of the time commitments their sports demand.
That doesn't take into account the money that is spent to get them to the level that it takes to get some money for schooling. I had a guy tell me that he spent something like $25.00 for his son to go to tOSU. It was what it cost him to file some form and it may have been more than that. I honestly don't remember. I explained that over the 12 years leading up to it he had spent quite a bit more than that, he insisted though and it's just not worth arguing over so I dropped it. Think about it though. You also bought them all of the equipment, all of your equipment, paid for a Dr. visit, a physical, a uniform, a tournament entry fee, $5.00 to get in and watch, a bottle of water and a walking taco, a tournament t-shirt, a camp, a clinic, a trip through a batting cage, gas in your car, an oil change for your car, new tires on your car. All of that adds up. Quick. Everyone here knows it. What else would we be doing though?
Not long ago my kids decided it would be fun to swap rooms so I helped them switch them up. I remembered something about every award that I picked up and moved. One of them was a 2nd place trophy from an open tournament in Bowling Green back in 2004. On the way home I looked over in the passenger seat and he was staring at it, I turned down the radio and said "what's up, man?" He said "They gave me this thing for winning some wrestling matches, this guy on it is in a bad stance though. Looks like a donkey. I don't think he would win very often." :lmao:
That's good stuff. I knew all along and I still know that is what I was and what I am paying for. I'm glad we did it and I'm glad we are still doing it. I hope I'm able to remember all of that stuff for as long as I'm alive. It doesn't matter to me if they get a couple of bucks for college down the road.