Earlier today we got a glimpse of the new magazine cover for Time Magazine, which features Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. Later in the morning Time writer Sean Gregory went on The Dan Patrick Show and claimed Manziel would receive quite the pay day if we lived in a world where college players were eligible for compensation.
“Say college athletics had the same revenue sharing models as the NFL, if you take Texas A&M’s revenue and give 46 percent to the players and divide it up evenly he would probably get about $225,000 based on that math,” Gregory said. “Obviously, maybe they wouldn’t be paid equally, Manziel could get more.”
How much more? Asked what Manziel could command if college football had a free agent system similar to professional sports, Gregory guesses he could command a million or more.
The issue of paying players is not going anywhere, and it is starting to get louder. Time has received some criticism for using Manziel on their cover to sell their story (surely Time did not pay Manziel for this), but the point here is that the concept of paying players does extend beyond just sports. There are some serious effects on the academic structure and a trickle down effect in the political realm and more once that first step is made.
