The NCAA still does not want to pay the stars of the show, the performers.
It is time for the college football championship game in Inglewood, California. So let’s take a look. The pilot and co-pilot of the planes that took the University of Georgia and Texas Christian University teams to Los Angeles Airport got paid. The bus drivers taking the teams from the airport to the hotel and practice facilities and the stadium were paid. Housing the players, paid. The head of security and that team at the corporate named stadium, paid. The corporate named stadium officials gave money to the people who allow the name on the building. By the way, most of the money that the game customers are bringing to Southern California will be spent in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica, not Inglewood so whatever economic generator Inglewood touted that was coming in was wrong. The TV and radio people broadcasting the game and the production crew get paid. Marketing partners who want to be associated with the game have paid for that right. The stadium maintenance crew, ticket takes, vendors, parking lot attendants all get paid. The players? Nothing from the colleges although a third-party can pay them after all the NCAA wants to pretend it is purer than Caesar’s wife and won’t taint its industry by paying the performers.
This is game 15 for both teams, 15 weeks of practice, a couple weeks of training camp and those so-called voluntary practices. It has been a full-time job since last summer or maybe last spring. The players get a scholarship from the school to go to practice and maybe if they have time for classes. University of Georgia head coach Kirby Smart made $6.9 million in fiscal 2021, according to Open Georgia and is the highest paid public employee in the state. College sports coaches make big salaries off of unpaid workers. This is the world of amateur sports.
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