Congressional action is coming towards collegiate athletics

[Acesn8s]

Hey those slaves learned a trade and got a roof over their heads! They should be happy! I didn’t get to learn for free or get a roof over my head at that age!

This is so ridiculous. Pac 12 and Big 10 are not playing this fall, how much $$ are they bringing in to the university? And yet they still get all the benefits of being a STUDENT athlete for free.

 

[Chip]

This is like the argument that happens after every time kids are massacred in a school shooting. Most people see there is an issue but we might as well just wait for it to get worse because the perfect solution isn't just painted on the wall for everyone to read. Everyone is paralyzed because they are afraid to only make something better instead of perfect.

Well, I'd probably pick a different metaphor. But if the schools and conferences continue to want to bring in more money, how do you pay coaches less money, and keep telling the players they can't have any of it?

I think paying the players has a ton of risks and other considerations (as I posted the other day), but again, what do you do with all of that money?

 

[TexanMark]

This is so unbelievably true.

my last GF was lucky enough to have college paid for by her parents, in full. Meanwhile I was paying every penny. While we were in different professions, we were making within $2500 of each other at 27 (well I was 28). I was on payment plans paying nearly $600 a month in student loans, she bought a house, and a new car.

getting out of school debt free makes a tremendous difference in the long term wealth of a person. Absolutely amazing amounts of money go to student loan interest when you are a kid just trying to start out in life

Ding Ding Ding

Unfortunately most of the athletes don't realize this. The time consuming amount of effort these kids put in to try to make NFL rosters and Bowl games forces even the academic minded ones to dumb down their academics.

On the bright side every player is pretty much guaranteed 5 years and with summer session they could actually take some more challenging course work. Most don't due to peer pressure.

The players that aren't NFL material should seriously look into the military. Twenty years service and a decent pension awaits. A four year stint and VA benefits await. They can either try for admission to officer candidate school or enlist. College athletes normally excel in the military.

 

[dasher]

They will cut men’s programs and women’s programs equally.

Sports like golf, swimming.

I don't think they can if the have football. men's teams will consist of football and basketball. Some will have Lax. Some will have baseball. Some I guess will have soccer. That will be about it.

 

[TheCusian]

I was waiting for this argument. Everyone is a racist and academic institutions treat athletes like slaves.

Slaves made nothing and some were bruised and abused. This is not slavery or racism ...in absolutely no sense of the word ...to even compare it to that is absolutely disingenuous.

Student athletes across many different sports benefit from a $70,000/ year (!!!!) education ...and now stipends to get through school.
Student athletes have every choice and option to go to school or not, and many have a plethora of choices on which institution they want to attend. No one is dragging them away from their homes and making them do forced labor in a place they don't want to be. Parents and students know what they sign up for. I'm so tired of this argument

It does fall apart if I were trying to compare them equally. But you didn’t address the main point I was raising, instead pointing out the obvious ways the comparison breaks down.

You can’t say “these guys should make what the market allows” when the market doesn’t allow for fair and equitable pay. There’s more pie for the fat guys because there’s so little for the players.

The problem (and another spot where the comparison breaks) is that the players have a lot of power in that they can do what so many other humans can’t... Their value to the system is massive. An education + a stipend + food doesn’t cover it, lol

 

[TexanMark]

I wonder how many would have gotten into these schools based purely on their academic abilities?

Probably about 30-40% at SU is my WAG

 

[TheCusian]

Legislatively speaking this goes nowhere.

it’s an opening salvo and will be bargained about... but the Senate power won’t rest with McConnell in 6 months IMO

 

[Alsacs]

Legislatively speaking this goes nowhere.

If the Democrats win the WH this bill has a chance at passing Republicans like Sasse, Rubio are already close to becoming co-sponsors.

The House has a Republican former Ohio State WR writing the bill. This legislation is coming.

 

[Doc5120]

I wonder how many would have gotten into these schools based purely on their academic abilities?

Unfortunately I'm thinking it would not be a high percentage.

 

[All4SU]

College athletics is a mess. Getting government involved will make it worse.

 

[TheCusian]

Probably about 30-40% at SU is my WAG

this argument is silly. Art students get in based on skill plus academics. Same with music. Athletes earn their entrance just like everyone else - they do something better than the rest of the population.

it’s merit based either way you slice it

 

[Alsacs]

I don't think they can if the have football. men's teams will consist of football and basketball. Some will have Lax. Some will have baseball. Some I guess will have soccer. That will be about it.

Title IX requires your athletic scholarships be proportional to your student body makeup.

If this legislation passes schools will keep revenue producing sports. They will trim programs that are money losers and won’t want to give these benefits to Those athletes.

If they trim programs though it will have to be proportional. So if they want to get rid of women’s golf they will get rid of men’s sports as well.

These non revenue sports that are subsidized by football and basketball are the ones that will get chopped.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

One other thing I would like to vent about, I am so sick of hearing how much coaches make, and how much athletic directors make or even conference commissioners make. They make what they are able to make at the top 1 percent of their professions. Only Division 1 coaches at the highest level are making huge amount of money. The head coaches at the D2 or D3 level make a small fraction of what their counterparts make. It is just like any other profession. IF the 99 percent of these scholarship athletes use their free scholarship, work hard, use their connections, they can make a very solid living as well. And then the 1 percent who make it to the NFL they will be compensated as the market demands and be paid for handsomely for their talent.

I think the reality is that the D2 and D3 coaches you mentioned probably are paid appropriately, and the D1 coaches that make truckloads are likely unworthy outliers.

 

[Alsacs]

Football and basketball players are not amateur athletes. If they are being used to bring lots of money.

Giving them a slice is acknowledging the system has changed and their is more revenue in the game.

If schools want to take less money then they can keep the status quo.
Athletic departments in the P5 are doing pretty well.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I think you are spot on. A free scholarship is treated like it is worthless. Well for the one percent that everybody is worried about OK fine you go to the NFL. for them College football can be a showcase of talent... But the third string center is not going to have people knocking down the door for endorsement deals, or other financial gains. For the 99 percent of kids who will never play football again that scholarship could mean setting themselves up for the real world for the rest of their lives. If they fail to use it wisely then tough break.

I got most of my tuition comped for my grad degree at Newhouse and ended up with a job at Trader Joe's while being broke for the better part of two years.

You over-value the value of a degree. Not to mention that a scholarship doesn't help some of these guys help their families immediately, which they would like to do.

 

[TexanMark]

this argument is silly. Art students get in based on skill plus academics. Same with music. Athletes earn their entrance just like everyone else - they do something better than the rest of the population.

it’s merit based either way you slice it

Hmmm try to follow the supposition

You actually can get a major in Art, you can't get a major in Football or Basketball...well not at least at any school not named Alabama, Kentucky and UNC

Most of the kids at high level academic schools are their because of athletics.

 

[Ozcuse]

I think the reality is that the D2 and D3 coaches you mentioned probably are paid appropriately, and the D1 coaches that make truckloads are likely unworthy outliers.

Charlie Weis was such a good coach he got paid $18.9M to not coach for Notre Dame!

 

[TheCusian]

College athletics is a mess. Getting government involved will make it worse.

the proposal is quite good, it’s the corrupt officials that will make it crap

 

[TexanMark]

I got most of my tuition comped for my grad degree at Newhouse and ended up with a job at Trader Joe's while being broke for the better part of two years.

You over-value the value of a degree. Not to mention that a scholarship doesn't help some of these guys help their families immediately, which they would like to do.

Why do the families have to be helped out immediately?

 

[TheCusian]

Hmmm try to follow the supposition

You actually can get a major in Art, you can't get a major in Football or Basketball...well not at least at any school not named Alabama, Kentucky and UNC

you don’t think they are majoring in their sport?

 

[Alsacs]

Why can kids who are on academic scholarship at Newhouse have time to get part jobs while on campus , but athletic scholarship athletes not have the same time to get part jobs while on campus?

Football and basketball players have fulltime jobs during their seasons. They aren’t amateurs.

The system can be changed for the betterment of these athletes that producing millions of dollars for their schools.

 

[Bayside44]

it’s an opening salvo and will be bargained about... but the Senate power won’t rest with McConnell in 6 months IMO

Maybe, but if he wins (and a huge water carrier for UL) he'll gum it up.

 

[TexanMark]

you don’t think they are majoring in their sport?

No at SU it is in Family and Child Studies or some other watered down degree

 

[Alsacs]

While I was at Syracuse I bought a #39 football jersey, #1 football jersey, and #3 basketball jersey.

Why is it okay for the university to keep all that revenue and Walter Reyes, Damian Rhodes, and Gerry McNamara get nothing for jerseys sold because of them.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

On this idea of "how many athletes would be accepted into these schools on their academic merits" question...

See, I always felt that it was a feature, not a bug, of American higher education, that students that weren't exceptional academically are granted opportunities to associate, network, and learn alongside traditionally academically gifted students because they brought talent of a different stripe (athletics, music, drama, other language expertise/world perspectives, etc.) to enrich the school community and enhance the pursuit of excellence of all different manifestations of human ability.

Maybe that's naive or too optimistic, but when people talk about diversity being desirable... this is all a part of it.