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The introduction of name, image likeness payments that rule the college landscape is hardly the first time atheltes have been compensated for playing. Almost since the beginning, they’ve received train tickets, some walking-around money and scholarships. For decades, a lot of the money came to players and their families under the table. Now, that money comes with the OK of the NCAA , though it doesn’t mean college sports is truly clean. A brief look at the history of athlete compensation in college sports: The early yearsThe NCAA was founded in 1906, in a push from President Teddy Roosevelt to do something about the sometimes-fatal violence in college football and to set some eligibility standards. Long before its rulebook became a spiraling document covering hundreds of pages, athletes would accept cash or train tickets as inducements to come to particular schools. Sometimes tuition and room and board got covered, too. Very few got in trouble.
The age of the amateurIn 1948, the NCAA produced the Sanity Code in an attempt to rein in what was becoming an out-of-control flood of recruiting inducemments to lure what were supposed to be amateur athletes. The organization initially opposed athletic scholarships, arguing they were a violation of amateurism. But the NCAA standardized the granting of scholarships in 1956, opening the door for eventual change. Part of this was meant to eliminate the cash and perks that also played a role in recruiting, but that never really went away.
