College athletes are paid in a sense. Their tuition for school is paid for usually if they are a going to a big school. They are given scholarships galore. Any college athlete that you see on T.V. has a bit of his college paid for him/her so that they stay to play. To be paid actual money other then sponsors defeats the purpose of them playing in college, to get a college education. Some are only interested in going pro, but you'll see that college athletes still have to meet a minimum grade requirement to stay enrolled in the school. Not many athletes go pro, so by going to school to play sports, you're getting a cheep and if your good a free education.

I'm not so sure that they should get "paid" but they should be better compensated while the season is going on especially. Also the NCAA shouldn't be so strict about them selling their own memorabilia to people. Who cares. it's their stuff! If they want to sell it, let them!

Sure these athletes get college educations for free, but that's really a drop in the pan for these schools considering what some of these teams pull in revenue wise from the sales of tickets,TV time, and memorabilia that these kids help sell. A lot of the larger schools pull in hundreds of millions of dollars for one season.

I looked at some figures from 2008 that say that Ohio State and Texas football teams both made about 120 million dollars in revenue. (That doesn't include that 30 million a year they are getting for TV rights to that exclusive Longhorn Network they are starting up) 120 million!? That sure pales in comparison to whatever tuition and housing they receive during the year. If you are a star player on one of these teams who's a huge draw for the school, wouldn't you be pissed that they are making millions and millions of dollars off of you? What happens if they get hurt and can never play again? No money, and no insurance. That doesn't seem very fair.

Oh and let's not forget that many of these athletes have no business being in college in the first place. The reason they are there is because the school thinks they can draw crowds and win games. Maybe back 30+ years ago when the system was different a free ride sounded like perfect compensation, but I wouldn't argue with the kids now that say it isn't. Especially when they get busted every time they turn around for trying to generate some cash themselves in other methods outside of school.

I don't really think they should get paid in college. Even though they show up on TV, they shouldn't get paid by their College or the Television network, or whoever. It should be a non paid job.