Why the NCAA will eventually be forced to pay some student athletes in one chart

The chart below shows us how much college football players might be worth at the top programs if they were able to play in a free market system and receive compensation in a manner similar to that of the NFL.

We calculated the Fair Market Value of college football players at the 20 most profitable programs using data provided by the Department of Education and based on the work of Drexel professor Ellen J. Staurowsky. Using the NFL’s most recent collective bargaining agreement in which the players receive a minimum of 47% of all revenue, each school’s football revenue was split between the school and the athletes with the players’ share divided evenly among the 85 scholarship players.

Using this method, we can estimate that the average college football player at the University of Texas is worth $666,029 each year based on the program’s average annual revenue over the last three years of $120.5 million. The average player at Alabama, the top program in the country, is second at $545,357 per year. Overall, the average FBS player is worth $163,087 per year, with the average football team taking in $29.5 million in revenue each year (continued below).

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On the surface, it is easy to say these athletes should be receiving more than just the standard tuition, room, and board that comes with a scholarship. Unfortunately, it is far more complicated than that.

Not all schools are making this much money, so the NCAA would somehow have to weigh an even more unbalanced future if some schools were paying players and others simply could not afford to do so.

An even bigger issue might be trying to get around Title IX. If schools started paying football players, they would almost certainly be required to start providing the same benefits and opportunities to non-football athletes. Football teams at big schools make a lot of money. Other sports do not. In fact, the average football team at an FBS school makes more money than the next 35 sports, combined.

Still, there is a lot of money being made in college football. Eventually, more of that will have to filter back to the people who actually do the work, the players.