There is a lot of nostalgia for “simon-pure amateurism”. That actually went away when athletic scholarships were introduced, if it ever really existed ($100 handshakes almost certainly predate the athletic scholie). Then TV entered the picture. But in the last 30 years as revenue from both TV and shoe companies has exploded, it became a joke. The NCAA had intentionally constructed a multibillion=dollar industry, and the people who generated all this money, the athletes, couldn’t share. Not legally. But money finds and fills a vacuum. And the current situation created a black market economy, the ripple effects of which we’ve seen this week. The only way to fix it is to eliminate that vacuum.
I did not see any proposed concrete changes to the rules, just an argument for changing the amateurism rules.
If you want to let the shoe companies or agents/financial advisors pay college and high school players, there might be some potential for that to work better if the deals are divorced from shoe company control of the team.
It’s one thing to say “Malcolm, we at Flying Squirrel shoes want you wearing our stuff and endorsing our products. Arizona State is a Flying Squirrel school, so we will pay you $100K to sign with Arizona State, and $50k a year on top of your scholarship money while you are there. " It’s another to call up the Arizona State coach and say “We 've got a lot of money invested in Malcolm, his minutes need to go up a bunch in the next game”, or " We’ve got a deal with Malcolm to sign with Arizona State, you need to get rid of Jamal because he’s nothing but a bench warmer and we need to cut our losses on him.”.
Now the financial backers would be pushing their guys to transfer if they did not feel like the current team was maximizing future value, but how would that be any different than the current set up?
He’s advocating giving the players a cut of the money they’re generating, something well beyond tuition, room, board and cost of attendance they get now. The money coming from the school, not from Flying Squirrel Shoes. Flying Squirrel gets involved now because the schools can’t (at least legally). Flying Squirrel, and ESPN and Fox Sports, gives the money to Arizona State, ASU gives it to Joey Powerforward. Title IX will mandate that women athletes get a proportionate share, but otherwise I have no problem with doing more for Joey than for Jimmy Golfer. Joey’s team is attracting the TV and shoe dollars. Jimmy’s isn’t. And Jimmy doesn’t have a full scholarship anyway.
Revenue sharing by the schools is only going to drive the players into forming a union to get a bigger piece of the pie, and won’t do a thing about the shoe companies/agents etc. corrupting the game to get the players under their brand.
I think more radical measures have a better chance of keeping this mess from recurring again and again in the future, and maybe that includes letting the players contract for their endorsement services.
It’s going to be a superstar economy. Most athletic departments at most schools are taking money from the general funds. Some universities literally have homeless students, while they are syphoning funds to play football. A few players at a few schools in a few sports can make big money, but the tradeoff will be taking away college opportunities to hundreds of other athletes. You can argue that’s not fair to those who are not benefitting as much as they could, but there will be consequences.
For 90%+ of college players, even in basketball and football, the scholarship, if fully taken advantage of, is worth more over the long run than any lifetime earnings from athletics, even in a complete free for all. The average NFL career is, what, three or four years.
TV revenue for college sports may already be peaking as well. The millennials don’t seem to be as interested in spectator sports as their predecessors. Cable bundling inflated that revenue. I also wonder if essentially professional club teams will draw the same attention from fans. It’s not like there is a big audience to watch the same players in the NBA D-league. I don’t know how long the goose will be laying the golden eggs.
I do believe the athletes should have the same status as graduate students as employees of the universities with a stipend and benefits. At a smaller scale than some athletes graduate students are in the same boat. Most engineering undergrads could make real money straight out of school, but some choose to stay in graduate school for far less compensation for the expert training, exposure in their field, extra credentials, and higher potential earnings. The same work would draw much larger incomes in industry. Of course, it’s their choice, but who gets to play professional sports and when isn’t the decision of the NCAA.
Any system that involves the schools paying players is going to be tough with Title IX rules not to mention all the various employee/employer rules. Why not just let outside entities pay athletes for use of their likeness? Would that mean that Alabama gets all the top football recruits and Kentucky gets all the top basketball recruits? I sure would hate to see that happen.
Let’s assume that AR is clean. We can’t compete when an Ole Miss or Auburn offers an athlete money and we don’t. Why not go try and win a spot there while getting something versus going to AR for nothing and hope you make it? If all the “top” players were allowed to receive outside compensation then what becomes more valuable is roster spots and playing time of which we have the same as everyone.
Let the one and done top recruits go overseas and they can legally get paid. How many athletes made millions and are now flat broke. A majority of them. 2 reason no education they never finished schools in most cases or were given grades without going to class.
If they want to get paid go pro
In this country we change the law or rules to pacify every group that comes along. well I guess I’d illegal immigrants can protest in Little Rock anything can happen.
Greed! Shoe companies , agents and some sleazy sorry coaches. Heck Pittno is one of his friends and buddies. He is all up on the elite recruiters and diaper dandys just like Dick Vitale.
You have heard Any of these folks come out in support of their friend.
Wait until Nike has to point a finger at Cal. Watch Bilas, Dickie V, and the rest of the sports idiots (also known as ESPN “Journalists”) turn their backs on him and say things like, “I always knew he cheated.”
Some of those guys from ESPN and actually announcers period are just as much grease balls as Pittno and Cal.
The lack of integrity by some coaches, AD’s, referees during games and the NCAA period is a complete embarrassment !
We’ll see the Nike folks get their rear ends caught with thier hands in the cookie jar.
The whole time this scam has gone on a lot of coaches have taken heat from fan bases about poor recruiting and loosing in states kids. My thought is how many coaches have been fired by doing the job with some ethical values while these
scum have lied cheated and had all the media attention!