It will be close to see which disappears first, us old guys or collegiate sports as we knew them when it was amateurs playing tor a free education, mostly. It was never close to true amateur but not even a sign of that now since the college kids are already signing up for pay.
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I am feeling same sort of stuff.
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I think we’ve already outlived collegiate sports…
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True amateurism disappeared when athletic scholarships were approved nearly 70 years ago (and at one point the International Olympic Committee threatened to ban American college athletes who were on scholarship; however, the IOC eventually accepted reality and now allows pros in virtually every sport). So the question is how much are they paid? Forty years ago, when UA football tickets were $10 a pop and a $150 donation would get you a 50-yard-line seat, and the entire athletic budget was probably not much over $1 million if that, tuition, fees, books, room and board might have been appropriate/adequate. Multiply that athletic budget by 100 to 125, and suddenly TFBRB doesn’t look so adequate. Especially when top coaches are making nearly eight figures (Lou Holtz was making $226,000 in 1982, and that was quite high for a D-I coach at the time).
I’m reminded of the story about the British nobleman Lord Beaverbrook asking the wife of an acquaintance if she would sleep with someone else for a million pounds. She said yes. Se he asked her if she would sleep with someone else for five pounds. She replied indignantly, “What do you think I am?” To which he replied, “We’ve already established that, now we’re trying to determine the degree”.
College athletes have been semi-professional for nearly 70 years. Now we’re just changing the degree.
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I know there are different opinions and some self proclaimed experts on everything available to explain how good this is and how it will not harm collegiate sports, but I am feeling the same as the original poster. I have been wrong before and I have little respect for the NCAA and understand that the money being generated by the game is huge and enriching a limited number, but I cannot see this ending well for college sport and probably not that well for the non-elite athletes.
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“True Amateurism” is one thing…I won’t disagree that it’s been gone for quite a while now…the NCAA’s futile smoke-and-mirrors attempt to convince people otherwise notwithstanding.
But - like others in this thread - I’ve contemplated in recent years that the world of college sports I’ve enjoyed my entire life is about to go the way of the dodo bird. I’m not sure we’ll be able to distinguish it at all from other pro sports in 15 or 20 years. And while I understand WHY that is, selfishly I wish that it had more or less stayed status quo another 10 or 20 years. It hasn’t been perfect, but I greatly enjoy college sports over pro - in all sports - and hate to see it move more toward the professional model.
However, it’s going to happen, regardless of what some of us may want or wish for.
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I think I feel the same way. Then, what is a college degree worth? I cannot put a figure on what my two have been worth to me over my life, but it is a whole, whole lot. It is small compared to NFL money, but it is still very substantial. It has also allowed me to be well paid doing things that I love doing. What alone is that worth?
The point is, these guys are being offered something very valuable, but they must take it.
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Paying players to play sports in college is going to reduce the contributions to the Razorback Foundation in a significant way, I believe.
My family and I have given money and bought tickets since 1954, but playing for pay is professional football. I can watch professional football for free. This rule will help professional football and make it more popular as fans gravitate toward professional sports and away from college sports. High School football may benefit somewhat with more interest, but this cannot help college football.
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I just don’t see this rule making college football like pro football. Pro football players are paid six, seven and eight figures by their teams. College athletes aren’t paid by their teams except in the form of scholarship and cost of attendance checks.
And I don’t see many, if any, college athletes earning endorsement deals near the likes of NFL players.
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Don’t you see players from schools like Auburn and Alabama getting paid substantial dollars for advertising for car dealerships and other businesses under the guise of really helping the company, when it is just a payment to get them to come play football or basketball for the school? I sure do.
What are “substantial” dollars? I don’t see most college athletes being anywhere near as marketable as professional athletes, so I don’t see them earning endorsement deals like the pros.
By the way, those car dealers are going to need to get some new cars on the lot before they can afford to pay too much. 
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Sure.
We should do the same.
What’s the harm?
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I remember when Bowden Wyatt was about to leave
Arkansas for Tennessee, his school, the state law in Arkansas did not allow any employee of UA to make more than the President of the school. Fans donated money to buy Wyatt a new Cadillac which he drove to Tennessee. So a coach in those days could not make more than about 40,000 or so, but that would not hire a water boy these days.
So does the rate of salaries of coaches indicate maybe the rate that players may see some day. Granted only a few will get rich, but some will.
To me, it is simple, quit calling the players students and acknowledge they are professional representatives of the school and not even bother with a degree, just make sports a side line and not an educational function.
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We’re already seeing the change. Treylon Burks got a gig with Petsmart. If the rules are going to let kids get paid for their NIL’s, I want ours to do as well or better than everyone else. However, I won’t pretend I’m not worried that it will have a serious harmful effect on Razorback sports & perhaps college sports in general. (And I say that being one who has long believed players should get paid something much more than a mere scholarship.) We may become accustomed to the new reality. We may find ourselves liking it just fine. But we might not. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
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Yep, I’m in “Wait and See” mode.
That’s all any of us can do. As my old Greek boss used to say, the toothpaste is out of the tube and it isn’t going back in. I happen to think our athletes will do just fine in NIL land, and that it will give us a better chance to compete in football than the Alabama/Clemson/tOSU status quo, along with the CFP expansion. Now you can make a little coin, legally, AND have a decent chance to make the playoffs at a lot more than the 11 schools that have made the CFP so far.
I sure hope so
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Trey Knox got the deal with PetSmart.
I stand corrected
I don’t believe coaches made $40,000 in the 50s. I think Hayden Fry made 16k when hired at SMU in 62.