Abstract
The notion of paying collegiate athletes has been contested and debated for years. Recently, however, several high-profile cases have once again generated negative headlines and as such, discussions of paying student athletes have proliferated among the popular press, college administrators, players themselves, the general public and sport management scholars. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the opinions of a nationally recruited sample of respondents to assess their attitudes related to their support of paying student athletes. While the majority of the respondents were congruent in their beliefs with regards to age, sex and level of education, there was a clear difference in respondents' viewpoints based on race. Specifically, Blacks were more than two times as likely as Whites to support payment to student athletes. Findings, implications and suggestions for future research are also examined.
