Ohio St. wrestler wins NCAA title, AD cashes in

I don't get this controversy. Would you be upset if it was the coach getting the bonus?

 

It bleeds in with the whole idea of athletes being paid or not, and administrators making FU money *directly* off the backs of non-paid athletes.

While the AD gets to go light an $18,000 cigar, the athlete gets dinged if he sells an autograph for five dollars. It is ridiculous.

 

Actually yes. Because winning the championship is supposed to be reward enough, according to the NCAA.

 

So true, Have seen it at a few of my workplaces.

If you're under budget and hit all of your sales targets--managers get bonuses.
Land a big account--bosses get a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate.
Newspaper wins a number of state/provincial awards, which has nothing or little to do with publishers and managers--doesn't matter. They get an all-expenses trip to the awards night and a pat on the back because it happened on their watch.

Is if fair for the worker? Of course not, but that's how businesses operate.

 

And yes, I get the distinction between worker and unpaid athlete, but at the end of the day they're both revenue machines for the university or workplace, even if the NCAA doesn't see it that way

 

Maybe not as quite, because at least the coach is somewhat hands-on with the "product."

Gene Smith isn't.

 

At Cal, AD Sandy Barbour's leadership has created a budget crater that counts into the millions on an annual basis and the hundreds of millions when factoring in the stadium expansion that she overbudgeted and undermarketed.

Steve Berkowitz ‏@ByBerkowitz 3h
Sun RT: Cal AD Sandy Barbour gets nearly $10,500 (2.5% of base salary) for @CalAthletics NCAA men's swimming national championship Sat nite

 

But if you don't give her a bonus, she'll leave and run another department into the ground.

 

From Steve Berkowitz of USA Today sports (via Twitter):

Gene Smith isn't alone. Everyone from players to ADs and coaches get incentives.

You know it's hard out here for an AD. ;D

 

What do players receive of substance?

 

If these athletes unionize it is going to be a fiasco. Imagine them suddenly, as employees, having to pay taxes on their "income." A school like Notre Dame costs a ton of dough....when these "employees" have to cut $20K checks to the IRS for their income/scholarships I'm sure they are going to be thrilled about being employees.

 

This might be a dumb question, but are athletic scholarships (or any scholarships, for that matter) tax exempt? I've always assumed they are, but I really don't know for certain.