Unrelated: I’ve decided to walk on at the University of Arizona. Reasons aren’t important.
What is important is trying to figure out how college athletes can get more money beyond the value of their athletic scholarship now that a four-team playoff with seemingly unlimited revenue potential has been approved. The subject matter is a controversial and admittedly complex one, currently up for further examination within the NCAA after a majority of schools voted to suspend the legislation late last year.
Luckily, Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez has a solution: feed the players more. Don’t worry about cash; worry about mash... ed potatoes?
Anyway, here’s what Rodriguez had to say on the Tim Brando Show Monday:“Let’s allow all the schools to give all the athletes meals. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Right now, they get meals, but it comes out of their scholarship check. Let’s provide meals on top of the scholarship. Let us feed them breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“If nothing else, that’s an easy solution to help them get through their college careers. And everyone wants to feed them right? I think that’s an easier solution than trying to figure out what kind of stipend to give them.”
Athletic departments already provide their athletes with bountiful resources and coaching staffs are always worried about their players’ diets anyway, so this seems like a logical way to give them more while maintaining control.