By Steve Graf
As things wind down in 2025, I continue to question where we are headed with college athletics. Let me preface this article by saying that, yes, I’m old school when it comes to college athletes being paid. It’s just not right in my opinion, though I do believe in “reasonable” compensation.
Why is it no longer good enough to get a full scholarship and leave college with a degree that sets up a student-athlete for the rest of their life? Why does that no longer have value?
I’m all for subsidizing these athletes so they can go out and enjoy a pizza or go to a movie with a date, but we have now surpassed the idea of a little “spending money” to have a good time and enjoy college life.
As a former college athlete, I get that in the past certain athletes have been taken advantage of. I also get the positive financial impact some athletes can have on a university. But what we are doing with regard to paying college athletes is out of control!
Let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking this is something new. Ever since the beginning of college athletics, certain athletes with gifted abilities have always been catered to in some form. From the early days, the prized recruits might get a meal paid for or maybe a cow and some land given to their family—all due to an athlete’s ability to play at a high level.
In the 1970s, some elite athletes received cars as a gift or incentive to sign with a particular university. In certain instances, it took a briefcase full of money or a well-paying job for mom or dad to get a kid to sign. Some athletes were given high-paying summer jobs that exceeded the normal minimum-wage jobs other students got.
So, great athletes have been catered to for decades! But in 2025, this has gone above and beyond a car or a good-paying summer job. Today, kids are getting millions of dollars up front just to sign with a university—players who have yet to play a down or a minute in college.
What message are we sending to today’s young athletes with all this money being given up front?
They’re being paid whether they start or sit on the bench. What has happened to the idea of proving yourself and earning what you’re worth? Where’s the incentive for today’s athletes? Aren’t we setting them up for failure down the road?
We have placed kids on a pedestal and lifted their egos to levels never seen before! The word “entitlement” comes to mind as the number-one issue among all college coaches. Kids today don’t want to compete for a position—they want it given or promised to them. Oh, and coach, make sure they get some cash.
Just because they were an All-State player in high school, they think they should be starting as a true freshman and handed a starting position in college. Forget the idea of competing for a job and earning it—they expect it to be given to them! After all, they were All-District in high school.
Here’s another issue for today’s athlete. While travel ball in any sport has historically been a good thing, it has also been one of the worst things that has ever happened to so many of today’s athletes. The mindset and lessons learned through travel ball make some kids very hard to coach.
We have now raised a generation of athletes who are truly soft and uncoachable. Kids today cannot handle hard coaching and think a coach yelling at them means he or she doesn’t like them.
Over their entire careers, travel ball kids have been told how good they are and catered to. The recruitment of players, even at this level, is not beyond a few dollars being exchanged by a parent to get their kids on the right travel team.
A lot (not all) of these highly paid travel ball coaches, no matter what sport, are not in it to help develop players and make them better. Some (not all) are strictly in it to win. Winning is their primary focus, not making the kid better. But as all travel coaches know, the best way to attract the best players is to win!
Here’s the kicker with a lot of college athletes today: if they’re not happy, they’ll just transfer to another school. This is also starting to trickle down even to the high school level. If you’re not happy, transfer!
Forget competing and trying to get better—just go where they will pay you more money and promise you a starting position.
A college coach recently told me the first thing that goes through many players’ heads today after the season is over is not “How can I get better?” but “Where can I go and make more money?” Commitment and loyalty to the team have gone out the window with the bathwater, as so many athletes today are out for themselves.
Oh, I’m sure I’ll have many who will disagree with my assessment, especially those who have kids playing today. But just like a referee, I call it like I see it! This comes from someone who has coached and played at the Division I level in two sports.
I also know this: as a booster, it’s getting awfully hard to write those checks to a program where athletes only want one thing—more money. I want my money to be spent on things that will make the program better, not pay an athlete!
I can’t stand the idea that the check I’m writing is going to pay a kid to stay and play for a university that, in some cases, was the only scholarship offer they had. How about staying and playing for the college or university that made a commitment to you? How about playing for your teammates—now there’s a new concept!
If the powers that be (NCAA) don’t make some major changes to the structure and the money that college athletes can make, there’s no end to what lengths colleges will go to get the best players. As they say, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Yay, go team!
Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com
