No longer slave owners

[Fear Itself]

So much misinformation....

NO SCHOOLS make "hundreds of millions of dollars" off athletics. A couple of school approach $200 million in REVENUE, but that is NOT income. Very few programs are profitable. There are 125 D1 football programs. 24 (last count available) had ANY income at all. The vast majority of revenue comes from licensing rights and the vast majority of that is from football. Football is almost exclusively the lone stand out that winds up subsidizing other programs (Duke, Kentucky, etc. being basketball exceptions).

So let's discuss the 'plight' of these kids that were being taken care of.

1. Free college education. Since less than 2% will ever be pro, for 98% of them, that is worth something. Those 98% aren't likely to benefit from this sell out (since they aren't 'stars') and the 2% future potential millionaires obviously don't need it. Since the apparently 'crisis' in America is apparently college debt and the lack of 'free college tuition for all' you'd think this would be the great savior everyone would not and not dismissed out of hand as worthless. Now granted, not every kid gets a full ride, but if they aren't good enough to get a free ride, they aren't going to be selling many autographs and tshirts either. ($40k-$250k)

2. Free room and board. So they get to do what they presumably love, and get fed (well) and have no expenses. Not sure how many of you went to college, but that's a mistreatment I wish I could have participated in. ($40k-75k)

3. Despite the 98% reality, most of them dream of going pro. So what could help them? How about, scholarshiop or not, they'll get the best trainers, doctors, coaches, and mentors that money can provide. Not to mention unlimited free academic tutors in case they stay part of that 98%. Hard to put a figure on that but over the course of 2 years for superstars or 4 years for also rans, presumably we can agree that's easily worth into the comfortable 6 figures. Something NO amateur athlete would ever be able to afford on their own. ($ 150k - $300k)

4. Being great is useless if nobody knows about it. OK, fine, we'll have our alum donate even more money to build you the finest facilities, both training and for game day, for you to hone your skills and show them off, for free, to literally 10's of millions each week. Zero PR or advertising fees due. How much is a 30 second spot on ESPN on Saturday's? You're welcome. ($????)


So pretty easy to see that these poor kids are being taken advantage of to the tune of half a million dollars and up.


As the already blurring line between amateur college athletics and professional sports has now been basically eliminated, when do we start complaining about high school athletes being kept on the plantation? I mean, "the humanity!".....


If you want an amateur league, create one. Like the NBA has. But no, liberals (and don't confuse yourself, this was all led by liberal politicians, as is clear) just love to "remake" any and everything that works fine without their superior intellect to 'fix' what isn't broken.

Somebody had to say it!

 

[Falcon1]

So much misinformation....

NO SCHOOLS make "hundreds of millions of dollars" off athletics. A couple of school approach $200 million in REVENUE, but that is NOT income. Very few programs are profitable. There are 125 D1 football programs. 24 (last count available) had ANY income at all. The vast majority of revenue comes from licensing rights and the vast majority of that is from football. Football is almost exclusively the lone stand out that winds up subsidizing other programs (Duke, Kentucky, etc. being basketball exceptions).

So let's discuss the 'plight' of these kids that were being taken care of.

1. Free college education. Since less than 2% will ever be pro, for 98% of them, that is worth something. Those 98% aren't likely to benefit from this sell out (since they aren't 'stars') and the 2% future potential millionaires obviously don't need it. Since the apparently 'crisis' in America is apparently college debt and the lack of 'free college tuition for all' you'd think this would be the great savior everyone would not and not dismissed out of hand as worthless. Now granted, not every kid gets a full ride, but if they aren't good enough to get a free ride, they aren't going to be selling many autographs and tshirts either. ($40k-$250k)

2. Free room and board. So they get to do what they presumably love, and get fed (well) and have no expenses. Not sure how many of you went to college, but that's a mistreatment I wish I could have participated in. ($40k-75k)

3. Despite the 98% reality, most of them dream of going pro. So what could help them? How about, scholarshiop or not, they'll get the best trainers, doctors, coaches, and mentors that money can provide. Not to mention unlimited free academic tutors in case they stay part of that 98%. Hard to put a figure on that but over the course of 2 years for superstars or 4 years for also rans, presumably we can agree that's easily worth into the comfortable 6 figures. Something NO amateur athlete would ever be able to afford on their own. ($ 150k - $300k)

4. Being great is useless if nobody knows about it. OK, fine, we'll have our alum donate even more money to build you the finest facilities, both training and for game day, for you to hone your skills and show them off, for free, to literally 10's of millions each week. Zero PR or advertising fees due. How much is a 30 second spot on ESPN on Saturday's? You're welcome. ($????)


So pretty easy to see that these poor kids are being taken advantage of to the tune of half a million dollars and up.


As the already blurring line between amateur college athletics and professional sports has now been basically eliminated, when do we start complaining about high school athletes being kept on the plantation? I mean, "the humanity!".....


If you want an amateur league, create one. Like the NBA has. But no, liberals (and don't confuse yourself, this was all led by liberal politicians, as is clear) just love to "remake" any and everything that works fine without their superior intellect to 'fix' what isn't broken.

The simple fact the organizations (universities and NCAA) are making so much money marketing these athletes, but they can’t sign their own autograph and make $5 off of it is absurd and always has been. Do you really think the NCAA actually cares about “amateur athletes” these days? They pocket all the cash without cutting the revenue generators in and want to keep it that way. It is all a business now like it or not. The education is extremely valuable yes, but what is wrong with athletes doing appearances and making a little money off of their own name an existence?

 

[Edog537]

No kid will ever see a dime. The fat Lesbians on the softball team and The Nags on women's basketball team will cry that it isn't "fair" and you have.....wait for it....endless litigation. The Lawyers win!

 

[GeauxLSU]

The simple fact the organizations (universities and NCAA) are making so much money marketing these athletes, but they can’t sign their own autograph and make $5 off of it is absurd and always has been. Do you really think the NCAA actually cares about “amateur athletes” these days? They pocket all the cash without cutting the revenue generators in and want to keep it that way. It is all a business now like it or not. The education is extremely valuable yes, but what is wrong with athletes doing appearances and making a little money off of their own name an existence?

I thought I was clear in my post. Because it's no longer amateur athletes (yes, that is what the NCAA is about, by definition) and because no one is being taken advantage of, far from it.
Take Zion as a senior in high school. "Hey Zion, I'll give you $100k for a signed DUKE Tshirt with your name on it, mkay?"

 

[Falcon1]

I thought I was clear in my post. Because it's no longer amateur athletes (yes, that is what the NCAA is about, by definition) and because no one is being taken advantage of, far from it.
Take Zion as a senior in high school. "Hey Zion, I'll give you $100k for a signed DUKE Tshirt with your name on it, mkay?"

I believe you are being sincere in wanting to keep it amateur, and I certainly understand that. In a perfect world that would be the case, but many of the top tier athletes are already being paid in one way or another at most major programs across the country, whether it is basketball or football. I think the NCAA realizes the only way to not put several top programs on probation is to officially allow this since it is so widespread already.

 

[GeauxLSU]

I believe you are being sincere in wanting to keep it amateur, and I certainly understand that. In a perfect world that would be the case, but many of the top tier athletes are already being paid in one way or another at most major programs across the country, whether it is basketball or football. I think the NCAA realizes the only way to not put several top programs on probation is to officially allow this since it is so widespread already.

I'm never in favor of eliminating a rule (or law) because "it's being broken anyway". That's been the justification for endless lunacy. While of course violations happen, look how hard they come down on schools when even MINOR violations are found or even self reported.

All this discussion is pointless. It's done. The liberals (started as usual in Kalifornia) have once again saved us from ourselves.

 

[Glorfindel]

These schools don’t build 100,000 seat stadiums and pay coaches millions and spend who knows how much to recruit the top players for no good reason. College football is big business. Being goood at football increases enrollment in the schools. Which is where all the real money is made.

 

[Trailrider]

So much misinformation....

NO SCHOOLS make "hundreds of millions of dollars" off athletics. A couple of school approach $200 million in REVENUE, but that is NOT income. Very few programs are profitable. There are 125 D1 football programs. 24 (last count available) had ANY income at all. The vast majority of revenue comes from licensing rights and the vast majority of that is from football. Football is almost exclusively the lone stand out that winds up subsidizing other programs (Duke, Kentucky, etc. being basketball exceptions).

So let's discuss the 'plight' of these kids that were being taken care of.

1. Free college education. Since less than 2% will ever be pro, for 98% of them, that is worth something. Those 98% aren't likely to benefit from this sell out (since they aren't 'stars') and the 2% future potential millionaires obviously don't need it. Since the supposed 'crisis' du jour in America is apparently college debt and the lack of 'free college tuition for all' you'd think this would be the great savior everyone would applaud and not dismiss out of hand as worthless. Now granted, not every kid gets a full ride, but if they aren't good enough to get a free ride, they aren't going to be selling many autographs and tshirts either. ($40k-$250k)

2. Free room and board. So they get to do what they presumably love, and get fed (well) and have no expenses. Not sure how many of you went to college, but that's a mistreatment I wish I could have participated in. ($40k-75k)

3. Despite the 98% reality, most of them dream of going pro. So what could help them? How about, scholarship or not, they'll get the best trainers, doctors, coaches, and mentors that money can provide. Not to mention unlimited free academic tutors in case they stay part of that 98%. Hard to put a figure on that but over the course of 2 years for superstars or 4 years for also rans, presumably we can agree that's easily worth into the comfortable 6 figures. Something NO amateur athlete would ever be able to afford on their own. ($ 150k - $300k)

4. Being great is useless if nobody knows about it. OK, fine, we'll have our alum donate even more money to build you the finest facilities, both training and for game day, for you to hone your skills and show them off, for free, to literally 10's of millions each week. Zero PR or advertising fees due. How much is a 30 second spot on ESPN on Saturday's? You're welcome. ($????)

So pretty easy to see that these poor kids are being taken advantage of to the tune of half a million dollars and up.

As the already blurring line between amateur college athletics and professional sports has now been basically eliminated, when do we start complaining about high school athletes being kept on the plantation? I mean, "the humanity!".....

If you want an amateur league, create one. Like the NBA has. But no, liberals (and don't confuse yourself, this was all led by liberal politicians, as is clear) just love to "remake" any and everything that works fine without their superior intellect to 'fix' what isn't broken.

Speaking of misinformation. Lets start with the biggest one, that colleges will be responsible for compensating these players. This ruling is only about the use of player's likeness by 3rd party brands/entities. Next there's the scholarship part. You assume all these players are getting scholarships? A quick lookup of NCAA scholarships finds that only about 2% of student athletes get a scholarship. Even out of that 2% not all of them are FULL scholarships. So much for all that free room and board. Most of them have to come out of pocket or take out student loans. Unless your a star player. A good bit of the kids are walk-ons. Ever UGA's favorite kicker, Blankenship, was a walk on. He didn't get a scholarship until his sophomore year.

You're correct about 98% not going pro, so that 98% who don't get scholarships and also don't go pro, still had their name, image, likeness used for whatever.

Yes they will have access to the best trainers and doctors and coaches. You think that's all out of the goodness of the school's hearts? They are providing these because they want to produce a winning team. These guys put their health and bodies on the line for the school, I would expect them to have to provide the best care and training.

Yes the vast majority of revenue is from football programs. But the NCAA still brings in over a billion a year. Sure that's not all profit, but $1 billion in revenue is nothing to sneeze at. Yeah that poor NCAA only generating a billion a year off of these college athletes.

Schools are raking in tons of money from their athletic programs. The reason they aren't profitable is because they go overboard on their operating expenses. They spend tons of money on recruiting, paying the coaches absurd amounts of money for the college level, going all out on their stadiums, training facilities, etc. Auburn spent almost $14 million to have the biggest jumbotron in a college stadium. Completely unnecessary.

But yeah, at the end of the day people are just upset that EA Sports has to compensate those players whose likeness they use on the cover of the game that they'll make $100 million dollars off of. Or if Joe Blow sells his jersey to a fan for $500 bucks.

 

[Trailrider]

I thought I was clear in my post. Because it's no longer amateur athletes (yes, that is what the NCAA is about, by definition) and because no one is being taken advantage of, far from it.
Take Zion as a senior in high school. "Hey Zion, I'll give you $100k for a signed DUKE Tshirt with your name on it, mkay?"

LOL if you think a signed Zion shirt would go for $100k. I just found a signed Zion Duke jersey online for $500. Oh no, Zion made $500!!!!! I wonder how much Duke made off of him?

 

[Glorfindel]

how many of you opposed to this still support your favorite teams players once they reach the pros? Joe Burrow is best thing on earth throwing TD’s for LSU for free. When does he make the transition to overpaid crybaby NFL player who hates America that everyone seems to hate so much?