What if football players were paid? Elite SEC programs would pay out $350K+ per

The SEC generated a record-setting $455M in revenue for 2014-15, but depending on which side of the argument you’re on, the players didn’t receive a dime.

That begs the question we’ve been asking for more than a decade now — should FBS college football players be paid?

Using athletic department revenue data provided by the Department of Education, Business Insider’s Cork Gaines recently calculated the ‘Fair Market Value’ for each player at the Top 15 football programs by revenue sharing. Gaines divided the players’ share — 47 percent of all revenue using the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement — and equally among 85 scholarship players to achieve optimum payout.

According to Gaines’ research, the average FBS football player would receive just under $150,000 annually  — more than double the average salary of a practicing first-year attorney.

The average is considerably higher at several SEC programs, however.

Alabama recorded $143 million (nearly $95 million from football) in athletic revenues last year, tops in the SEC. According to SI, that’s more than any NHL and 25 NBA franchises.

Using Gaines’ ‘Fair Market Value’ calculations in the table below, one of the Crimson Tide’s 85 scholarship football players would receive $525,241 based on players receiving 47 percent of equally distributed football-related revenue.

Other SEC schools in the Top 10 include LSU ($485K per player), Georgia ($426K per player), Tennessee ($389K per player) and Florida ($382k per player).

You can see why player payment in addition to full cost of attendance is such a widely-debated and often disagreed upon topic.

(h/t @Forbes)