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Message: [QUOTE="orangenirvana, post: 1754412, member: 156"] I haven't gone through this whole thread so this may have already been posted, but this is an article containing thoughts from the man who sold me on this subject... [URL]http://www.complex.com/sports/2015/12/jay-bilas-interview/nobody-would-put-up-with-this[/URL] [IMG]http://images.complex.com/complex/image/upload/c_limit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_680/coach-k-price-tag_mkbt62.jpg[/IMG] Excerpts... [U]7 Common Sense Reasons Why College Athletes Should Be Paid (According to Jay Bilas)[/U] [B]1. It’s a multi-billion dollar business where the only people who are restricted in their earnings, in any way, are the athletes.[/B] [B]2. Nobody would put up with this in any other walk of life.[/B] [I]"Think about what the scholarship is. The scholarship is a dollar amount that is transferred from the athletic department to the school. [B]So it’s the school paying itself.[/B] It’s like me paying myself for rent for my kids in my house. And then claiming I don’t have any money left because I paid myself rent for them."[/I] [B]3. "It'll ruin the game" doomsday scenarios are ridiculous.[/B] [I]"Like in baseball when the reserve clause was in place and when the players battled to get rid of that. And Curt Flood took MLB to the Supreme Court and lost. And then free agency came in the '70s when I was a kid. People said, 'Baseball is going to be ruined.' It’s doing just fine. It’s making more money than it ever made. More eyeballs are on it. Same thing about the Olympics. When we let pros play in the Olympics, people said 'It’s over.' And now it’s more popular than ever."[/I] [B]4. Other sports will not be canceled because some players are being paid.[/B] [I]“'Boy, we pay the athletes and all of a sudden everybody is going to drop every sport.' So that’s riding on the athletes too. 'I better take less, otherwise the rowing program is going to go away.' Or, 'Nobody will be able to wrestle in college anymore.' "That’s a lie. It’s all a lie. They are not going to cancel these programs if it’s in their interest to have them. They will continue to do it. "Then they claim the scholarship is enough. [B]Well if the scholarship is enough, let’s test that out in the marketplace. If it’s enough, then the marketplace will confirm that. And they know it’s not true.[/B] The players are worth a ton. And schools would compete for them the same way they compete for any athlete of university life."[/I] [B]5. Implementing a new system is much easier than those in charge want you to believe.[/B] [B]6. It won't dramatically change the quality of the top teams.[/B] "Now would Kansas be able to spend more money? Absolutely—they have more money. [B]But the big schools are getting 95% of the Top 100 players right now. Maybe more than that. And they are getting 100% of the football players. So we aren’t going to see any difference in that.[/B] But we are going to see more of a difference if the smaller schools would be allowed to compete, because they are getting priced out anyways. They can’t afford the facilities or to pay their coaches that much. They don’t have the same amount of money." [B]7. Good players would stay in school longer.[/B] [/QUOTE]

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