Group wants pay for play in college

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The average fair market value of top-tier college football and men’s basketball players is over $100,000 each, and the athletes are entitled to at least a portion of that, a new report from an advocacy group argues.

Instead of getting what they’re worth, the players receive athletic scholarships that don’t cover the full cost of attending school, leaving many of them living below the poverty line, says the report, “The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport.”

A national college athletes’ advocacy group and a sports management professor calculate in the report that if college sports shared their revenues the way pro sports do, the average Football Bowl Subdivision player would be worth $121,000 per year, while the average basketball player at that level would be worth $265,000.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its official release, scheduled for today.

Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA linebacker who heads the National College Players Association, wrote the report with Drexel University professor Ellen J. Staurowsky. The association is an advocacy group for college athletes which Huma says has more than 14,000 members — about half of whom are currently enrolled.

Huma and Staurowsky argue that the players should receive a portion of new revenues, like TV contracts, to be put in an “educational lockbox.” Players could tap those funds to help cover educational costs if they exhaust their athletic eligibility.