I like a lot of these. One and done has got to go. I’m not sure I like the straight to the NBA idea either, but one and done is awful.
Punishing coaches harder for cheating is also great.
The two proposals I read that I didn’t like were freezing a scholarship 3-4 years if a player does leave for the NBA after one year and also telling coaches they can’t go to different tournaments during the summer to evaluate players, they just can go to one tournament. Both punish the schools and coaches for no reason.
I think it’s rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They’re not dealing with the underlying cause of most of the problems: Money. The NCAA and the schools, particularly in the top 7 hoops conferences (Power Five plus Big East and AAC) have it, by the billion$. The players don’t. Agents, hangers-on, shoe companies, etc., understand that there is a money vacuum and are rushing in to fill it. And yes, some of the schools (hey there, Slick Rick!) are complicit in that, but others aren’t. Mike Anderson isn’t playing that game, but Bruce Pearl, Avery Johnson and Calamari are, and we have to play them every year.
Would it help us if Pearl and Squid got tossed out on their well-paid fannies beside Pitino? Probably, but not if the next guy does the same thing and covers his tracks better. But if players can get money openly, the cheaters’ advantage goes away. Doesn’t have to come from the school, either. Let Dan Gafford get endorsements from NWA and Little Rock businesses. If he were a music major and made a million-selling rap album, but wanted to stay in school anyway, nobody would say a word. Why is it wrong for him to cash in on his name and talent WHILE he’s a Razorback, not just after?
This discussion was brought up on another board. I looked up info. Last year the NCAA reported $1.1 Billion dollars as income. Most of it came from the NCAAT television rights, and conference championships and NCAAT tickets sold. Of that $1.1 Billion only $3.3 million goes to education. The rest is broke down “supporting” the student athletes.
Now, the NCAA claims they don’t get money from football, but college football actually surpasses the NFL ($10 Billion) with all the television deals and tickets sold. So, my question is where does all the football money go?
It pays Nick Saban $11 million a year. It pays for Dabo Swinney’s beach volleyball court and golf simulator and slide down from the second floor of the Clemson football center, and the steaks and fish they feed the athletes in the dining hall there. It pays for the new seats at field level behind the north end zone at RRS. It pays for Arkansas State to go to Tuscaloosa in September and take its rent-a-cupcake whipping. It also pays the deputy assistant director of Twitter graphics that Chad Morris seems to have hired. And yes, it also pays for the softball program that I’m watching on SECN right now.
I don’t believe that’s true. There was a lot of “donations” that built all the stuff at the U of A. And I’m pretty sure Dabo and Nick stuff you mentioned come from their “foundations” as well, and not from the actual football revenue.
I’m looking at the athletic department 2016-17 annual report now. It says Arkansas football generated $68 million of the total athletic revenue of $127 million in the most recent fiscal year prior to that report.
On the page before those graphs are pie charts of total athletic revenue and spending. Ticket sales were 36% of the total revenue. RF transfers were 14% (this would have been before they started the fundraising push for RRS renovation). Conference distributions (including TV money from the league’s contracts with CBS and ESPN/SECN) were 35%. Of that ticket sale total, more than 80% came from football.
According to the NCAA website, money from TV and ticket sales for March Madness, the CWS, etc., is distributed in part directly to schools and in part through conferences. I’m unable to figure out anything in those pie charts that would cover that NCAA-direct money except for “postseason reimbursements” which are 1% of our total athletic revenue; I presume that would cover expenses to send our teams to NCAA tournaments in all sports. The NCAA said it spent $96 million on Division I championships for that kind of expense. It’s possible that NCAA money is being lumped into “conference distribution”.
I for one can’t wait for the one and done era in college basketball to come to an end. It’s simply become a dirty business more about the blueblood programs having to outbid one another for the services of the top prep players each year and has absolutely nothing to do with education, which by the way should be the number one goal with any student deciding to attend college. Instead, this era has turned college basketball into a Marketing service for the country’s best high school players and a cash cow for those Universities that tend to get the bulk of these players.
The NBA-G Leauge has announced increased player salaries for 2018/19 for the season that runs 5 months. Minimum salary will be $7,000 per month for a total of $35,000 per season with the maximum being $385,000 for players with two-way contracts. Their are also bonuses based on time spent with an NBA team camp, games on NBA rosters pas well as G-League playoff bonuses that can add an additional $55,000-$85,000 per season.
This may be a good start for the NBA doing its part to allow players that aren’t interested in a college education to sign with the G-League out of High School and spare all of us college basketball fans the drama that is currently negatively the game.
Hopefully these inhancements with the G-League along with better recruiting oversight and tougher punishments for those that cheat will help clean up the college game and somewhat level the overall landscape.
The G LEAGUE is also a good place for coaches like Greaseball “Cal”, Honest “Ben” and Lying “Bruce”! Get the cheaters out of college basketball! Kentucky may end firing Greaseball anyway he hasn’t hung a banner in a while with all of the top rated recruiting classes.
