--- title: Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid? | TIME description: Texas A&M player Johnny Manziel allegedly sold his autograph for money. TIME's Sean Gregory argues that it's only fair that college athletes get paid. canonical: https://time.com/video/STkMLNJH/ og:title: Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid? og:description: Texas A&M player Johnny Manziel allegedly sold his autograph for money. TIME's Sean Gregory argues that it's only fair that college athletes get paid. og:url: https://time.com/video/STkMLNJH/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/STkMLNJH/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid? twitter:description: Texas A&M player Johnny Manziel allegedly sold his autograph for money. TIME's Sean Gregory argues that it's only fair that college athletes get paid. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/STkMLNJH/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid? [Watch (HLS stream): Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/STkMLNJH.m3u8) (1:45)  _Published 2013-08-29. Texas A&M player Johnny Manziel allegedly sold his autograph for money. TIME's Sean Gregory argues that it's only fair that college athletes get paid._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:42 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport](/video/6MqlQjDZ/) ### Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport [2018's Highest Paid Athletes in Each Major U.S. Sport](/video/vVmo4zV3/) ### 2018's Highest Paid Athletes in Each Major U.S. Sport [College Coaches: The Highest Paid Public Employees MONEY](/video/6LMhiwT1/) ### College Coaches: The Highest Paid Public Employees MONEY --- ## Transcript >> Defending Heisman Trophy champion Johnny Manziel, quarterback for Texas A & M University, has allegedly signed autographs for money. The Manziel case has started the national debate: What's wrong with college atheletes getting paid? We all know a lot of money comes into college football, so where does it come from? The # 1 source is television revenues. TV networks bid on the rights to broadcast college football games. With a college football playoff starting next year, the demand from sports fans to watch these regular season and now playoff games is just gonna keep rising so the money's gonna keep going up. So, where does the money go if the players don't see any of it? Coaching salaries first of all. Salaries for football coaches, according to USA Today, have gone up 60, 70 percent in the last 7 years or so. Another place where the money goes is on athletic facilities. They can't pay recruits, so in order to impress recruits, schools build lavish practice facilities. Oregon just opened up a new place that looks like [ unk ] almost. But what's that really getting you? If you lift weights in a nice facility, you're still putting on muscles. You could be doing that in your garage. So, it's luxury, but it's unnecessary luxuries for players. The players do get athletic scholarships and that's worth a lot of money. But it's not cash in your pocket. And at the very least maybe, if you don't schools paying athletes, why not let an athlete like Johnny Maziel go get himself a sponsorship. That's what happens in the Olympics. Olympic athletes don't get paid a huge salary from the USOC. The Michael Phelpses of the world do deals with Speedo and others. That's another avenue in which really, really talented athletes can, you know, cash in on their market worth. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Shouldn't College Athletes Get Paid?","description":"Texas A&M player Johnny Manziel allegedly sold his autograph for money. 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