Bull Durham in the NFL

One argument I hear often is that we should decouple students and athletes, that is get rid of the NCAA altogether and set up a minor league system in all sports. Let’s be honest, NCAA is big brother and they currently set the wages for college athletes; such as the number of scholarships per school, maximum compensation, forbid certain forms of compensation (i.e. you can give free bagels, but you cannot give free cream cheese, jelly, or any other spread to accompany said bagels), and oversee enforcement of this structure. Therefore, if we get rid extramural sports, rather than the iron fist of the NCAA, the invisible hand of the free market would determine how much players should be compensated.

In fact this is done in baseball. And the fact that baseball has a fully functional minor league system is often used as a reference point as to what the NFL can do instead of college football. On almost every measure, professional baseball players earn more money than professional football players. In 2009, the highest paid baseball player made 29% more than the highest paid football player. The average and median player’s salary was greater in baseball than in football. Thus it could be argued, that baseball’s salary structure might be an upper bound as to what football’s might be if they implement a minor league football system.

So how much did Crash Davis and Nuke LaLoosh make while traveling in the team bus to play games? Minor League baseball actually has maximum salaries for their players. Based on which level the player is at, from lowest to highest – A, AA, AAA, the maximum salary increases. First year salaries at Single-A ball for a full season has a maximum of $1,050 per month. Don’t worry; it really starts to pick up for Double-A, $1,500 per month. Triple-A players, the stars of tomorrow, can earn a maximum of $2,150 (or about the value as year’s tuition at Duke).

The NBA has also started a minor league system in basketball known as the Developmental League. According to the D-League website, currently 15% of NBA players are D-League alumni. The league is still young, but surely these players are making more than the poor minor league baseball players. Salaries range from $12,000 – 24,000 per year. That’s right, per year, putting these players at or below the federal poverty level. They do however get $30 per day for food when they are on the road (can you say super size that value meal!!)

So before too many proponents argue that proper compensation can be achieved by having a minor league football system instead of the college system, you might want to know what the invisible hand will deal you. Turns out 50,000+ are willing to watch really bad quality football (think Big East, Florida vs. Furman or any FBS-FCS matchup, The Apple Cup (Washington vs. Washington State), Idaho vs. Louisiana Tech) when it is their school or alma mater playing.