NCAA Executive Director: Paying Athletes May Mean Taxes on Sports Revenues

By paying salaries to athletes, colleges could open the way for the federal government to tax their revenue from sports programs, NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers said.

“Even today, the IRS tries to tax college sports program income as unrelated business,” Byers said. “The IRS looks at that all the time.”

Byers, in discussing the argument that student-athletes should get a salary, said the athletes already do better financially than almost any other student.

He said NCAA research indicates that almost all Division I athletes with financial need are receiving $900 each year in federal assistance money known as Pell Grants.

“The package of the NCAA grant-in-aid (scholarship) plus the Pell Grant is a better financial arrangement than is available to virtually any other student in undergraduate college,” Byers told the Associated Press.

“The presidents believe the present financial aid arrangement is sufficient,” he said. “The presidents and chancellors have spoken. They’ve defined the limits. Now, it’s time for coaches who think athletes ought to be paid monthly stipends on top of Pell Grant funds to realize the chief executive officers of higher education do not want that.”