A sports marketing firm from Switzerland has presented a multi-billion dollar plan for a major college football playoff. The same firm has said it will put up even more money for the NCAA basketball tournament.

Meanwhile, the average athlete at the average school can't let her friends buy her a pizza because it might be a violation of the rules.

Yes, these are extremes. But remember: Kansas was subjected to a lengthy investigation when a newspaper reported that Danny Manning had accepted a pizza from his roommates. It took months to say that sharing one pizza is "normal college life", but that sharing two or more pizzas "may constitute a violation". I can eat a large pizza in a sitting, and I'm not a big guy. I assume Danny Manning would want at least a couple. But that's just me.

The real point is that the colleges and particularly the NCAA are rolling in the dough. Colleges most often spend this money foolishly on extravagant athletic facilities or big salaries for coaches. The NCAA spends the cash on throwing big tournaments and long-running investigations (Ken Starr ought to send his resume to Kansas City if he decides against Pepperdine).

Meanwhile, most of the athletes in the "big money" sports, football and men's basketball, are poor kids who have to scrape for pocket money. Regular college life, you know? Yeah, their school is free, but in season, they're working 40-60 hours for the school and out of season they're still putting in 20 hours of training a week. They should get at least minimum wage above and beyond the scholarships.

I know, the chances for corruption are rife. They're there already. The top football and basketball players at Missouri back in the late 80s and early 90s (when I was in school there) all had a new car every year. When questioned, the player always said that the car was actually the property of the player's girlfriend". Yeah. A friend of mine lived across the hall from some basketball players. Every week some guy in a tie brought around envelopes filled with cash.

Legalize it. All the top schools pay their players one way or another (I'm not buying the howls of protest from UNC and Duke fans down here who claim their programs are "clean"), and most of the bad programs have schemes as well.

"Everybody does it" is no reason to cave in. But there are plenty of points in favor of paying "amateur" athletes. First, these guys deserve a cut. All those jerseys you see for sale in the sporting goods store? The athletes get not a penny. Their names may be on the back, but no checks are going their way. That's not fair. Second, treat these guys like other scholarship recipients. I had more than one scholarship when I was in school, and the only requirement attached was that I be a full-time student. That sounds like a fair requirement.

The easiest argument? I'm sitting here at work, spending at least half my time dealing with NCAA sports. I'm being paid at twice the poverty rate for a family of four. The industry around college sports is huge. It's about time the guys who do all the work saw just a little bit of the cash.

A little. A drop. The tiniest trickle-down.

It's only fair.

Jon Worley likes to watch college sports. His conscience would be eased if he knew they were making a spot of cash. He lives in Durham, N.C.