Just curious...

[Hujan]

I guess my problem with this is that this is a normal game... I fully understand receiving a trophy or ring for doing something special, ie winning a league championship, but what's stopping any team for saying "well since you beat Penn St, you get a diamond earing and since you beat Indiana, you get gold fronts, ect..."?

That's the issue. Apparently the Gold Pants thing is grandfathered in or something. They've been doing it since the 1940s or longer, and the NCAA has just accepted it. Maybe that kind of thing will change, or the value of these kinds of awards will be counted against their bowl swag money.

I dunno. I don't think it's different than us handing out Blackshirts.

I could see that comparison. These gold pants are necklaces, not actual pants, but I could see Husker fans paying big money for blackshirts worn by the players, so it's probably about the same thing - an item the player could sell.

Except that a Blackshirt is actually cool, and the gold pants are, well, incredibly lame. What is this, a disco? "Give it to me, baby!"

 

[kchusker_chris]

It's the simple fact that Pryor received a benefit not provided to other students of the university. Doesn't matter whether it was $300 or $3,000,000. The NCAA has every right to ensure Reggie Bush can not walk into a bank and utilize his status as a student-athlete in a way that every other student at USC is not privy to.

That's the part of the NCAA that protects the "amature" status of student athletes and the sport itself. If you want to remove that status then it's understandable. College football will become a minor league for the NFL (but you have to maintain a 2.0 GPA since you're a "student") and people that think the athletes are slaves will be happy - unless of course they see what it does to their team.

Pryor shouldn't be able to sell a 19" Visio TV for $50,000 just because he's an athlete (even if it is his to sell). He also shouldn't be able to sell some little trinket Joe Blow in his accounting class can't get because he's not an athlete. It's not rocket science. He wouldn't have those items if he didn't play for tOSU. Even his dumb@55 can figure that out.

 

[kchusker_chris]

I guess my problem with this is that this is a normal game... I fully understand receiving a trophy or ring for doing something special, ie winning a league championship, but what's stopping any team for saying "well since you beat Penn St, you get a diamond earing and since you beat Indiana, you get gold fronts, ect..."?

That's the issue. Apparently the Gold Pants thing is grandfathered in or something. They've been doing it since the 1940s or longer, and the NCAA has just accepted it. Maybe that kind of thing will change, or the value of these kinds of awards will be counted against their bowl swag money.

I dunno. I don't think it's different than us handing out Blackshirts.

I could see that comparison. These gold pants are necklaces, not actual pants, but I could see Husker fans paying big money for blackshirts worn by the players, so it's probably about the same thing - an item the player could sell.

And if they sold it while a member of the team they'd be in an identical situation. Which is why they probably aren't dumb enough to sell em.

 

[blasted_imposter]

Except that a Blackshirt is actually cool, and the gold pants are, well, incredibly lame. What is this, a disco? "Give it to me, baby!"

You win!

 

[BOJ]

Sorry if this topic has been covered previously...but how is it possible for Mich and OSU students to receive these gold pants in the first place? Isn't that an improper benefit? After seeing that they are worth thousands of dollars on a recent Pawn Stars it made me wonder, do our players receive anything like this? Does any other team that you can think of receive something similar?

Just a quick history, not that anyone cares, but Michigan doesn't get the gold pants just tOSU, it comes from when the head coach at the time (can't remember who it was off the top of my head)that Michigan was just ridiculously dominant in college football told the players before the game "they put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us" and tOSU won the game and have received these trinkets ever since each time they get a win against Michigan.

And as far as some others have pointed out it is no different than any other award a school gives out to its players. They end up being worth whatever the market is on them, I am not familiar with these blackshirts that get handed out at Nebraska (though I am familiar with the term itself there), but if the market for them were (or is, for that matter) a couple of thousand dollars and a player sold one, exact same scenario. Several schools do things like this.

Quick edit: these trinkets are not worth anywhere near thousands of dollars when they are handed out to the players (they are only gold plated), the collectors end up jacking the prices.

Actually, one more quick edit: all the captains of tOSU also get steins with their names on them and when they hold the captain's breakfast at homecoming all the past captains and the current year's captains have their steins there at the breakfast, these steins most likely have a monetary value very close to those gold pants when they are handed out (I am assuming its no more than around $50). Should that also be an improper benefit? I also did a quick look-up both the captain's breakfast and gold pants deal was started in 1934 (but I doubt the NCAA sees it as a grandfathered in type of situation, just that schools are allowed to do this, only players can't benefit from it while in school--seems silly, but thems the rules as they say)

 

[Hujan]

It's the simple fact that Pryor received a benefit not provided to other students of the university. Doesn't matter whether it was $300 or $3,000,000. The NCAA has every right to ensure Reggie Bush can not walk into a bank and utilize his status as a student-athlete in a way that every other student at USC is not privy to.

That's the part of the NCAA that protects the "amature" status of student athletes and the sport itself. If you want to remove that status then it's understandable. College football will become a minor league for the NFL (but you have to maintain a 2.0 GPA since you're a "student") and people that think the athletes are slaves will be happy - unless of course they see what it does to their team.

Pryor shouldn't be able to sell a 19" Visio TV for $50,000 just because he's an athlete (even if it is his to sell). He also shouldn't be able to sell some little trinket Joe Blow in his accounting class can't get because he's not an athlete. It's not rocket science. He wouldn't have those items if he didn't play for tOSU. Even his dumb@55 can figure that out.

But he already received a "benefit not provided to other students of the university" when he got the gold pants in the first place. Joe Blow Accounting major did not get gold pants; Pryor did. The NCAA cannot change that fact. The only question is whether the NCAA has the right to ensure that the extra benefit Pryor received will remain an item of property with potential value--market and nostalgic--or can change forms into something else (whether cash, a tattoo, etc.)

Suppose, for example, that instead of the gold pants themselves, Pryor traded the gold pants for a tattoo of the gold pants on his bicep, along with an inscription about the victory. Is this an NCAA infraction? If so, why?

Reggie Bush is not utilizing his status as a student-athlete for profit. He is utilizing his potential as a pro athlete to secure funds. The bank/agent/whomever could give two sh#ts about whether Bush plays for USC or UCLA or Eastern Michigan. All that matters is that he has a certain potential as a professional, and that that potential has value.

The amateur nature of college athletics can only be destroyed once SCHOOLS start paying players to come to their university versus another. But whether an agent writes Reggie a post-dated check for $1,000,000 for the day of the draft, or gives him that check when he is still in school, the fact remains that Reggie is not being played to play college football. And that, and only that, is all the NCAA should be concerned with.

 

[BOJ]

I guess my problem with this is that this is a normal game... I fully understand receiving a trophy or ring for doing something special, ie winning a league championship, but what's stopping any team for saying "well since you beat Penn St, you get a diamond earing and since you beat Indiana, you get gold fronts, ect..."?

That's the issue. Apparently the Gold Pants thing is grandfathered in or something. They've been doing it since the 1940s or longer, and the NCAA has just accepted it. Maybe that kind of thing will change, or the value of these kinds of awards will be counted against their bowl swag money.

I dunno. I don't think it's different than us handing out Blackshirts.

I could see that comparison. These gold pants are necklaces, not actual pants, but I could see Husker fans paying big money for blackshirts worn by the players, so it's probably about the same thing - an item the player could sell.

And if they sold it while a member of the team they'd be in an identical situation. Which is why they probably aren't dumb enough to sell em.

I wouldn't be too surprised if some of them do get sold, hell even Super Bowl champs sell their championship rings sometimes, the thing with these college kids is they all think they are going pro and when they end up out of school not playing in the pros with no job b/c they took the ridiculous schedule suggested by the athletic department, some of them end up needing to sell whatever might put some coin in their pocket--its rather sad (not sure what kind of hard luck a Super Bowl champion has to fall on to sell his ring)

 

[Coqui]

I guess my problem with this is that this is a normal game... I fully understand receiving a trophy or ring for doing something special, ie winning a league championship, but what's stopping any team for saying "well since you beat Penn St, you get a diamond earing and since you beat Indiana, you get gold fronts, ect..."?

In order of importance:

3.) Winning the Big10 Championship and thus a trip to the Rose Bowl

2.) Winning a National Championship

1.) Beating Michigan

I don't think you guys understand how important Ohio State views the game against Michigan.

 

[knapplc]

I could see that comparison. These gold pants are necklaces, not actual pants, but I could see Husker fans paying big money for blackshirts worn by the players, so it's probably about the same thing - an item the player could sell.

And if they sold it while a member of the team they'd be in an identical situation. Which is why they probably aren't dumb enough to sell em.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out things like that have happened at Nebraska, though. Over decades and decades some stuff is bound to happen.

 

[kchusker_chris]

The amateur nature of college athletics can only be destroyed once SCHOOLS start paying players to come to their university versus another. But whether an agent writes Reggie a post-dated check for $1,000,000 for the day of the draft, or gives him that check when he is still in school, the fact remains that Reggie is not being played to play college football. And that, and only that, is all the NCAA should be concerned with.

So you're saying that anyone should be able to give any amount of money, to any athlete so long as the transaction doesn't pass through the university - and only prior to their recruitment? After recruited since they wouldn't be paying them to go to one university versus another it should be ok? I think you might be alone there...well, the players would probably get behind you on this Are you Niles Paul or Martinez?

A newspaper reports that Ohio State football players are alleged to have improperly traded dozens of items to the owner of a tattoo parlor, receiving tattoos, $14,000, and in one case a sport-utility vehicle.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/04/28/ohio-state-tattoo-investigation.ap/index.html?eref=sihp