A lot of people say "look, football / basketball programmes bring X dollars to University X, so the players should be paid".

This is ridiculous. The primary purpose of universities remains EDUCATION. And who are the primary sources of income for universities? People paying tuition. And why do they pay tuition? Because of the academic reputation of the university.

who creates the academic reputation of the university? At the top end, the professors etc. However, a huge amount of the research grunt work that creates a university's reputation is done by PhD students and postdocs. Who earn nothing, really.

So before you pay Terrelle Pryor, pay your doctoral candidates.