Interesting article

[Dan_ref]

My take on "just paying them":

Who determines how much they get paid? Is it an open
market? Are players contracted for 4 years? Can we trade
players? How about the women's lacrosse team? The mens
fencing team? How much do they get paid? When we pay these
people do we subtract the value of the scholarship? This
alone can approach $40K per yr at some schools for a full
ride. Bottom line: paying them might seem the easy way out
but it opens a huge can of worms. Student athletes accept
the deal, there are lots of strings attached but they are
not forced to take the scholarship & play for the school.
And the vast majority of student athletes are actually a
financial drain on the school they play for. Just a small
few play on the big money teams.