If you’re on the fence between spending your collegiate career playing football or baseball, perhaps you should don the shoulder pads and helmet.

    Because if the players that took the field last Saturday with the letters APU, which stands for All Players United, written on their wristbands get their way, you’ll get paid to play.

    As if a free education, an unlimited amount of prestige and the opportunity of a lifetime wasn’t enough. Slaving away playing a great game and getting all this in return must be rough.

    And because that money will probably be allocated to just football, because we all know how little college baseball makes in comparison, maybe they should’ve written AFPU for All Football Players United.

    After Houston Texans running back Arian Foster so bravely told the media he took money on the side when he played for Tennessee because he was hungry, the fire was stoked even further.

    Foster said he had to choose between paying for rent and paying for food.

    Come on. Really? A four-year starter at an SEC school isn’t getting his room and board paid for and doesn’t get a free meal plan? Either someone is being too much of a whiner or we need to do some serious investigating into the University of Tennessee.

    What’s the problem Arian? Was the plethora of campus dining choices not enough? I’ve seen pictures of the salad bar there, and it looks magnificent.

    I understand that college football has become the second biggest sport next to the NFL, and the money that is being made is astronomical. But I feel to even make the argument that players should take some of the cut damages the integrity of amateur sports.

    Let’s not forget, these are not professional athletes. They’re amateurs.

    And if universities can jack up the price of tuition for every single student on campus on a nearly yearly basis, yet still have the resources to give football players full rides, just where is that money coming from?  

    So what happens if a scholarship isn’t enough for Justin Arias, quarterback for the Idaho State football team? Let’s say ISU football was generating enough money to give everyone on the team a paycheck. Money that would otherwise be cycled back through the school to pay for updated facilities, athletic trainers and scholarships for other programs is now being given to players.

    That money wouldn’t be enough. In a few years time, players will say their compensation still isn’t fair. So because we all love college football, scholarships will start being taken away from the softball team, the Bengal tennis players won’t get the best rackets and the track will have holes in it. We won’t need to worry about ISU’s volleyball team, because given coach Chad Tiechert’s resume, he could coach an actual bengal tiger to play volleyball.

    Maybe I’m being dramatic. The end-of-integrity doomsday scenario probably won’t happen.

    But to me, it still lacks that integrity. And the minute we start paying college football players, we lose it. It just becomes another business, another way to make a buck. These kids are there to learn, and that’s the bottom line. We can sell out 100,000 capacity stadiums, have multi-million dollar TV deals and make head coaches the highest paid citizens in any given state.

    But in the end, it’s amateur sports. The only thing separating a college star from a high school star is two things: age and the almighty dollar.