The Rest of College Football

[Hannibal]

The NCAA needs to put out this fire really, really fucking fast. One way that they could do it is by elminating the compliance departments and decriminalizing payments to athletes.

[Tony G]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...ion?src=mobile


NW football players want to join a union

Commies! The Red Menace is at hand!

[Hannibal]

I don't think that it's unreasonable to say that these kids are employees since it is widely accepted that the sport is now a business. But be careful what you wish for. This means that your scholarship counts as a "salary". Know what that means? Income taxes. Social security taxes. You just added, oh I dunno, an extra 40% to the cost of a scholarship when all is said and done, assuming that the university will cover all of those costs, which they will have to. It might end up being more than that, depending upon what tax bracket these people fall into. Add room and board to the cost of out-of-state tuition or the cost of attending a program like Notre Dame, and you are looking at a pre-tax salary that eclipses that of graduating engineers. This, of course, also means that everyone needs to file a tax return.

Don't forget about union dues. The people who run them will make sure that their pockets get lined. That's just for starters.

[Optimus Prime]

Dave's not home...

[Mike]

This should be entertaining to say the least! The recent TV money has changed the game forever. The NCAA can't give their standard line about amateur student-athletes while the 5 major conferences generated over $5B in revenue last year.

I have no problem with the players wanting representation but Hannibal makes a really good point about taxable income, etc. Regardless how this all plays out, I think the system will be reformed and that's probably a good thing. For example, making all schollies 4-year commitments by the school to the player would immediately eliminate the type of bullshit over-signing you see in the SEC.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The NCAA cannot reasonably argue that a college education is more than adequate compensation for football players when they turn a blind eye to UNC/fraudulent classes which make a mockery of the idea that they are being given a world-class education in exchange for their talents.

[Mike]

Exactly. You can show up to fall camp as a junior and get notified a week before classes start that you no longer have a scholarship and need to clean out your dorm because you are 3rd on the depth chart. A lot of players end up taking out loans to cover costs of attendance that their schollie doesn't cover. A kid can be tossed out of school with student loan debt because he had the audacity to suffer a knee injury (if he plays in the south) and can't run as fast as he used to. They actually go in the hole for playing CFB. There's all kinds of things that need to be sorted out and the death of the NCAA would be a good start.

[Optimus Prime]

Which knee?

[WM Wolverine]

I was about the only person without an incentive to profit from it, disappointed to see the XFL fail.

It's too bad it was so horribly managed by people who only wanted to profit from it instead of running it as it should've been, a supplement to the NFL like NFL Europe kinda was instead of the 'gimmick' league it was. It should've been a place where young players could prove themselves that didn't have NFL contracts or possibly a minor league system like MLB, NHL and the NBA is trying to do with its development league...

Anyway, my point is I'd like to have seen a real NFL minor league system that offers high school recruits (a decent portion of whom have little interest in an education) the option of playing professionally after graduating high school...

If we did, CFB would be much healthier in terms of less issues of having pay-for-play, no-show jobs, recruits having 'handlers' finding them the best deal, kids with little interest in academics and the numerous problems that stem from it.

[Mike]

Which knee?

The one that provides the jukiness.

[Da Geezer]

I agree totally with Mike. Just read this article to see how Alabama analyzes National Signing Day:

http://www.rollbamaroll.com/2014/1/27/5349996/2014-roster-lookahead-the-number-crunch

I have thought for some time that there has to be some concession to those schools that give full scholarships (4 years). Maybe allow them 110 scholarships to account for the SEC getting 5 classes every 4 years.

I've always thought it would be to UM's advantage to join a conference that was composed of great academic insitiutions. UM, Northwestern, Vandy, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Wisc, and I'm sure everyone has their own favorite. I could be based on average SAT or ACT entry scores for each freshman class.

The other route is for UM to pay athletes like the SEC does. I disagree with the analysis that there would be a large tax bite out of a scholarship. A football scholarship is almost free to the university. Yes there have to be facilities, and food. But no extra professors have to be hired. A university has about 95% fixed cost and it just is not expensive to add 16 more students this year to the 40,000 that are already at UM. A scholarship is essentially a gift, particularly if you believe the myth of the student-athlete.

Think of it this way. If your local Country Club gives you a free pass to golf all of 2014, would you report that as income? What is the cost of the single pass to the Country Club?

[Hannibal]

As someone who is having to hoard away huge amounts of money so that my kids can attend college without acquiring a bunch of debt, I must say that my sympathy for people who are getting everything for free doesn't run very deep. My two kids' college education is probably worth at least five years off of my retirement. Significantly more if they attend out-of-state or private universities, or if they move on to law school or medical school. If you think that a free college education doesn't have any value, then try writing the checks some time. Or at least acknowledge that it is part of the equation. Some kids squander this immense opportunity by taking worthless classes or getting shitty grades. Here's my opinion on that -- tough shit. And let's be honest here -- with most kids, especially the superstars, we aren't talking about kids who are passing up a promising degree at Harvard so that they can play college football. The system isn't making them worse off.

And I haven't even touched on the value of getting into a university that you normally wouldn't have the grades for.

[Mike]

And I haven't even touched on the value of getting into a university that you normally wouldn't have the grades for.

Can't argue with anything you just said. This last bit is especially true for players at Big Ten schools. To me, the crazy money that's been infused into the system changes the equation, though. A lot of players feel like grist for the mill which is reflected in a lot of stories coming out of programs that oversign.

I don't think this union thing will have legs but it should get the attention of the NCAA that there are important issues that need to be addressed. This isn't our parents' CFB. Now there are literally billions of dollars a year flowing through the system that didn't exist before. I don't know about you but I don't pay good money to watch Dave Brandon wander the sideline and the players know that, too. If they don't get actual cash income from this (and I don't see that happening), they ought to at least be compensated the full cost of attendance and have 4-year scholarships.

[Hannibal]

I can see somewhat where they are coming from. At the very least, they should get guaranteed four year deals, and I'm okay with "full cost" too.

[Wild Hoss]

Lots of great observations in here, as usual.

I think Mr. Kolter and the rest ought to be thinking a little further ahead. Indeed, instead of protecting future generations of players, he might well be kicking over a stone that winds up costing future generations of disadvantaged youth a chance at a college education, or at least some of one. The law of untended consequences looks large here IMO.