From the Big Lead:
Looking at the nation’s Top 10 programs in each sport, the compensation would be much greater. In football, the average player would have earned $418,768 in 2011-12 and $1,581,722 over a four-year career (average scholarship “value” is $23,325 per year). In college basketball, players at the Top 10 programs would have earned $901,763 in 2011-12 and $3,501204 over four years (average scholarship: $26,642).
Even 10 percent of the revenue would be nearly four times the average scholarship “value” in football and nearly nine times as much in basketball.
This revelation is nothing new. But the actual number—$419,000—is amazingly high. Is there a clean way to reach that number, allowing athletes to be compensated fairly without removing non-rev sports? We don't know. But among issues, it's really tough to look at a guy like Kevin Ware or Marcus Lattimore fall victim to a gruesome injury, and you know that snapped tibula, or shredded ACL, happened to care of someone else's salary.
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