With the Northwestern players wanting to form a union and the pay for play debate raging as strong as ever, Athletic Directors are thinking about a system to pay players. Well Iowa AD Gary Barta says the situation is too complicated for him and he would quit before figuring out a pay for play system:
Barta suggests a pay-to-play system would force schools to put a monetary value on the different levels of competition in all collegiate sports.
“And I’ll probably choose to do something else for a living if we ever had to go that route because it’s so complex,” Barta says. “Do you pay the Division III football player as an employee? Do you pay the tennis student athlete as an employee?”
Barta makes $456,992 as the Athletic Director at Iowa. If he can’t figure out tough situations for that salary, maybe it is best for him to move on. It’s a joke that ADs would hide behind the issue being tough to figure out rather than actually lead on the issue.