For those wondering Why Now?
This is likely a reaction to losing the NCAA tourney largesse from March Madness that normally goes to the colleges to fund non-revenue sports. March Madness and the BCS fund over $1 billion a year to the member schools to fund the less glamorous sports.
Paying athletes this way will help net out some of the lost scholarship money.
Remember, for many years the NCAA would not even allow a student-athlete to get a few bucks for spending money (many D1 football and basketball athletes come from pretty poor backgrounds and they WERE NOT ALLOWED TO GET A JOB by NCAA regulation) nor allow the school to fly the family in for something like a final home game.
If you were poor and BY REGULATION, could not work for your spending money that was a problem for a poor kid.
Actually there’s a lot of pressure. Players getting permission to unionize. CA’s law allowing student athletes to get paid whether the NCAA likes it or not. And college age basketball players taking their talents to international leagues and getting paid. NCAA needs to adapt. Or turn off the lights.
let me see.....$50 thou scholarship, free food, room, spending money, able to travel, special tutors,and nutritionists, and special access to gyms, and now they'll get the money for ads, etc....
yeah, they're treated just like any other college student .....NOT!
A lot of this also has been driven by video games, with colleges licensing not just the teams but the individual athletes, their names and their likenesses and keeping all the money.