Maryland's Gary Williams wants players to be paid

Gary Williams is a well-respected man in the collegiate coaching ranks.

He's been in the business for 32 years at this level, the last 22 with Maryland. He's been to Final Fours and won a national title. He's had many all-americans and sent numerous players to the NBA. He knows what he is talking about.

And what he was talking about yesterday, on a sports radio show in Baltimore, was the prospect of paying players in the revenue sports a stipend of about $200 a month.

Gary Williams thinks college basketball players should get a small monthly stipend.
(photo credit: Shell Games)

"These guys don't receive anything except room, board, books, tuition and fees, which doesn't put any cash in their pockets," Williams said. "And some of these guys are pretty poor coming here, and a lot of college students have some money -- you feel out of place, you don't feel competitive academically sometimes, and I think it could do a lot of good.

"Plus, hopefully, it would keep away some of the unscrupulous people that do hang around the great athletes, where an athlete wouldn't befriend a guy just because a guy gave him 100 bucks or something like that."

He does have a point. Last week, Charles Barkley said on the Dan Patrick Show that he took money from agents while he was in college. Not a lot, just a couple bucks here and there to be able to have something to spend. That's all Williams is suggesting here. While it won't completely cut out the agents and the runners from hanging about college campus's -- I doubt anyone will ever stop all 18-21 year olds from turning down a handout of a couple hundred bucks -- it should reduce the number of players that fall into that trap. There are a lot of kids out there that can be kept happy with enough spending money to get a new pair of Jordan's, or to get Madden 11, or to be able to afford a new one if their laptop or cell phone charger breaks.

That doesn't mean this is a fool proof plan.

Williams suggests that only the revenue-generating sports should be allowed to receive this stipend. That essentially assumes, however, that the Columbia men's basketball team generates more revenue than, say, the UConn women's basketball team or the Texas baseball team. Along those same lines, should a kid like John Wall really be getting the same stipend as the last player on American's bench when Wall himself probably generates as much revenue as the entire Patriot League?

I agree with Williams -- something needs to be done to let these kids see some of the money that they help generate. But with the NCAA holding tight to the notion of amateurism, it is going to need to be the perfect plan to get them paid.

This idea isn't perfect.