Some schools do not have the type of merchandise profits that top 25 schools have. All schools are different and have different systems, but paying their players would not even be plausible for over 75% of these schools.
Paying players would be unfair due to the ranging revenue per school. There would be no logical formula to create a scale of how much each player should receive. Different players may make more depending on their position's skill level, or chance of injury. Different sports would pay different amounts to different players, and the questions that arise would be impossible to answer. The second reason why college athletes should not be paid is the fact that they're students first and foremost. Students that play a sport at the collegiate level are doing so with the understanding that they are not being paid. Usually student athletes play the sport they love and aspire to become professional athletes. In some cases, students just play the sport because they enjoy it. In other cases, students are dependent on their sport to pay for their education. Most college athletes will fall into one of more than one of these categories. Students all have an equal shot at an academic scholarship depending on their high school grades. High school grades do not determine intelligence, but most of the times indicate how hard working the student is. Most students receive a substantial amount of financial aid from their school to help pay high tuition rates. The fact that students are already being given money to attend their desired college or university discredits the idea that student athletes are the only students that should be paid. There are millions of dollars being given out to students in academic or need-based fashions. .
Collegiate athletes often feel entitled to receive more benefits than regular students because of the time their sport takes up, but the decision to play a sport is their own choice.