Hating on the $EC - Mostly Alabama (and a little Georgia too)

[AlabamAlum]

It's an old story. It was investigated and nothing came of it. It's now outside the timeframe to re-investigate.

Did it happen? Probably.

I remember my last $10 handshake. It was a great feeling.

[AlabamAlum]

And go to ebay, pick a college star, and see what's out there in the signed memorabilia headings. Lots and lots of stuff. And that's just what's on ebay, some is in pawn and card shops and other on-line websites.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yeah, the memorabilia signing thing is pretty common. If Universities took care of one of their major sources of advertising not to mention income to support all of their athletic programs - the football and basketball players - and treated them instead of slaves as the assets to the respective Us that they are - they wouldn't have to be scrounging for pizza money.

I know that compensating college athletes is complicated as is abandoning the rules for their amateur status. But what is going on right now in collegiate B-Ball and Football is obscene. You've got the NCAA sucking on the tit of the CFB and B-Ball dole. Next are the Conference organisations and finally the coaches and staff. Yeah the kids get scholarships but holly fuck the rest of these tit suckers are pulling in 10X the value of that off of their uncompensated hard work.

it's wrong as wrong can be.

[AlabamAlum]

It's something that the universities have no real control over. It's certainly not something the coaches are promoting, so it's not a recruitment incentive. It's a cash business and it's a small amount of money. Hard to catch, hard to prove.

Meh.

[hack]

Where you sit is where you stand.

Except for Jeff, who has data.

[Jeff Buchanan]

It's something that the universities have no real control over. ........

I'm not arguing that paying players for memorabilia signing, and in this instance raised by SI, is a big deal and should be investigated by the NCAA. On the contrary, I don't think it should be followed up on at all. Dead issue as you pointed out.

What I am arguing is that maintaining amateur status for college athletes is an untenable endeavor in the current circumstances for CFB and B-Ball. And yes, I'm familiar with the history of unsuccessful legal challenges to the "Plantation Model" that some say the NCAA represents.

Universities who are NCAA members do have the power to change the status quo. Every few years, this issue - compensating athletes -
gets raised through legal challenges then seems to escape further serious study. Most of this has to do with Court decisions that have allowed the NCAA to avoid such study and deft legal maneuvering by NCAA lawyers.

IMO, the NCAA is lucky. Purposefulness accompanies that luck. The NCAA and Conference authorities likely fear bringing down the existing lucrative structures, including broadcast rights for college sports, in terms of compensation for administrators within them. This despite the concept of fairness to the student athlete and the blatant abuse of them in the pursuit of revenue (nearly $1B by most recent accounts).

[THE_WIZARD_]

Players should be paid with pizza, wings and beer. Period. Maybe nachos too.

[AlabamAlum]

Jeff,


I agree with you in large part. And compensation has improved. The stipend added several years back, for example. But the needle is slow to move.

That said, the NCAA is in a tough spot. While the "haves" (Michigan, Bama, USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc) would have no problem in spreading the wealth, as it were, with their athletes (and treating their contributions as more of a work-study rather than amateurism model), the "have-nots" (UAB, SoMiss, Eastern Michigan, Tulsa, etc) would be bankrupt (especially when you consider that all college athletes, male and female, in revenue and non-revenue sports, would all want the same treatment).

Fully abandoning the amateurism model would make the chasm between the haves and have-nots even wider and cause the Central Michigans of the world to drop from "major" college ball. With that would come lawsuits, challenges, and gnashing of teeth over the "unfairness" of the change - unless the "haves" agreed to a socialism model where revenues were put in a large pot and redistributed. And that would never happen.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[Da Geezer]

It's an old story. It was investigated and nothing came of it. It's now outside the timeframe to re-investigate.

That is called the statute of limitations in other contexts.

I note that Colin Sexton still has not been ruled eligible by the NCAA. This is in conjunction with the assistant Alabama Bball coach who "resigned". Sexton is just superb on the floor, not so much in the classroom.

[Da Geezer]

Jeff:

Everyone shares your thoughts that college football and basketball players should be paid because they generate revenue. The first problem, and likely the fatal problem, would be Title IX.

Where I do think there could be progress made is for the serious college football teams to seek compensation from the NFL for the expense of running what is basically a developmental program for the NFL. That money could be earmarked for the players. A necessary predicate for this would be getting down to about 48 teams in a highest-level football conference.

Title IX could be circumvented by the 48 actually "hiring" their football players as independent contractors.

I've watched a lot of Division III football over the years, and there are good competitions and passionate fan bases. I'd just put all the other teams from the BCS into Division II and make adjustments yearly to move say the top 4 or 8 teams from Division II into the big time.

[froot loops]

Yeah I'm not sure there is any appetite for a 48 team division. TV isn't clamoring for it, no schools are demanding it, people like to talk about it but that is all it is talk.

You don't need some sweeping changes to prevent guys from getting money for autographs. It is stupid, if somebody wants to give them money to appear at a convention to sign 20 dollar autographs, let them! Make sure the cash is reported to the NCAA and have some sort of cap to prevent to 5k handshakes.

The whole amateur concept is weird.

[hack]

I'm all for paying. Matters of principle aside, if you level the playing field on the ethics side, and allow for cash on hand to play a larger role, is there a school that stands to benefit more than Michigan? Dunno that there is.

[AlabamAlum]

That is called the statute of limitations in other contexts.

I note that Colin Sexton still has not been ruled eligible by the NCAA. This is in conjunction with the assistant Alabama Bball coach who "resigned". Sexton is just superb on the floor, not so much in the classroom.

It was not an asst coach, it was a guy in the AD's office who used to work for the NCAA. Sexton has not been cleared or ruled ineligible.

I have no idea about his academics.

[AlabamAlum]

I'm all for paying. Matters of principle aside, if you level the playing field on the ethics side, and allow for cash on hand to play a larger role, is there a school that stands to benefit more than Michigan? Dunno that there is.

I do not think it would help M more than any other traditional team.