Should College Athletes be Paid?

This is one of the oldest sports debates in the book. Should college athletes be paid? I can see both sides of the argument and honestly, my position is on a bit from both sides. Do I think that all athletes should be given a weekly or a monthly check from the school. no. My Issue with that is that it is way too complex, How do we decide how much they get? Does every athlete get the same? If so, why is it fair that the starting quarterback from the football team would make the same as the last guy on the bench for the basketball team. The other issue is that for most schools. Football and basketball keep the other programs around. Without a football or basketball team, most schools wouldn’t have an athletic program. One of the ways I would pay players; however is merchandise sales. If a piece of merchandise has their likeness on it, jerseys, shirts, etc the players should get a cut of that. That’s why when you buy a college jersey most of them just have a number. It’s a work around. I firmly believe that players should not be given a salary, but they can be compensated in other ways. For example, the NCAA has some of the dumbest regulations i’ve ever seen. For example, there was an athlete that received a bagel from their university, which was fine, but as soon as they put cream cheese on it, cream cheese that was provided by the university, it was a violation. That is asinine. The NCAA will never pay their players because they are as corrupt of a company as there has ever been. This is a difficult topic because there aren’t just football teams and basketball teams. There are others men’s and women’s sports that compete for universities. The problem is they don’t make money. Another issue is that smaller schools could not afford to pay for players. It would be a great thing to pay players, the issue is, it is too difficult to figure out a good system right now.