By Hunter Nusz
May 29, 2021
Harley Hunt put seven hours a day into football Monday through Friday and he never got paid for it and he believes that he never should have gotten paid for it. Harley Hunt played for Methodist University from 2016-2018, he majored in athletic training, and sports management. Hunt played division 3 football and he never made a single cent due to the current NCAA rules about college athletes getting paid or making money off of their likeness.
Hunt said that he felt that he should not have been paid by the university but he should have been able to make money off of his likeness. This is coming from someone who put thousands of hours of their life into football. Hunt continued his football career after high school by attending Methodist University in North Carolina. He started working with the team in the summer of 2016 and one thing he said was “it never really stopped.” He said that they practiced in the summer and then during the season they practiced Monday through Friday, played every Saturday and their off day was Sunday. Hunt explained a regular practice day during the season, he says “Wake up and go to 6 a.m. workouts for two hours, then went to class, then went to team meetings to watch film for two hours and then we had practice for three hours until 6 p.m.” He went through all of this almost everyday for two years and yet he still believed that he should not have gotten paid by the university.
His main reason is that if he got paid as a division 3 football player, then everyone should get paid the same. He said “If they pay D1 players then D3 players should get paid.” He said that it would be hard for the NCAA to figure out who to pay and how much each player should get paid, he said “Do they pay the division 1 football players more than the division 3 players?” He also brought up the fact of who pays the players? Is it the NCAA or the university that pays the student athlete. He did say that if the NCAA were able to figure out a fair way to pay all student athletes then he would be in favor of the student athletes getting paid.
That being said Hunt did say that the student athletes should be able to make money off of their own likeness. Current NCAA rules will not allow a student athlete to sell their own jersey for money, this is what Hunt disagreed with. He said that if a student athlete wanted to sell their own jersey or sign a piece of merchandise for money then they should be able to without any repercussions from the NCAA. He said he strongly believes this for division 1 athletes because the school often makes money from a certain athlete so that said athlete should be able to make money using their own likeness.
One thing that Hunt mentioned was that most of his teammates in college never talked about if they should be paid. “We never really brought it up,” Hunt said. “I think we never got the chance to sit around and think about it, we started our day with 6 a.m. workouts and then ended our day at 6 p.m. after a 3 hour long practice.”
Hunt mentioned that he believed that eventually college athletes will be able to make money off of their own likeness and then they will eventually be paid. He still did not know who he thought would pay them though. One final thing that Hunt mentioned was when he was asked that if he would have gotten paid during his playing time, how much would he expect. “Enough to cover my living expenses, enough to cover my basic needs.” He could not come up with an exact amount but he mentioned “enough to live a comfortable life in college.”
Tyler Weber, a senior at the University of Delaware believes that college football players should be able to receive pay. Weber’s personal view is that he believes that college football players should get paid and be able to make money off of their own image. Weber said that each division should get a different amount of pay “D1 gets the most, and D3 gets the least but they should all be able to make something.”
He believes this because each school brings in a different amount of money off of their athletic teams. Weber also talked about players being able to make money off their likeness. Like Hunt, Weber believed that college athletes no matter the sport should be able to make money off of their own name. He said that they should be allowed to sign autographs and sell jerseys to make money.
Another thing that they both agreed on was the fact that soon, all college athletes, not just football players will be paid. Weber said “they won’t be paid by the time I graduate but by the time the current freshmen are about to graduate they probably will be.”
Isaiah Passmore, recent graduate of University of Iowa and current law student at University of Miami, also agreed that college athletes should not get paid by the university. But should be able to make money if the university uses an athlete’s name or image.
Passmore said that he believes no college athlete, football player or not should get paid by their respective university. Despite saying this he believes that the universities should not stop any attempts of college athletes getting paid by another source by using their image or likeness. Passmore said that he thinks that college football players should get paid by using their image or likeness because they are playing the most popular sport and making the most money for the university.
He also said “the best athletes in the country are usually football players.” One final thing about the future of college athletics that he said was that he thinks college athletes will eventually get paid. “In the next 5-10 years it will happen,” Passmore said.