Take a school like Ohio State. An athletic scholarship there is worth over a hundred thousand dollars over four years, including tuition, room, board, and books. That's real compensation, and most athletes graduate with a degree and no debt. Now, when someone says "pay college athletes," we need to define what that means. If it means a salary on top of a free education, then we're changing these students into professional employees. And the numbers don't support that. Most athletic departments actually lose money; only a handful of big programs turn a profit. So who pays the salaries? The school? That means cutting sports like wrestling or swimming. The point is, the scholarship already is the payment. It's not perfect, but turning college sports into a pay-for-play league would destroy the very thing that makes it special.

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