Playing For Very High Pay

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS has a new quarterback of the future, already on campus, but he hasn't played yet. He was a millionaire before he set foot on university soil, and he didn't bring the money with him. It was handed to him by a UT administrator, who had collected it from a single wealthy donar, or perhaps several less wealthy ones. On the campus of the University of Georgia,a young football star, also a budding star quarterback, has been seen driving around campus in a three hundred thousand dollor sports car of Italian manufacture. Meanwhile, the offensive linemen who can either make quarterbacking highly lucrative or disastrous at the college level, you somehow suspect, are being paid far less, despite their indispensable contributions. Only the very best of the big men get well paid. Name, image, and likeness. Financial chaos. Hope that the sports car quarterack doesn't kill anybody with his car, receives no speeding tickets, and puts no dents, dingers, or total damage to his beauty. Good luck with that. This is the era of the wild, wild west in college athletics, especially football, the cash cow on campus... This is the era before regulation steps in, and restores sanity. Eventually, if sanity is restored, presumably, eventually the colleges and universities will pay their players directly, pro rated, according to skill level. Perish the thought that economic equality might come to campus. There is little to no value to the names, images, or likenesses of college athletes, other than an occasional endorsement of a local business. The money comes from groups of fans, affluent and otherwise, oranized in "combines", non profit entities which only collect money and redistribute it to the deserving few, the select star athletes who can bring fame,fortune, and wins to their universities' athletic programs. Small contributions are always welcome. The young lady who recently set the all time scoring record for NCAA women's basketball will probably stay in school next year, rather than turning pro. She can make much more money by so doing. Profesional sports has become even crazier. Multi year multi million dollar contracts are now the norm. Most exceed tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars. The players know that hey have it good, maybe too good, and are deferential and respectful towards all media personell, knowing full well where their bread is buttered. You get a bad public relations rep, and you might be at risk of being traded or cut. Major league baseball teams have payrolls in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The New York Yankees will let you watch batting practice, live streamed, for a price. Gone are the days when merely showing up at the stadium an hour or so before game time would be sufficient to watch the big boys swatting balls over the fence for free, practice home runs. Not mentioned is whether big strong left handed pull hitters command a surcharge, payable by debit or credit card. For only five thousand dollars a game, you can rent a luxury box at Yankee stadium, which can accomodate as many as twenty four people, packed in like sardines. There is an extra charge for alcoholic beverages; hot dogs and pretzels are complimentary. You can buy tickets for games on the Yankees website,for either single games or packages. There is a "promotion" every day. The actual ticket prices are not mentioned until you get to the part where you click to buy. A first row seat behind the dugout will go for about twelve hundred bucks. Come game time, many of these seats are empty, although paid for. The wealthy have money to burn, plenty of free time and a beautiful stadium to roam. If the game is good enough, they will eventually come down and sit down, among and below the plebes, who pay a little less. The best advice is to stay away from the concseesion stand. Restroom privileges,however, are still free, at least for the time being.