University of Wisconsin Badger Nigel Hayes showed up with a "controversial" sign this Saturday. On Twitter, he also remarked on his pay as a college athlete. That said, I think his math is wrong. I think his estimate of how much his tuition is worth is far too high!

I'm a Wisconsin resident and for some reason have recently started looking at the cost of colleges. No pressure future child! The number Nigel quoted in his tweet, shown below, is $160,000:

The @bigten made nearly $450 million.

My scholarship is about $160,00.

If only there was enough money to pay us.. pic.twitter.com/EPV1d0I16X

— Nigel Hayes (@NIGEL_HAYES) October 14, 2016

And the thing is, I don't think that's right. In fact, I think it's too high. According to the website collegedata.com, the yearly cost of tuition and fees for an out of state student is  $47,544. If a student gets a full four years of school, that amount becomes $190,176. I'm not questioning this discrepancy between Nigel and the site, though. Depending on what fees are covered, if tuition prices have changed, etc. a $5-$10k a year difference in the estimates seems reasonable.

According to the NCAA website, Division I schools can offer multi-year deals that cover Tuition

Full scholarships cover tuition and fees, room, board and course-related books. Most student-athletes who receive athletics scholarships receive an amount covering a portion of these costs. Many student-athletes also benefit from academic scholarships, NCAA financial aid programs such as the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund and need-based aid such as Federal Pell Grants.

Source - http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/scholarships

Now, by the way, forty to fifty thousand a year is going to sound like a lot. First, though, another important number pops up on collegedata.com, and that's in-state tuition. If you're a resident of Wisconsin, the estimate of tuition and fees drops to $25,294 a year, which, you may notice, is almost half of out of state! And that brings up the obvious problem. The "value" of a scholarship is screwy because the schools get to set the price.

Nigel is quoting the sticker price of his education. That is very different than how much is costs the University of Wisconsin to teach a student. And what's more, you'll notice my quote above from the NCAA on "full scholarships" had a note in it:

Many student-athletes also benefit from academic scholarships, NCAA financial aid programs such as the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund and need-based aid such as Federal Pell Grants.

It turns out that an athletic scholarship isn't the only way a student can pay for school. So if Nigel is offered a scholarship: "worth $160,000" but could have gotten an academic scholarship to help with part of it, is it still worth $160,000? The answer is unless he is paid the excess, then no! And the reality is, if you can qualify to get into school, you are usually able to even apply for more favorable loans (kind of, they can chase you after bankruptcy, another post, sorry!) That means if you have the choice between cash for a job and a loan for school versus a job paying you in "school credit" it might be wise to take the cash!

In short, I fully respect Nigel's take. And I understand he's using the "sticker numbers" to make his point. And all I want to say is that the sticker numbers are questionable at best. As Nigel notes, the NCAA is bringing in billions of a dollars over several years. They are paying their workers such a pittance of that that it's a joke. And the gall to add the further strings of only paying them in college credit, which may as well be Monopoly money? Well, that's even worse

-Dre