How much is a collegiate athlete worth?

A new paper, titled The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport, presented by an advocacy group representing over 14000 current and former NCAA collegiate athletes, is the latest attempt to estimate how much an average athlete is worth. In the paper sports management professor Ellen J. Staurowsky estimated that the average Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) player is worth $121,000 per year. The average basketball player at that level would be worth $265,000 per year.

I have not yet read the full report, but my guess is that the authors have basically divided revenues generated in NCAAF and NCAAB by the number of participating athletes. Their argument is that athletes are much more valuable to colleges than the cost of tuition, student fees and room and board. They estimate the shortage of sports scholarships to be in the range of $952 to $6,127, depending on the college, not covering the true cost of attending college and participating in sports programs. They argue that  students on full athletic scholarships actually live "below the poverty line at around 85 percent of the schools". This leads them to call   for action from Congress to look into the matter.

As stated on CBS online,  the NCAA said it had not yet reviewed the report, but that  "they were eager to provide grants covering the full cost of attending college".  However the NCAA will certainly oppose any plans to allow monetary compensation and end the "amateur status" of collegiate athletics.

Quick calculations based on my own data give me a number of about $174,000 on average by year between 2006 and 2006 for the "value" of a FBS football player. This number is rather close to the number presented by the report. I am sure NCAA officials will dispute and question all estimations of athlete value. The best method to get the actual value would be to open up the market and let athletes look for outside compensation. If the colleges do not want to share their revenues, f.e. substantial TV revenues, with players, just let the market do that job.