Coming soon: NCAA v. California

Colleges take in revenues in the billions now.
Would it bother you if athletes participate in it (more than the crumbs they get now)?

 

That is true, but I'd say the D1 hoops acting as a minor league is limited to maybe the top 40 programs. And players in those sports comprise a miniscule portion of NCAA athletes.

So I guess I don't see why the NCAA doesn't realize that, and realize a very small number of FB and MBB players (and in some cases, WBB players) are gonna get paid something. Joe's Honda isn't going to pay much, if anything, to be endorsed by anyone in swimming/tennis/crew/soccer/softball/golf/wrestling/field hockey/lacrosse, etc.

 

Three generations from now, I fully expect people will be incredulous that the system in place today actually existed.

"So, coaches and assistant coaches made millions of dollars and had endorsement deals, but the people playing the game did not?"

"And coaches could change jobs on a minute's notice, but the players had to sit our a year if they transferred?" (Thankfully this one is changing as we speak).

The thought of college football and basketball in particular being extracurricular college activities ended long ago--maybe in the 70s, probably in the 50s or 60s.

This is big, big business now, free enterprise, and the biggest contributors to that billion dollar business aren't seeing near a sniff of the revenue they are generating,

You can make any argument you want about gender equality and the like or preserving the faux amateur existence that really hasn't existed in close to half a century, but in the end, there's an industry worth billions and billions of dollars, and the free market is going to decide how it gets managed and allocated.

 

Shit, college football players in the 1920s
and 30s got money under the table. Supposedly, even the Gipper got some cash.

 

How are they exploited?

 

How are the top players not? If there is a market for them to make money signing autographs why shouldn’t they be allowed? The University isn’t paying.

 

And most of them either barely break even or lose money. Stop focusing on the big dogs. You referred earlier to sports like women's tennis as money drains. Football is the biggest money drain on most campuses. The power 5 schools, which make the biggest profits, are the exceptions, not the rule. And there are a fuckload more non-power 5 schools. The proposed legislation will help almost no athletes, but the sudden ability for athletes to profit will lead to the top ones clustering at a smaller handful of schools than they already do. But hey, as long as a few people can make a buck, and the rich can get richer, why not?

 

I don't think they are. They're well compensated. They get tuition, room, board, books, travel, gear, free tutoring, free training and medical care, etc. The best ones use the system to go pro and make millions. The rest? All they have to do is take their $250,000 or so worth of free college+ and parlay it into a degree. And that degree, to a kid who would otherwise not have gotten it, will make him/her $1 million over the course of his/her non-sports career more than without it.

Should the star players get a buck or two? Perhaps. But most of them can cash in one way or another eventually. If you're a football player at Ohio State, for example, there will be jobs waiting for you all over Columbus when you graduated. There are so many hidden and not-so-hidden advantages to being a major college athletes. The huge value of a free education, up front and afterward, is just a part of that. If anything, most athletes, since the majority of them never step on the field in a meaningful moment in a game or sport that anyone gives a shit about, are exploiting the schools.

 

It’s not about whether someone cashed in eventually, it’s pretty basic, who is generating what revenues and what’s their cut? Why should the old dudes reap the vast majority of $$?

 

Why should college sports be different from every other industry?

 

The funny thing about this deal is - how many of these programs would love to get away with having these players on campus and not have to provide a scholarship - not have them even be required to be full-time students?

 

Why should they have to wait? The University isn’t paying them why can they not work, make appearances, endorse, sell autographs etc? Why should a scholarship prevent any of that?