Mel Tucker and Lincoln Riley Are Close to Getting Massive New Contracts
But There’s Still No Money to Share With Players
By Ken Reed
According to reports, Michigan State is close to offering the school’s head football coach a 10-year $95 million contract extension. Other reports say LSU is dangling an eight-year $96 million contract offer in the face of Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley.
Of course, these dollar amounts are obscene for non-profit academic institutions. And they certainly don’t help the NCAA and its power conferences argue that there is no money available to better compensate the athletes creating their huge entertainment product.
College sports are nothing more than amateur-based extracurricular activities for students on campus. Right?
In reality, the NCAA is a 501 (c)(3) organization that doesn’t pay federal taxes because the government considers them a non-profit, same as the Red Cross. Meanwhile, Power Five conference football powers can pull in $100 million+ annually in revenue. Data from 2017 show Alabama made $108.2 in football revenue alone. You can add multiple thousands to that figure today. The NCAA, college sports governing body, makes more than $1 billion a year in revenue. Top coaches are making around $10 million a year.
On the other side of the fence, the players get chairs in classrooms, dorm room beds, dorm cafeteria food and, in recent years, a small stipend for basic living expenses. I’m certainly not downgrading the value of a college education, but in terms of true market value, the artificially-capped compensation packages that athletes get fall well short of what an open market would get them.
“I can’t think of any other business where there’s such a transfer of wealth as there is in this case; where the student-athletes are basically powerless, and everyone else in the system is benefitting,” said Steve Berman an attorney and advocate for economic justice for college athletes.
Some people argue that college players will get their big payday when they go to the NFL. But only a very small percentage of the 85 players on each FBS college team will get an NFL paycheck. For the majority of these college football players, their only chance to make money off their football talents is now, while they are in college making millions for their schools and conferences. Instead they get room and board and a few bucks for an occasional pizza.
After immense pressure from courts around the country, state legislatures, and Congress, the NCAA has started to allow athletes to make money off their names, images and likenesses (NILs). That’s a HUGE step forward. But there are still steps that need to be taken in the name of economic fairness for college athletes.
The huge contracts being talked about for Tucker and Riley are but the latest evidence that the athletes are still getting screwed.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans

Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #21 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Chatting About a Broken Game With Baseball Writer Pedro Moura – Moura is a national baseball writer for Fox Sports. He previously covered the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic. His new book is titled “How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink.” We discuss how and why the game of baseball is broken, what factors caused it, and offer a few thoughts on how to “fix” a great game.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #20 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Coaching Youth and High School Sports Based On What’s Best for the Athlete’s Holistic Development – We chat with long-time youth, high school and college basketball coach Jim Huber.
Episode #19 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Capturing the Spirit of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with Anika Orrock – We discuss the hoops AAGPFL women had to jump through to play the game they loved as well as the long-term impact and legacy they have in advancing sports opportunities for girls and women.
Episode #18 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Talking about the 50th Anniversary of Title IX and the Lia Thomas Controversy with Nancy Hogshead-Makar – Hogshead-Makar is a triple gold medalist in swimming, a civil rights attorney and CEO of Champion Women.
Episode #17 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Talking Sports With Legendary New York Times Sports Columnist Robert Lipsyte – We chat about Lipsyte’s amazing career and some of the athletes he covered.
Episode #16 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Andrew Maraniss: Outstanding Author of Books That Focus On the Intersection of Sports, History and Social Justice.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Books