Should college athletes be paid for playing sports?

Should college athletes be paid? Of course they should, but not all of them. It may not seem fair but it makes sense.

If I were running this show only the Division I men's basketball and football players would get paid.

I love all of the other sports and I apologize if that sounds ridiculous but the fact is those other sports don't bring in nearly as much money as basketball and football.

The NCAA made an agreement with CBS and Time Warner worth nearly $11 billion to air every March Madness game from 2011 to 2024 on their stations. ESPN and BCS agreed to $500 million for four years to do the same.

Student-athletes do something truly incredible by going to school and competing athletically at such a high level week in and week out, especially at the D-I level.

They wake up and see themselves on ESPN being critiqued on their performances.

Some of them are even the faces of their school (See Tim Tebow). 

That kind of attention can easily affect someone's study habits.

These kids are bringing the NCAA billions of dollars and they aren't getting any of it.

I'm sure these universities can't afford to be throwing money at their athletes, though.

So what's the plan? Take a chunk of that $11 billion and distribute is evenly throughout the D-I men's basketball players and the same with football. That's right-evenly.

The outcome I imagine with paying the best players more money is holdouts.

The last thing college sports needs is star players threatening to transfer or not play because they think they deserve more money than some other guy.

That business can stay in the pros.

I think within 10 years this will begin to happen and it's well deserved on the players' part.