How is it not working? I would have done it if I had the talent. My kids would do it if they get the opportunity. Indentured servitude it may be, but it also gets them perhaps $100,000 worth of education. That's pretty good money for 18-21 year olds.

79:, not all schools are the same, schools have many ways of giving extra money such as per diem and travel money when available. Us MAC schools work near the bottom of what is allowed, and out of state students get larger checks. Another factor with many athletes is financial need, athletic scholarships do NOT count against financial aid, and then you have the NCAA funds for those students who qualify.

Per NCAA rules 8 hours a week off-season, and 20 hours a week in-season.

Hey, BattleCat...I think OSU's troubles just got much worse.  See ESPN.com.  And still wondering about your thoughts on the equipment manager's culpability...given your past position in Athens.

What exists now has to exist or else it is every other non-revenue sport. Let's say the "broken" system is "fixed". The evil white collar devils (ABC/ESPN, the university's themselves) can no longer profit in any manner off these athletes. There are no more TV deals; there is a playoff that is hosted by the team with the better record (maybe the national championship is hosted on a neutral site in which both teams split the gate). Certainly in this world, no more bowl games. Depending how conservative you go with it, there may not even be a national championship, maybe the state schools just all play each other and the USAToday votes on the best team across the nation at the end of the year. The ticket revenue is barely enough (if enough at all) to cover the scholarships and the head coaches make 40k a year salary. Now no one is complaining about the extortion of these innocent players. People in Cleveland and throughout the state no longer care about A&M because they can't see it on TV, they can't even see the highlights on ESPN. This scenario is repeated across the country for people outside of the 50 mile radius of their beloved Big Time Football School. Out of sight out of mind. All of a sudden college football becomes as popular as college baseball or maybe even college hockey.

Is everyone happy now? No, no one is happy because people that love the monster that is college football now have a skeleton of what it once was; it becomes a glorified national high school league with much more exclusivity. The lobbyists that fought for moral reform have blown away with the wind to find another moral pursuit.

Oh and if you try to go in the capitalist direction you now have by definition a professional organization. If you pay the players, tax payers are now supplementing a minor league system for a private organization. That's not innovation, that's where things really get constitutional and we'll see how long the innocent athletes can outlast the wrath of tax players that could care less about American football.

Indentured servants.   You don't mean that literally, do you?

I do think it accurate to say that most HS football players who deem themselves capable of playing college football lust for a scholarship - with their parents supporting such lust for very understandable reasons.

Stated otherwise, college scholarship athletes have knowingly made a choice: pay me in the form of a valuable scholarship and I will willingly work hard to keep that scholarship intact for the next 4 or 5 years. 

Many non-scholarship students who graduate with crushing debt loads likely would have made the same choice had they had requisite athletic ability. 

My g7grandfather came to the Crown Colony of Maryland in 1664 as an indentured servant.  He had to work seven years to pay for his voyage to these shores and become a totally free man.  His living conditions were not comparable to those of a modern college student.  His work was much harder and back-braking than that of your typical college athlete.  He didn't get a college education out of the deal, either.  I really don't see the analogy being made here.  

And you're assuming the system to be broken. Your scenario leaves out one huge factor, and that's financial risk. A capitalist system doesn't pool all the profits and divide equally among all parties. You have to also factor skin in the game. The athletes are being paid to play via scholarship dollars. That money comes to them whether they win or lose, or even whether they play or don't play.

On the other hand, the "big money" boys put put a large financial risk on the table. At the same time, their financial gain is anything but guaranteed. They may make money; they may lose money. Is it any wonder then, that those same interests should reap the larger rewards?

You have to allow people to make money for taking risks. If you don't, then no one will take risks. Under that scenario, I wonder how many broadcasting outfits would be willing to televise MAC football?

These numbers are wayyyyy off LOL

Don't you see, what we have now is the middle ground. This is equilibrium. When you disrupt equilibrium there is no saying what will happen. What is most likely is that it will not resemble what it was before.

Football players can enter the draft after three years out of high school.  Furthermore, this point is moot since it's the NFL , not colleges, that have this rule set up.

If money is that big an issue, take out a student loan or two like the rest of us.

You're working hard to paint these student-athletes as victims. They are not. If they don't want to participate, they don't have to.