Spurrier - College is for Football, not Academics

If the players became employees of the state workmens compensation, unemployment and disability benefits would be on the table.

 

Those restrictions have been gone for years.
And if Jeremy Bloom wanted to get sponsors that were ski-related -- skis, boots, bindings, goggles -- the NCAA was going to let him. He wanted free reign to endorse anything. No one wanted to hear the truth about that.

 

When I was in college I worked at a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains, and when I visited another camp I was impressed seeing some of the old UNC basketball players on the plaques (Billy Cunningham, Charlie Scott, etc...) This was just about the same time that Larry Brown was molding a young Tony K.

Guess what?

Those players must have been great counselors, because they made some great tips. Or so I heard.

Didn't Oklahoma have a qb that could really sell some cars?

 

Not paying college athletes, at least in football and basketball, has got to be one of the biggest legal scams going.

And paying them wouldn't be that hard to do.

Rule 1 - Any sport generating over X dollars in revenue would pay their players

Rule 2 - Set flat salary for each player--no variation based on who plays or who doesn't, no star treatment. This is the job; it pays this much.

Some day I believe we will look back in astonishment: 'you mean college football players used to play for free?'

 

They don't play for free; they play for books and room and board, and for awesome networking, for what is first, last and foremost an educational institution. And they are not being forced at gunpoint to play. Y'all make it sound like Samuel Gompers needs to step in or something.

 

And at some places, the cost of that runs up to $250,000. No way do they need to get paid more than what they do already.

 

And the economic value of all that is miniscule compared to the economic value they help create.

And it should also be noted that many institutions offer their employees the opportunity to take classes for free or at greatly reduced rates. So, these folks are getting paid for their efforts as well as getting a good piece of what the 'student-athlete' gets today.

 

Anyone who still thinks most of these guys are real college students is painfully naive or doesn't spend much time around big time college athletics.

 

As has been said, football is a money loser at most schools. So at most places, the players are an economic drain, not an asset. But back to the point, and I'll go all caps so maybe I don't have to say it again: THE PLAYERS KNOW THAT THEY WON'T RECEIVE A SALARY; THEY DO NOT HAVE A GUN TO THEIR HEAD; FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF THEM, THE NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES, EVEN FOR THOSE WHO WILL NEVER BE PROS, MAKE THE EXPERIENCE WORTH IT, EVEN WITHOUT A SALARY.

 

But Captain, you're missing the bigger point. While folks can argue the "should", "right thing to do" and "big scam" until they're blue in the face, college athletics don't occur in a vacuum.

To give students money, it HAS to fit under one of two definitions...by law. It's either going to be regulated by federal financial aid regulation (rendering your structure moot), or as taxable employees (it's not work study......which, again, puts them back under federal financial aid reg).
NO college/university wants to deal with another tier of employees. How far down the road do folks think unionization would be??

Frankly, you're far more likely to be saying "Wow....can't believe there were sanctioned college athletics", than anything to do with not believing that athletes weren't paid.

 

Never mind the free marketing or the national and regional television exposure that would cost millions if it was purchased as commercial time or the impact it has on student recruitment or as a means for alumni involvement or the benefits and donations it brings from having an active alumni base.

And a student can be a contracter, and not considered an employee. Anyone ever string for the local daily while you were in school? You weren't an employee of the paper then, but you still got paid, or at least I hope you did.

 

C'mon, football a money loser? Not buying it. Oh, maybe the vampires at the NCAA or the institutional heads can cook up some voodoo accounting to make it look that way, but the reality of all the dollars flowing plus the intangibles Jay mentions far, far exceed the costs.

And in terms of the all caps statement, just because that's the way it is doesn't make it right.