College whiners irk me.

For whatever reason, the idea of people selling jerseys of college teams has become quite the point of contention for people railing against the idea of not paying people to play college sports. Well, there have been a couple of sites that I saw the complaint on, namely The Big Lead, Barry Petchesky at Deadspin, and this post at Fanhouse by Kevin Blackistone.
Give me a break. Let’s run down a few facts: most college athletes in the most profitable sports (football and basketball are the only two that are actually profitable, generally speaking) ARE paid. Do you know how much most college students would LOVE to be on a free ride at their school? Do you know how much the inclusion on a sports roster boosts one’s notoriety and resume? Make no mistake, most of these athletes are paid upwards of 30k a year.
If you look up the typical pay of a meteorologist, you will see something in the 6 figures. The numbers are skewed because of the ones on TV and a few of the senior meteorologists at the National Weather Service. Most pro meteorologists make less than 30k a year. This would be about the same discrepancy between a college athlete and one in the NFL or NBA. It’s not insane for someone to make 25k a year while other members of their profession make significantly more.  And for those that are upset they aren’t getting that money in cash, then I say it’s their fault if they are too stupid to parlay a free education into a successful career.
As for the millions the school rakes in, I need to remind you that those millions typically go to fund other programs. Were the schools to pay athletes, then the school starts losing money. Programs are dropped. And if there IS a profit, that goes back into the school. Most of these universities are non profit, so that extra cash goes back into courses, research professors and facilities. Remember? These are schools we’re talking about, not the big bad NFL.
Blackistone made reference to the plight of one particular athlete. The problem with allowing one player an exception is that it’s a slippery slope. If one athlete at Georgia is allowed to take money from the school on top of his scholarship (and that’s what selling their property is), then what’s to stop an athlete from a less privileged school, like, say, Idaho, from doing the same?
Now that I have talked about that, I can start in on the fallacy of a playoff being more fair than the present system. Perhaps another time.