12 current University of Miami players have been discovered to had accepted improper benefits from booster Melvin Shapiro, who is currently serving jail time for a multi million dollar ponzi scheme. 8 of those players have been penalized with at least an one game suspension, while the other 4 simply had to repay the benefits they accepted. Of those 8 players, one happens to be the star quarterback, Jacory Harris. Shapiro also stated that many other Miami players dating back to 2002 had accepted benefits from him, including current Tampa Bay Bucs Tight End Kellen Winslow Jr., who is a Miami legend. Now the question has become raised again, should players be paid for play? Athletics schedules control the athletes everyday lives. While they seemed to paid with a college scholarship, that is still not enough to maintain a healthy living while at school. What about their lives outside of football? Schools make million of dollars every year off athletic events and nothing is repaid to the athletes. not to mention they sell jerseys with the players names on them and the players still receive no benefits from that. While it seems like the players are just breaking rules, they are just trying to get money to maintain a living outside of athletics at school. Their violations are always unheard of until the person who gave them the benefits reveals all the secrets. The NCAA never discovers the violations themselves, they find out through sources such as ESPN and Yahoo Sports. Boosters are like hurricanes sweeping through and ruining players lives. When will the NCAA actually take more charge and weather the storm. You have to pay these athletes or there will continue to be violations.
http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=ys-wetzel_miami_suspensions_083011
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/6909795/ncaa-eight-miami-hurricanes-serve-suspenions-repayments
While I agree that some players may need extra money to survive and feed themselves, the majority of players receiving money from boosters in actuality are receiving vast quantities of money and spending it on material possessions rather than life essentials like food. In most cases athletes who do have financial needs as far as paying for school goes, especially football players are very well taken care of by scholarship money. Their tuition is paid for, their living situation is taken care of and they have a meal plan (most universities have all you can eat dining halls). These things are all that a school should provide in order to keep these athletes and adding extra incentives turns the sport into a business and will keep them from learning many of the valuable life lessons they are supposed to take away from sport.
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