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Comment by karmelapple | Hacker News Reader

College football, although it feeds the NFL, still has some rules in place that reduce some of the bad behavior. Of course, there's plenty of problems there, too, but these days I feel much less guilty cheering for a university team than for a pro team.

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College football is much worse than the NFL. Players get paid nothing and still burden the same risks mostly. The idea that players are "getting an education" simply just isn't true when you consider some of the majors these guys are enrolled in.

We need a minor league where players can make money. College football is insanely profitable.

Decouple the football teams from the colleges. Make 'em fully pro, with the scholarships and all intact but the team only licenses the team from the university and pays for its use of facilities, plus "holy cow those are high" licensing fees. The university still acts as alumni funding agent.

I guess you call a 5 or 6 figure per-year free education, room and board, use of multimillion dollar facilites and training expertise, getting "paid nothing."

Minor league players don't make a lot of money. Sometimes they have to pay to play. They get chewed up and spit out broke for the most part.

Please name a minor league with an $11B TV contract

I disagree. At least in the NFL, players are making (incredibly good) money.

In the NCAA, so many "student"-athletes are taken advantage of much more than NFL players.

I absolutely agree. The situation would be different if the coaches/college administrators didn't make so much money.

I still wonder: would it break any laws for a university system to institute a pay cap across the board?

Let's not forget the college itself is making an unhealthy amount of money. It's not just the personnel, it's the universities.

I attended Vanderbilt and was incredibly proud to see then-Chancellor Gee actually eliminated teh athletic department. He believed the department had too much power because of it's revenue generating capabilities, and the only way around that was elimination.

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