Pay to play: Full TU transcripts

Source: Tulsa World, Okla.自存倉Sept. 23--Tulsa World sports columnist John E. Hoover interviewed 15 student-athletes from the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and the University of Tulsa to find out what they think about college scholarships, additional proposed stipends and pay-for-play. Here's what those from TU said:Cody GreenFootballSeniorDayton, TexasBusiness managementQ: Should student-athletes be paid?A: "If you would have asked me that when I was at Nebraska, I'd say yeah. Sure. Just because those big schools have the money to be able to do it. They can find ways to do it. Here at Tulsa, the small schools, even intermediate schools, they're losing money every day."I don't know if there's a college program around here that makes money, just because of the fees for coaches, fees for other programs and stuff that the non-revenue generating sports, like rowing or stuff like that. They're not bringing in a lot of money. How can you pay them?"Right now, I feel like, no, you shouldn't (be paid), just because it's the last-ditch effort to harness what's truly, like, the passion for sports. You get to the NFL, you to Major League Baseball, all that stuff's for money--and it shows. Because those guys: 'Oh, I have a hangnail; I don't want to play.' That's BS. So this is the last-ditch effort to harness the true love of the game, and it should stay that way."It teaches you how to be a man -- how to be a grownup, actually. You're getting a paycheck from your scholarship check. That's your paycheck. It's gonna be the same thing whenever you're done playing and you get your paycheck on Friday. 'Hey, I have two weeks to do this, or whatever.' So it just gets you in the mindset of it."The guys that go out -- everybody goes out and says, 'Hey, we'll get it on the last Thursday of the month,' and then bam, that first weekend, everybody goes crazy. You have a bunch of money. Well, I think it hurts the guys that stay on campus that don't have the bills to pay and all that stuff. So whenever you get off campus, 'Crap, I have the electric bill; I have the cable and all this stuff that I actually have to pay.' It makes you responsible for your actions."I have all those bills, a dog I've got to feed, gas to put in the truck. I guess I'm used to it. When I was at Nebraska, I lived off campus, so I'm used to it now. But you learn how to grow up fast."Q: Should football get more than athletes in other sports?A: "No. Not at all. Everybody's the same. It's equality or nothing. Because rowers put in the same work that we put in for their sport. Softball puts in their work. Baseball puts in their work. So debating on your sport--it shouldn't be, 'Oh hey, since we bring in some of the money, we should get most of it.' No. That's just that people like football. It'd be totally different if we were in Europe. Then it would be soccer. Then soccer would be bringing all the money in. Either pay them all the same or don't pay them at all. It's black and white."Carly BoatrightVolleyballJuniorParker, Colo.CommunicationsQ: What is your position on student-athletes being paid beyond their scholarship check?A: "I think what people forget, for the most part, we kind of do get paid with our academics. Our tuition is being paid for."Even with football and basketball, it's still only a few select schools, because there are very few schools that actually make money from their sports. I think because we can't work -- I can't work when I'm in season -- but because we, me especially because I'm skinny, we need to eat more, like eating and specific things like that, I think the stipend is good."We work our butts off, and to be able to have an (inkling) of savings at all after college to think about -- because, again, very few of us are actually gonna go pro. Especially in a sport like volleyball. So to have an (inkling) of savings with a stipend is good."I get a (food) stipend. As a junior, I get $500 a month. That's part of my scholarship. You see some student-athletes spending it on shoes or the latest technology. Which is great and awesome. But the money could be managed a little bit better."For big schools, it's frustrating -- like with Johnny Manziel -- when schools are making money off specific players and they don't see any of that."Keeping college athletics as an amateur thing is really important, and when it comes down to it, I think education is the reason that you play a sport and that you get a scholarship."There's no way my family could afford -- realistically; we'd have a lot of loans -- to send me here. I have an older brother that plays basketball and has a partial scholarship at a DII school in Colorado. I have a younger sister and my parents have to pay for all of us to go to college. And there's no way that my parents could realistically afford to pay for all of us to go to college -- especially at a place like Tulsa, for me."Fundamentally, education is the most important thing. For the essentials, I think the stipend is helpful. Because we can't work and we do require more food and stuff like that than the Average Joe who's not working out and missing a bunch of class and not being able to work."I'm kind of on the fence. I think we should be paid, but I think -- I don't know about paid, but the stipend we have now I think is sufficient."For student-atheltes who come from a lesser background, they can apply for a Pell Grant, which is a bigger stipend. Which, you see student-athletes spending their Pell Grant on shoes or an iPad or a tattoo. Which, when you're young and you're getting that kind of money that you've never seen before, I mean, it doesn't make sense, but I could see why students would do it. So maybe if there was more education on that point, on how to handle your money. Especially if you're coming from a background where you don't have money, all of a sudden you have all this money, what are you gonna do with it?"I think the two-grand, throwing money around without an education or maybe limits on exactly what you can spend it on, something like that, can be dangerous. Because schools already spend so much money on athletics. Most athletic programs are money takers, not money earners. Unless you're a huge school that has that money to burn. Which, if we start doing, if we have scholarships based on if the school makes money, then you make more, then it polarizes talent even more. Which I personally hate the polarizing part. I think everyone should be equal. Mostly because I go to Tulsa and play volleyball."Q: Do you think football players should get paid more than volleyball players?A: "I think so. I don't think there should be a huge gap. But what I think the money should be for is food. ... We don't get the same training table as the football team. And I'm not gonna eat the same amount of food as a football player anyway."Also, if they're a money-earning sport -- I don't know, it's a hard question."Keeping the focus of college athletics on the fact that it's a college, that your academics are important, I think it's really important to keep college athletics an amateur thing."I like the stipend I get now. But that's a hard question to answer."The definition of being paid, I think, kind of depends on who you ask. Because I wouldn't say I'm getting paid. It's not like I have a ton of extra money. I get enough to get groceries and maybe have a little bit of savings. But more than that, I'm not sure."It's so complicated. And everyone has so many different opinions. And there's so many different levels of college.Q: If cost-of-living is factored in and you're offered a scholarship to Stanford, where it's so expensive to live, would that create a recruiting imbalance?A: "I think cost of living would be good. If I would have been offered a scholarship at Stanford, I probably would take it just based on the fact that it's Stanford. But I think it should be based on cost of living. "You think about Alabama, big football school. But the cost of living in Alabama is probably not that high. So I guess that argument, just for that specific (angle), wouldn't work."It's hard. Especially my perspective as a volleyball player, where we get treated great, but compared to a basketball team or a football team, we don't get as many perks. And my view is definitely a lot more academically focused. If I wanted to play pro, I'd go overseas. I don't personally want to play pro, even if I could. But whereas a football player who would be good enough to go play pro, it's different. ... And you can earn a lot of money doing that.Q: If offseason workouts were truly voluntary and you didn't have to worry about losing playing time, would you try to get a job?A: "I worked during the offseason this year. I've worked every offseason. I work my butt off.Q: Is that typical?A: "No. The time managing -- I'm special. I like to load my schedule. I think there's one other girl on my team who worked. I'm a junior and I worked the spring and summer semesters of my freshman and sophomore year. And then I'm hoping to get an internship in the spring, but my internship probably will not be paid. That's another thing I have to worry about: do I take the internship because it's a better opportunity for my future? But then I won't have time on top of my practices, especially once we start 20-hour weeks in the spring, I'm not gonna be able to do an internship and a part-time job and school and volleyball."Q: Where did you work?A: "I worked at the on-campus rec center. And then I worked for the minor league baseball team here, the Tulsa Drillers, this summer, doing promotions. I did gameday stuff. ... I did gameday stuff here, too, basketball."Q: Have you tried to work with TU football?A: "They want me to work, but I'm a little bit busy. (Volleyball season and football season are on the same fall schedule.)"It's very much part time, and it's really hard to find a job that will be flexible enough to deal with my schedule and my coaches. I can't give my boss a schedule of what my schedule's gonna look like. I have to say, 'My practice might be from this time to this time; sorry if I can't get there.' It's really, really hard to find a job like that. As a student, even, it's hard to find a job that's flexible with your classes, but then trying to find a part-time job that is flexible with your classes and your schedule and we travel -- you have to find someone that wants to work with you. And drink a lot of coffee."And you work weird hours. Like, I worked baseball games, which is like 6 to 11 at night. Super weird hours. And I mean, I'm exhausted. But you get it done."Right now I'm trying to get some savings to I can possibly afford my own place. It is not easy. You have to choose between the random job at the rec center that will let you work a two-hour shift on some days and a good internship where you're gonna get the exposure that you need for your future."We have eight-hour weeks starting the beginning through January-February, and then end of February and March, we start 20-hour weeks, then mid-April to late-April we have two weeks where we travel and play, like bus trips, local trips and we play like ORU and OU and Arkansas. It's two weeks of spring ball."Q: Are you unable to work during the season?A: "No. Nothing. The rec center has asked if I can work, and it's just ridiculous. I can't. I worked like two Drillers games -- their season just ended and they were short people, so my boss was OK with me showing up an hour late. Because I'm in season right now. Volleyball is paying for my education, so volleyball comes first. And I had a great boss. He was absolutely wonderful. ... He was very good and understanding. My first interview, I said, 'I can't give you a straight schedule. I can give you about what I'm gonna be, and if there's any conflict, I have to pick volleyball because it's paying for my education.' But that's very rare. Very rare.Abe MatamorosSoccerJuniorHoustonEconomicsQ: What do you think of the proposal that was voted down last year and is still being discussed that would give student-athletes an additional $2,000 beyond their scholarship check? A: "I like it. Some of my teammates, for example, I see them wearing the same clothes all the time. Whenever we have to dress nice, it's the same clothes because it's the only clothes they have. So for a lot of individuals, I think it would help a lot."It all depends on your scholarship. I don't but I know, some people get a stipend for food. My scholarship is just books, school and like the cafeteria and housing. But I don't know exactly how -- because everything is split in soccer -- I don't know how it works.Q: Any other examples of student-athletes who simply didn't have enough money at the end of the month?A: "I've run into occasion where we all want to go out to lunch or dinner and somebody will say no, and we'll ask, 'Why, what's up?' He'll be like, 'I don't have the money.' Then we'll say, 'Oh, don't worry dude, we'll spot you.' For some people that might be a little bit embarrassing. I've noticed that within my team, people not going to lunch or the movies. Things that are not essential, they say no to."People may say, 'Oh, they don't need to be going to movies or to dinner.' But at the same time, when your team is going and you want to do something together -- and when you're expected to come to practice every single day and work hard, to push yourself -- it's nice every now and then to go see a movie, because most other nights you're doing homework late at night because you've been working out all day."Q: So you would be in favor of a stipend?A: "Oh yeah. It'd be nice.Q: What about for revenue sports like football or basketball? How is that different?A: "Honestly, if you're an athlete in a revenue sport and you're making revenue for your school and your school is making millions of dollars off your name and you're not making a cent, and then from you they ask, 'You need to be at football practice and your coach requires you to do all this' -- at top level schools, they almost ask you to put your sport before your school. And you're not getting paid. And then when you get out of college, if you don't go pro, you've put everything on football and now you're left like, 'What do I do now?' And they've made millions of dollars off your name."Q: Would a stipend alleviate that at all?A: "I would consider them two separate topics. Because when you're talking about paying these football players that are making a lot of money for your school, if you're gonna treat it like a business and receive revenue like that, then treat it like a business and they're kind of your employees."I don't think I should be getting paid when it comes to what I do. Because we live in the United States, it's a capitalist free market and the price is set by the demand and the supply. There's no demand to watch soccer. So I'm thankful for my scholarship because we don't get many fans, but if there's a demand for football and those guys are making millions of dollars, then those guys should be getting paid."If you think about it strictly in that sense, people say, 'Oh, what about the athletes who work just as hard -- but really it's probably harder, because if these guys are born big, they already have a huge chance of being able to play football; we have to work on our skills and all that -- but if you look at it from that perspective, look at doctors. You have your orthopedic surgeon and you have your family practitioner. They go to school just as long. They work just as hard, probably. But even though they work just as hard, there's (more of) a demand for high quality orthopedic surgeons than family practitioners. That's just the country we live in. That's the way it works. If you want to live in a country where everyone gets paid the same, go live in a socialist country. That may be good, but that's not the country we live in."You have this weird area of college football in athletics that doesn't abide by what other industries abide by, and it kind of throws people off. They don't know what to do.Q: So if college football players should be paid, should the starting quarterback be paid more than the starting left guard, or should he get more than his backup?"That's like saying should Peyton Manning get paid more than his backup. Yes. Because you need him. But then people ask what does that do to the atmosphere of college football. Or, the big schools are gonna get all the good players. That already happens. Maybe different schools come up because they'll have more money. Maybe at the beginning they'll start out with a salary cap. Maybe not."Q: Can you put a price on a college education?A: "Well, you can put a price on that. Prices of college are going up. If you look at the rates of people getting a job after college, that's going down. Sounds like a bubble to me. That's how the housing market was. The value is decreasing, but the prices are increasing. People say, 'Oh, the value of an education will never drop.' Or, 'It's priceless.' That's what people were saying about the housing market: 'Prices are always gonna go up; we don't need to worry about it.' But then when people start realizing after college all these people aren't getting jobs, then we worry about it."I'm confident in my education and that I will do well in the workforce. ... I have a 4.0 here. I'm pretty confident I can do well here. But not every athlete has a 4.0. You know what I mean? If they don't make it in football and they go to get a job and they say, 'I went to school at Tulsa and I played football,' people will already know, 'Oh, it's because he played football. He went to the University of Tulsa because he played football.' Especially if you have a really low GPA. That stereotype, whether it's true or not, people have it."For football players, even though an education is priceless, that doesn't matter. They're still using you to make millions of dollars. It doesn't change that fact.Q: Is it worrisome that small schools like Tulsa then might not be able to compete with bigger schools who have bigger budgets?A: "I'm speaking from an economist's point of view: My answer to that is let the teams compete and see who brings in the money. Then they'll be forced to raise money and change and let the best team win. And then, yeah, some -- it's not gonna be very good for them. If you're gonna treat it like a business, then treat it like a business. But don't leave it like it is and use these players to get millions of dollars and not give them anything in return. If you want to keep it like that, then those millions of dollars, somehow get it to go back to them to help them in their future. Somehow reward them, maybe when they're gone, give them a fee or ... health insurance or something if you don't want to pay them. But what they're doing is making all this money off of them and not giving them anything back, other than a $50,000 education, which, compared to millions of dollars. And we're talking about a small percentage of schools."And instead of having these football players choose the randomest, easie迷你倉t degree, teach them how to use that money, how to invest that money, how to prepare themselves for their future with that money that you're giving them. That's helping them for their future, whether they make it in football or not, instead of these degrees that they're getting just because it's the easiest one.Q: Should the $2,000 proposed stipend be a flat rate, or should it account for cost of living? For instance, it costs a lot more to live in Palo Alto than it does in Stillwater. Would that create an imbalance?A: I don't think a flat rate's gonna do much. But then what are they buying with it? If it's clothes, don't clothes cost the same pretty much everywhere? At a Walmart in San Francisco, does a shirt cost more than a shirt in Tulsa? That's another thing."And how much of that is gonna go to alcohol and drugs and tattoos and partying? So how much is that gonna help?"They're trying to treat it like a business, but at the same time, not. That's why it's creating all these situations where people don't know what to do about it."If schools will be competing to be better, then that competition is gonna improve them. They need to improve in order to get good players, and then that competitiveness brings the level higher, not only of sports, but of what you're gonna offer the player. Then the athletes have the power now and they're not in danger of being used too much.Cody WilsonFootballSeniorBroken Arrow (Lincoln Christian)Degree in CommunicationsGraduate degree: Education (December)MarriedQ: Should student-athletes be paid in addition to their scholarship?A: "I wouldn't really view it as much as getting paid as I would a stipend. For instance, I can't get a job. Scholarship athletes, we don't have time to get a job during the summer or the spring or the fall, especially. And there's stuff that comes up, like gas money, car repairs, stuff that pops up that's outside of your normal budget. And if you don't have good money skills, then you're living off a food stipend, basically. I was able to make that work, to have a little chunk of change to be able to pay a cell phone bill or something like that. There's no way to get that money unless somebody's giving it to you, mom or dad or a family member. It's almost basically impossible to get that when you're a full-time athlete.Q: You're married; is your wife also a student or does she work?A: "She works at Lincoln Christian (School). She's really good with her money. So it's actually been really good. So we don't have money issues. She's a real penny pincher, whereas I was wasn't."Really, the first thing I had to save for was an engagement ring and a honeymoon. And that was motivation for me, so it was a really good platform for me to learn how to save. Now that we've been married, after going through that -- it was last season where I saved basically enough for a honeymoon and an engagement ring basically off a year-and-a-half of stipend. Just tried to live off a few hundred dollars a month. Made it happen, but looking back on it, it was a really good opportunity to learn about money. But, if I would have had a couple thousand dollars like they're talking about, like a stipend, that would have been awesome."I think it really opens up a can of worms. Throwing money at kids? I'm in a different boat because I'm married and I'm on the ending side of it and I have a different perspective than an 18- or 19-year-old. Throwing money at those kids, I don't know if that'll necessarily solve the issue."There's some kids' families that are on welfare or what not, and they get a Pell Grant check, so then they get extra funding. But if your parents aren't in that tax bracket, you know, it's like they either help you out or you get whatever you can get."The best situation where kids are getting money are if kids are getting a Pell Grant, where your parents don't fall outside of that tax bracket, they make below a certain income, and then they get like an additional clothing stipend ($500 a year). Something like that, just a couple thousand dollars a year, that'd make a huge difference."The thing for the food, I lived, like everything, off my food stipend. It's a pretty generous stipend. It really is a blessing.Q: How does the meal stipend work in your case?A: "Once you get to be a veteran and you get a check, it's like $400. If you live off campus, it's a little more. But then you have to pay for utilities, rent, all that. They adjust that in. But it's a good gig. There hasn't really been a time that I've needed -- like, there might be something I want, like a new phone or something like that. But my essentials, they've done a great job taking care of us. There's never been a time where I've had to just get ramen noodles or anything like that. I'm sure there are still guys that do live off them.Q: Where did you go on your honeymoon?A: "St. Lucia. Yeah, it was awesome. I saved up, and then the summer we get a big check. We get about, I'd say like almost three grand in the summer when we're on campus, and I saved almost all of that and had been saving before."I was just smart with my money. I started getting stuff in bulk. I started getting maybe lower-costing food that didn't taste as good. Instead of getting (brand name) cereal, I'd get the Walmart brand. I just cut here and there and you do that for a whole year and you'd be surprised at how much you save."It was not going and getting an iTunes card, or oh, I need a new pair of headphones. Like, I could use it, but I don't really need it. Just cutting out that nonessential stuff. It's a blessing in disguise because for about a year there, I'm like, 'Man, I'm living off $175-200 a month,' but now that I'm married, man, the financial adjustment -- it's easier now than it was because I was putting myself in a hole last year."Q: Do you find guys that don't spend like that, guys that take their room and board checks and go get tattoos or rims for their car?A: "That's usually how it goes, honestly. My first four years I was here, the biggest thing I would see was tattoos, shoes, electronics."Q: Are there resources available to teach student-athletes how to spend responsibly? A: "I'm not aware of anything like that where they're helping guys out with their finances. That would be a great way to help with this money that they do give us."There's people talking about paying us and stuff. Well, I would be OK with it, but the same thing's gonna happen whether it's $4,000 a year or whatever. If you raise it $1,000 a year, they're still gonna run into the same issues. There's still gonna be guys that blow their checks. I think having a program like that could definitely help.Q: The NFL has a course that teaches rookies how to not be wasteful; should colleges?A: "Yeah. It's one of those deals where finances, if you haven't been taught it, if your parents didn't teach it to you, you sometimes have to learn the hard way. I'm definitely glad I didn't have to. That would definitely help some of these guys. It's just like the NFL rookies. They make millions of dollars and there's still some of those guys going broke. So it's not really the amount of money that's the issue, it's the handling of the money."There is that one side of it that you can't get a job and there are some legitimate things, like a cell phone or gas. I guess it might be just part of the disadvantage of being a student-athlete. But I think stuff like that, helping guys with that -- but you can't necessarily say this is going to go to it, so they're still gonna go blow that money. It's really a tough situation that it's putting the NCAA and schools in. It's like this is the money we spend on food, but some guys don't spend it on food. They waste it, and then they go hungry.Q: Have you heard any horror stories of guys running out of money?A: "Oh yeah. Every year I've been here, some of the freshmen -- I don't think I've heard it this year as much -- but every year there's kids coming like a week before camp starts and they're out of money.Q: What do they do?A: "They'll ask around. 'When do we get our next check?' They just try to mooch off other guys, I guess. I've never been in that situation, or I've never been mooched off of. Thankfully. But yeah, it sucks. But at the same time, that's a lot of money to go through that fast. You're one major purchase away from burning half that check.Q: Is there a typical check everyone gets?A: "It depends. They have it built in with the younger guys where they have to eat their meals at the caf (cafeteria). So they're not gonna be trusted as much as say a third- or fourth-year (player). It increases every year. So my first year, I got a little card I can use on campus, no cash. Meals in the cafeteria. And then the next year, 'OK, you get a hundred-something dollars on a check, and the rest is for the caf.' Then you get to your third year and you have the option to stay with those, but I chose to go with a full check and like $500 on a card on campus. And I never had any issues with money."If you use that money just for food, it's plenty. I kind joked about it before I got married, I ate like a king. Because all my food money was for food. I'd eat out every night and have plenty of money left over.Q: What's your access to the training table (food specifically for athletes)?A: "It depends on the meal plan. In summer, we don't have access to the training table. During camp, we'll have all our meals taken care of, and when we travel as well. But in season, like right now, guys eat three meals a day in the caf, the freshmen, and then the older guys have a little program worked out where they pick up a meal -- it's not really a training table, where it's players only. We don't really have that. It's just the cafeteria."During camp, it's the cafeteria, but it is like a training table. We're the only ones in there because regular students aren't here yet. But when school starts, we have to split that space with regular students. But there's not that separate section where we go off and it's the really nice food."Oklahoma State, when I was getting recruited by them, they have it. But some of the bigger schools have it. And it's gotten better here just since I've been here. Like I know Clint Roundtree, when he played here, he talks about they didn't get anything during the summer. They didn't get checks, they didn't get classes paid for or anything. They just had to like work jobs to get their money. He played back in the early 2000s, and it's changed a lot since then."For me, honestly, the scholarship is such a blessing. Because you have enough. What it boils down to is, I would definitely be on board for like gas or a cell phone, essential stuff like that. If you need stuff -- insurance. That's stuff you've got to have. You can't be driving around without car insurance. It's not possible these days to go without a cell phone, as crazy as that sounds. But where does that come from? You're pulling it out of your food check and then it's like, 'OK, I don't have enough for food.' I could definitely see that being justified. But for food, the money we get is plenty. They take good care of us.Q: Do you think athletes from non-revenue sports should also get that stipend?A: "That's another can of worms. Like football, they don't split (scholarships) up, football and basketball. Do you give all the sports the same stipend? If you don't, how do you pick which sports you give it to? I think that's where probably a lot of the hesitation on the NCAA's standpoint. Because then you start talking about Title IX and people talking about their sports not getting as much money as the football program. Football players get this. But I don't know. I would think that would be fair if everybody gets it. Because everybody has the same financial responsibilities and stuff as a football player has."Their dedication is no less than ours. But I think with all the stuff going on with all the signatures and all the stuff that's brought this to the spotlight, it's all been football. But you can't forget about those other sports. I think that's why it's put the NCAA and all the people making all those policies in a bind."Q: You've already graduated and now TU is paying for your grad school?A: Yeah, as soon as I figured out I was redshirting, I was like (snap!) I'm busting through this undergrad and getting my grad school paid for."A lot of guys gripe about, 'We need to get paid, we need to get paid.' But you get paid in education. Some guys take advantage of it more than others. Some guys get a grad degree, most guys get their undergrad. That's a lot of money. Right now it's hard for kids to see that. They just see money, cash. But that's a big financial help."Q: Do you think you could have attended TU without a football scholarship?A: "I think I would have gotten scholarships, yeah. Once I got football offered, I kind of backed off academic scholarships. But I would have been able to get most of it if not all of it paid for."It's been a blessing. The football scholarships, it's hard for kids to see it. They just see it in terms of money, but a college degree -- and some of these kids wouldn't be going to school here if it wasn't for football. For some people, they take this as an opportunity and it changes the course of their life. Maybe they came from a less fortunate background. You get a degree from Tulsa, that can really change the course of your life. If you're a Division I scholarship athlete, you're blessed for sure. All the kids I know, you're not just playing football or basketball, but to have someone pay for your school, and all I have to do is play sports -- and I'm not saying it's easy, because it hasn't been -- but it's a blessing."Somebody is pumping a lot of money into you to come play sports and go to school. If they decide to come out and say, 'Hey, we'll give you a couple thousand extra dollars to help you out,' that'd be great. But even if it stays just like it is, guys have been doing it. And I feel like they help out more and more as time's gone on. It's worked out fine. Five years for me, I've been fine. I was able to save for a honeymoon and a ring. I mean, it was tough, but it was doable. It's not like we're eating ramen noodles and stuff. If guys talk about how bad it is, they're really not being honest. That, or they have poor money-managing skills."It really depends on the individual person. Like, if you didn't have a cell phone or you didn't have all that stuff, if you didn't have enough, if you just had your food and your school, it'd be different. But there's so many different angles. It's so hard to make a blanket statement, like one rule to cover all of it. Because it's not a one-size-fits-all. There's people from all different walks of life, economically. That's where it's tough. I honestly don't see much really changing too much. If anything, maybe a stipend."Someone who watches sports from just a pure fan standpoint doesn't understand the impact that money has on sports. If there's no money coming in, if there's no donors, if there's no revenue, there's no football. There's no basketball. Because it's like anything in the world: it's not coming out of nowhere. The stadium costs money. The supplements we take cost money. Somebody's donating or making some form of profit. Who's gonna cover the bill? It's easier for public universities or schools that have huuuge alumni bases, there's a lot more people that are able to donate. Money has such a huge impact."I understand the argument of, 'Man, they're selling my jerseys or using my likeness in a video game, and I don't see any of it.' I understand that argument. I see where those guys are coming from. But at the same time, it's not like we're poor. We get a pretty good little deal."Q: Some college athletes compare the system to slavery. Do you see that perspective?A: "That might be a little over the top. But at the same time, I can see where guys feel like they're under control because they're like, 'Hey, this is your career, you put all this time into football and school and we make all the decisions.' You're kind of susceptible to that, but at the same time, you know that when you put your name on the dotted line. You knew that going into it.There's people in parts of the world that are dying. There's kids dying of starvation. People being persecuted for their faith. You see that stuff and it's like, 'The worst we've got is we don't get $1,000 stipend?' I think there's worse things to happen."It depends who you talk to. Some guys are like, 'Man, that's baloney, we should get paid, we should get a check.' I've been blessed. This five years, they've taken care of me. I've never been in a situation where I don't have what I need. They've done a great job with everything, so I am very thankful for the past five years. It's a good feeling when someone is like, 'We're willing to put all this financial input into you because we believe you can help us be a winning program and help us win games.' That's a good feeling."However it goes, I think we'd be fine. People would make it without the stipend or with the stipend. Whatever decision they make, they'll have to do what's best for the NCAA and the colleges. It'll be a tough decision, that's for sure.Q: If you didn't have to be at "voluntary" workouts, would you get an offseason job?A: "It gets to the point where you've got school, and it's tough. You've got your mind set to school and you go work a job and do something physically laboring, and you're wiped out for workouts."My dad told me, 'You sign here for five years and you are a student-athlete. This is what you signed up for. This is what you do. Everything else can wait. You have the rest of your life to work and do things like that. Right now, you study and you do sports.'"It's a different career path than someone who's not playing college sports. I worked a little bit when I was in high school, but once I figured out I was coming here and was committed, I put all my time and energy into resting and training. Some people, that's just now how they are. They're gonna go to college and be a student and enter the work force. It's just a different career path."It is a job. It is amateur sports, but it's a job. It's full time. If you're gonna do it, do everything you can and not be dragging behind because you have to work. I'm convinced there's a certain amount of energy a person has, and you can either spread it out and do all kinds of things or you can hone it in and do just a couple things."You're a student-athlete. You go to class, you study and you play football. And they help out with that. They pay for your housing, they pay for your tuition, they pay for your gear, they pay for your food. The only thing that isn't covered currently that I could see getting covered is your cell phone, gas, insurance, little things like that. Outside of that, there's really not much you need to be a student-athlete."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) 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