NCAA Hypocrisy

[Hercules]

I didn't get paid to go through college to earn a better job.

 

You didn't make millions of dollars for your university by playing on their high profile sports team, either.

 

I did get paid to get my masters degree. I was given free tuition, like student-athletes, and I received a stipend in exchange for teaching some classes as a graduate assistant. My masters degree will allow me to get a better job, but since I also worked for the university while I was getting that degree, they paid me. However, my financial value to the university was virtually nothing. They didn't sell jerseys with my number in the stores, they don't have my likenesss in video games, and they don't broadcast my classes on ESPN for millions of dollars. My value to the university was virtually nothing compared to football players, especially high-profile football players, and yet you think they're just like any other student?

Sigh....the university also pays for stadium upkeep, staff, coaches, trainers, weight facilities, etc... they are like any other college student. Why should they have special privaleges. My tuition paid for the staff. The ticket sales and TV deals pay for the maintinence and list of things above. Not all universities make a killing like Texas. Imagine Arkansas State having to pay players...

 

Don't forget about subsidizing the non-revenue sports too.

 

This is the biggest reason I have a problem with the agenda push from the talking heads at ESPN and elsewhere. They absolutely never talk about that, nor the fact that it gives athletes that may realize they just don't have what it takes to get to the NFL a chance at a quality education to fall back on. Or that it gives opportunity for those destined for the NFL a chance to separate themselves and potentially earn more money.

 

Nope, its all black and white, the CFB stars should get paid. The rest of the athletes on campus and even the rest of the football team (in some suggested cases) be damned.

 

This is the whole point though - the CFB stars are already being paid, except right now it's a black market. There is no control. In college football, the notion of amateurism has become a farce, a myth. The argument that college football players shouldn't get paid because it might kill other sports is backwards - without college football, the other teams wouldn't exist, because athletic departments wouldn't be able to fund them. Nebraska's athletic department is self-sufficient not because of academic tuition - it's because of college football.

[The Dude]

This is the whole point though - the CFB stars are already being paid, except right now it's a black market. There is no control.

In order for that to be a valid argument, you'd have to prove CFB stars getting paid is the rule and not the exception. We know of a tiny percentage of players getting paid, that doesn't mean all of them do. I'm all for including more in their scholarships, so they have it a little easier. Even if you started to pay players ridiculous sums of money (although I'm not sure if that's what you're advocating, you haven't really made it clear), that doesn't prevent people from cheating. People can always break the rules to give their school an advantage. Your marijuana/black market comparison is a poor one.

[redblooded]

People like agents with an interest in these athletes after college will still be there. Boosters will still want that 5* recruit. Jock sniffers will still try to get in good with athletes through gifts. Gamblers will still have an interest in final scores. Paying players isn't going to make that go away.

 

So how exactly do you think paying college football/basketball players is going to get you control?

 

Money is never enough.

[Hercules]

People like agents with an interest in these athletes after college will still be there. Boosters will still want that 5* recruit. Jock sniffers will still try to get in good with athletes through gifts. Gamblers will still have an interest in final scores. Paying players isn't going to make that go away.

 

So how exactly do you think paying college football/basketball players is going to get you control?

 

Money is never enough.

 

I don't think that paying college football/basketball players is going to lead to the system collapsing like some people seem to think, and I understand that paying those groups more is not a cure-all. There will still be slimy boosters trying to get in. But right now, the NCAA isn't even a credible authority on the subject. There's too much money going where it doesn't belong, whether it's to EA Sports or to the president of the NCAA or to administrators or to the media. The system right now is rigged in a way that is not justifiable. You can't justify the NCAA making millions of dollars off its contract with EA Sports when the same NCAA turns right around to take Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy away for getting his parents into better living conditions.

 

It shouldn't all go into paying individual players, but the profits of college athletics should be redistributed in a way that benefits the players as a whole more than they do now.

[irafreak]

The problem isn't just the ncaa. Universities aren't non-profit organizations. All students are cash cows for their schools. So the system won't collapse but I still say it's an unfair advantage for wealthier universities (more so than it already is)...

[Hercules]

The problem isn't just the ncaa. Universities aren't non-profit organizations. All students are cash cows for their schools. So the system won't collapse but I still say it's an unfair advantage for wealthier universities (more so than it already is)...

 

I don't think it would create that much more of an advantage for wealthier universities. Schools like Nebraska already have such a huge financial advantage over schools like Arkansas State that upping players' stipends a couple hundred dollars more a month or creating a trust fund that players receive when they graduate would hardly make a difference in the recruitment of a kid deciding between Nebraska and Arkansas State. It would be simply one more financial advantage on top of about 50 other financial advantages that already exist, except that the player and his family would benefit directly, rather than through the institution.

 

Anyways, since somebody said I wasn't being clear before - I'm not advocating an all out free agent system in college football, where players could sign for ridiculous amounts of money. However, I would be for upping stipends enough to take financial pressure off of students and their families, and given the obscene amount of money that is made on the backs of these "amateurs" through TV broadcasts, TV commentary, bowl games, video games, etc, I would be for some kind of trust fund that players receive when they graduate (and I mean graduate - not leave after their junior year for the NFL). I would also be in favor of some kind of cap system on coaches' and administrators' salaries.

 

I simply believe there's way too much money involved right now to justify more of it not making it back to the people who actually create that wealth in the first place.

[irafreak]

yeah I thought you meant buying players...

[Hercules]

Shatel weighs in:

 

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