In this morning’s News Sentinel, John Adams questions whether college athletes should actually be required to be students, now that Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) now allows them to be paid.

I’m a pretty serious football fan. I attend every single home game for our local high school football team, and almost all of the away games. I watch every UT game until it’s over — because it’s never over until the clock is done.

That said, I have never watched an NFL game all the way through. I’ll watch a little bit here and there if a UT graduate is playing, but I really don’t watch it much. It’s too predictable.

College players deserve to be able to earn money on their name, image and likeness, but few of them will go on to be millionaire pro players, just as few high school players will earn full football scholarships. But, the opportunity to maybe be able to get that college scholarship and play in Neyland Stadium (or some other school, all of which are lesser in my opinion) is motivation for high school players to actually study and learn in high school, when their interests are likely geared more toward girls and sports than math, science, English, or history.

The opportunity to earn a degree in something that can provide a lifetime income is huge. Many of those players come from families that don’t have the resources to write that big tuition check every semester. Even for those good enough and fortunate enough to get drafted into the pros, career-ending injuries are pretty common, and those guys need a way to make a living after it’s over.

Adams writes that college players have to spend so much time in practice, studying plays, and watching opponents’ films that they don’t have time to attend classes and study for those classes. I think he has his priorities wrong, given that very few of those are going to go on to the pros, and even fewer of those are going to make a lifetime’s worth of income.

Josh Dobbs was a great quarterback for UT, and I expect he had to spend as much time in practice, studying plays, and watching films as anyone. Yet, he earned his degree in Aerospace Engineering while winning games — impressive enough that I declared UT needs to start recruiting quarterbacks from the College of Engineering. Ok, let’s be a little more clear: he earned an engineering degree with a 4.0 GPA while serving as starting quarterback.

So, whether or not he wisely invests his earnings as a professional quarterback, he has the ability to earn a very nice living after he’s too old, too injured, or just too tired to be a pro quarterback.

Granted, Josh Dobbs is the extreme exception. There are other players (one is a friend of mine) who made the pros but didn’t last long due to injury. That degree from UT enabled him to support a family and live a good life even after football was over.

College football players are students, and they need to remain so. Coursework is important. Career plans — even if they’re plan B plans — are important. I would greatly prefer that universities invest in tutors for these players to ensure that they’re learning and graduating.

Should they be paid? I would say yes, because their sport earns a lot of money for the universities. Because of the time they have to spend in practice, they can’t have part-time jobs in college like most of the rest of us did to earn a little money for pizza, beer, and books.

Nobody asked me, but I felt the urge to write again.