The New York Times ran an editorial on August 29 ("Cleaning Up College
Football") which may have application to college hockey, too. Scholarship
athletes subject to the same rules and conditions suffer essentially the
same financial predicament. Yes, I know college hockey does not make money.
 
Here's what the Times said:
 
[The NCAA] should do something about the money problem. Athletes make millions
for their schools and receive piddling amounts for tuition and board. Their
poverty in comparison to their market value as college players and potential
earning power as pros makes corruption inevitable.
 
A sensible  first step is to lift student athletes out of poverty by giving
them realistic scholarships based on the entire cost of keeping a student in
school: tuition, housing, food, plus the allowances a parent would provide for
clothes, transportation, social activities and spending money.
 
With tuition alone at many NCAA schools running from $10,000 to $20,000, many
middle-income families spend a total of $30,000 or more a year in after-tax
dollars. And it is the total cost of keeping a student in comfortable style
that an athletic scholarship should cover. Presently NCAA scholarships cover
only tuition, room and board, books and up to $2,400 in cash.
 
Nothing can bring back the era of pure amateurism in college football. But
simple reforms could make it financially clean and academically respectable
as well as entertaining.
 
Kevin L.