Ohio State Football: Former Buckeye Gives His Take on Playoff & Paying Athletes

During his time with the Ohio State Buckeyes, Tyler Moeller was everything that you'd ask a college football player to be. He played hard. He played fast. He got after people. And he answered the bell when it rang for him. The kid got up off the mat again, and again, and again to finish 2011 in the top ten in tackles for the Buckeyes.

The guys over at Eleven Warriors got a chance to do a Q&A with Moeller that they posted yesterday, and it was just great stuff. Moeller discussed everything under the sun with them but the part that really stuck with me was his response to questions about a playoff and the NCAA. We'll tackle both of them, starting with the playoff discussion: 

It looks like change is afoot for NCAA football. Do you think there should be a playoff of some sort?

"

That's tough because how many games are you going to have to play? That's a lot of extra games for the players, but at the same time I do see why people do want to see a playoff. I really have mixed feelings.

I think people would enjoy a playoff system and the NCAA would definitely make money off of it, so they'll eventually go to it and suck a little bit more money out of players, but as a player, playing that many games is hard. You're not going to get away from your core games in your conference and you're not going to get away from a conference championship game, but it's a cool idea.

"

As a guy that isn't exactly pro-BCS but is far from pro-playoff, I think it is always interesting to hear players' thoughts on the issue. Moeller makes a great point that most fans really never even consider when they're trumpeting for an eight- or 16-team playoff; that's a lot of games.

Right now, everyone is playing twelve and twelve is a lot of games. That's 13 weeks of practice plus a month of camp where you're hitting, running, lifting and getting your football just about everyday.

Moeller, though, does make the point that will ultimately drive the universities into the path of the playoff; money. Squeezing more cash out of the bodies of the athletes because, for folks who think cutting games is an option, they haven't seen the massive television contracts conferences have signed to sell their regular season inventory.

Speaking of cash money, the next question deals with that exploitation that Mark Emmert would love so much and thoughts on the "no money" means of production. It's a bit lengthy so stick with me because Moeller, a very recent player, makes some salient points.

What about athletes? Should they be paid?

"

I think some people may disagree with my opinion on this, but I think the athletes that make the money should get paid. It's a business. You're over 18 years old, you're an adult and you're making money for someone else.

Why are they charging so much for tickets? Why are they selling concessions? Why are they charging so much for our jerseys if it's not a business?

If it's not a business, then why aren't there more student tickets when Ohio Stadium is so large? Tickets sell out to the students within 10 minutes because there aren't that many student seats. There are 50,000 students at Ohio State. Why can't everyone get a ticket? The stadium holds 100,000. Well, it's because the students can't afford to pay that much money for tickets.

So, absolutely it's a business, so I think the players that get the money should get paid. Even with our Nike contract, we only received two pair of socks per year and trying to get that 3rd pair is a hassle. You have to literally beg to get equipment and I don't think many people realize that. Ohio State has 34 sports, so all of the money is being divvied up to the other sports and you have to have those sports, but at the same time, I see football and basketball bringing in all of the money and we don't see that much out of it. That's disappointing when you see the large figure at the end of the day and you don't see any of it. You have a torn pec or whatever at the end of the day and after 10 years, all of the injuries come back to you and you don't get anything out of it financially, but the school does.

"

Moeller hammers home the idea that this is all a business. Universities don't get into FBS football and especially BCS football to do charity work. They are out there to make that money. Cash is changing hands at every level of this business except one: the means of production, the players. Everyone is a cash earning and/or spending element of the equation where the bottom line is the main goal. Jerseys, tickets, concessions and the like all go into the business pot and in the end the folks at the top of the system sit back and count their money while they tighten the purse strings to grow the bottom line.

And yeah, I feel Moeller's pain on that sock example. We used to get three pair of socks; game socks with a Nike swoosh on them and a pair of socks for each bag. Your game socks got laid out for you on Saturdays and every day you either had a yellow or a blue bag in your equipment locker with your clothing for the day. That sock struggle is real; unless you've got holes in them, don't go up to the equipment staff asking for another pair. The answer is no.

In the second part of his response, Moeller hits on something that I think is pretty critical to something changing within the system:

"

I think it will eventually change and I think it's coming soon, but when that will happen, I don't know. I think players are getting fed up with it and it's going to happen.

I don't know about being paid as the first step, but something should be done because, like I said, you see this huge dollar figure at the end of the day and if I was Beanie Wells and saw my jersey getting sold, with everyone profiting on it, you would think that he would get something off it. I'm not speaking as a player that should have received something because I didn't really sell anything, but players like that, it's definitely tough when you're scrambling to pay rent and you don't see any money out of it.

You spend at least six hours a day at football and you don't really get anything out of it except for your school paid for. Don't get me wrong, that's awesome and I love that fact, but how much is that worth compared to how much you made for the university.

"

Players are fed up with the way the system operates. He tosses in the Beanie Wells example and that's a great one for folks up in Columbus: There were Beanie jerseys flying off the rack, in the next season it will be Braxton Miller jerseys and those two guys combined will have been compensated as much as you or I for the the cash raked in off jersey sales.

The biggest issue with regards to players is the fact that up until now, there really was no wide-scale push, no advocacy on the players' side. While the voice of the players is not united or loud in the way a union's would be, recently there have been more and more athletes willing to speak up about their feelings on the NCAA. There's a sense of "current players can't say it, so I will" that the more open forum of new media and a shifting view of the system have really served to create.

Tyler Moeller is a guy that. This time last year, he was getting ready for the 2011 football season in Columbus. Deunta Williams is a guy who was part of North Carolina's 2010 football team. These are not old writers, or rebellious young bloggers or crusty old athletes talking about these very real issues. These are guys that just finished living it. These are guys that can tell you, with no uncertainty or speculation, what it is like to be a college athlete.

Moeller's comments sound remarkably different from Mark Emmert's, but a lot more in line with the minds of the athletes themselves. Not the minds of the fans, or guys like Emmert who "wish they had a scholarship" or "would like to be exploited like that," but the minds of the athletes who spend upwards of six hours a day slogging through lifting, running, meetings and film in addition to class and studying in order to help put butts in seats and coin in everyone's pocket but their own.

Definitely check out Eleven Warriors for the full Tyler Moeller interview.