Pay For Play?

A few minutes before airtime Thursday in CBS' NCAA studio on West 57th Street, analyst Clark Kellogg checked the schedule. 'Nothing really surprising should happen today,' he said. 'It'll hold true.'" But after a couple of upsets, CBS programmers quickly switched regional telecasts to bigger audiences. "So much for surprises. CBS ought to get some for its $215 million."

Martzke next dissected the ratings war between network broadcasts, then noted that, "CBS' resurgence in sports programming, which includes college football in 1996 and the $1.725 billion extension of the NCAAs [1995-2002], will continue ..."

In late December 1994, another analyst observed that conferences, schools and the 59,726 scholarship athletes at the NCAA's 301 Division I schools had their eyes on the additional $72.7 million a year the NCAA would pocket from its new TV contract. Some sportswriters, such as USA Today's Brian Burwell, say the athletes should get paid, too. Heaven forfend, says the NCAA.

Kathryn Reith, NCAA public relations director, said the NCAA's constitution was written to keep amateurism in collegiate sports. It requires member schools to protect student athletes from commercial enterprises. Moreover, Reith said, mos

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That's almost half, and the average deficit is $638,000. I don't remember the last time 70,000 people packed into the Orange Bowl to watch a chemistry experiment.

"The compensation college athletes can receive for their services amounts to an athletic scholarship -- tuition and fees, room and board, and book allowances. "All of those things that come with an athletic scholarship -- room, board, tuition and fees -- they won't pay for trips home, entertainment, clothing and other things students need. That would be a profit of $660,000, but if you took out the institutional support, which comes from the university's own funds, the revenues would be only $12.

"The NCAA places limits on athletic scholarships, prohibits payments to players other than a minimum outside income they earn, reduces players' mobility between colleges by making them ineligible if they transfer, and has regulated television appearances for college teams. That's a lot of teams and a lot of coaching staffs, travel and facilities. Colleges are effectively monopsony employers so that players will not be paid their marginal revenue product.

Bigger money went for an Enhanced Championships Program: $33 million to permit larger squad sizes, travel parties and per-diem expenses for the 79 NCAA championships in all three divisions.

McCabe said the Center had no official position, but that from his vantage, "the money just isn't there. "

Noting that, "over a 4-year college career a premium college basketball player could . 'They want us to be like regular students,' former tight end Randy Bethel told the Herald. 5 million was set aside for catastrophic-injury insurance for all 287,000 NCAA student-athletes, from Division I, II and III, during all games, practices and related travel.

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