Mike Aresco: AAC Won't Pay Players

Should college players get paid? It's a question that probably won't go away any time soon, but one that American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco is nipping in the bud now.

"We will not pay players," he said at the AAC's media day Wednesday. "That is not what college athletics is all about, and it is the road to ruin. We will not establish an employer-employee relationship."

More via the Hartford Courant's Dom Amore:

Two years ago, the NCAA voted to approve a stipend for athletes, but it was later voted down. There has been discussion on this for years, and many players have expressed the need for a modest stipend to provide living money while they are in college. Athletic participation precludes them from getting a part-time job. Recently there was controversy when Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was suspended, albeit for just half a game, for accepting money for signing autographs.

"The amateur model may be strained," Aresco conceded. "There's no question there's issues. But with intelligent work and revisions, it can continue to work. It has to work."

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