[GP1]

Sports Illustrated Article

Very good summary. My favorite point is if the NCAA loses, universities might be thrown into a state of sanity and stop with all of the spending on coaches salaries and stadium additions. At that point, the people who are making the money for the stadiums and coaches salaries might actually get some of that money.

If the NCAA loses this, will college athletics be harmed? Depends on who you think is being harmed. The people in most danger are overpaid coaches and ADs so I'm not getting to upset about that. If they don't like it, they can get a job like everyone else or try to make it in the NFL where there are no pretenses about what is happening. If Urban Meyer had his salary cut in half, there would be enough to pay all 85 scholarship players on that team $24,705 per year. Not a ton of money, but who deserves the money more? I don't want to make it seem like I'm picking on Meyer, but if his salary was cut in half or if the ncaa capped coaches salaries at $1.0 million per year, what else would most of these guys do? Get a job at an accounting firm? Would Meyer go back to being a bad commentator or ESPN? No, he would hate that job and he would keep doing exactly what he is doing only for less money. Nick Saban, The Mad Hatter, etc.? What else would these guys do? The same exact thing they are doing now.

Will the players who make the money be harmed? No, because they will start to get back some of the money they have made.

Will MAClike schools be harmed? Maybe. Maybe some sanity will be introduced into their daily athletics operations. Who am I trying to kid? No, they won't be harmed because they will just find a way to get the taxpayers to pay for the maintenance of the monuments ADs have built in honor of themselves.

If you capped ADs salaries at $400K per year, what else would half of these clowns be able to do for a living? There aren't too many high paying jobs for half-wits that allow somebody to con taxpayers out of money, so they have nowhere else to go.

I know how much some of you fret about a world without the NCAA and the building process that goes along with it. In reality, losing this case could be the best thing ever to happen to college athletics and taxpayers around the country.

[UAzipsMan]

$20k/yr for a college football athlete would be a heck of an income for a student. I'd be interested to see how paying athletes would affect scholarships, i.e. what ends up being free (classes, room/board, meals)... if a player is getting a full ride AND $20k/yr stipend from the university... wow.

I think its due time the players get a cut of the profits everyone else is rolling in. The injury to Kevin Ware over the weekend put a very good light on the subject and reaffirmed my belief that they deserve better.

[Ham]

These young people have full time jobs with their sport. What family doesn't struggle to pay college bills. Even if tuition and room & board are covered, there are plenty of other expenses. Put temptation in front of these youngsters, then what do you expect? Some will crack. It could simply be trade that old jersey or play mule to have a little change in your pocket.

[Zip_ME87]

Have you guys really thought about this? I absolutely agree that a player who is injured while participating in an NCAA sport should have medical expenses covered by the NCAA/school. However, when you start talking about paying players, how do you level the playing field between big schools/conferences like the Big Ten and the MAC? Where do MAC schools get the funding to pay their players the same as the Big Ten. Players in the Big Ten will claim they should be paid more than those in the MAC because they generate more revenue. The higher pay then creates another reason for recruits to not want to play for MAC schools. How do you make this fair?

[Ham]

The world is not perfect, and life isn't fair. Just like the big boys can pay their coaches a lot more, they will be able to pay their players more. That only scratches the surface of potential problems. Is the QB worth more than an OL? etc? What about nonrevenue sports? "Revenue sports" that loose money? Walk-ons? If the rule book were thrown out, there would be 50 or 60 schools that could compete in the Professional College League with only a few realistically able to compete for the title. Have fun with that! If I were in charge, I would try to keep the present conference structure as close as possible. Restructure revenue sharing to help schools like Akron fund their programs. I would pay the FB and BB players a fixed salary on top of their scholarships; perhaps $200/mo. I would fund that with contributions from the NFL and NBA. After all; colleges are basically feeder programs for those leagues. It would only cost them $30 million or so, chump change. How would one get the pros to get on board? Congress gives them a pass on anti-trust laws. Congress could pass a franchise fee law to fund a government subsidy to the D1 schools. Like it or not, the term "student athlete" is not what it once was.

[GP1]

Have you guys really thought about this? I absolutely agree that a player who is injured while participating in an NCAA sport should have medical expenses covered by the NCAA/school. However, when you start talking about paying players, how do you level the playing field between big schools/conferences like the Big Ten and the MAC? Where do MAC schools get the funding to pay their players the same as the Big Ten. Players in the Big Ten will claim they should be paid more than those in the MAC because they generate more revenue. The higher pay then creates another reason for recruits to not want to play for MAC schools. How do you make this fair?

To answer your last question...Keep the scholarship limit at 85. Only scholarship players get money. The players will have to go somewhere.

Level the playing field? Who cares? It is already so unlevel there is no bridging the distance. How about instead of leveling the playing field, we introduce sanity into college athletics?

[Dave in Green]

Auburn was apparently ahead of its time. They aren't just accused of paying money to their players in violation of current NCAA rules, but also of cheating their grades to maintain eligibility. That would be the next step after the great renaissance concept of legalizing the payment of cash to college players. Once they're making lots of money playing college ball, someone will lead the charge to say how unfair it is that college players who are doing a great job on the field could be cheated out of that money by not performing well academically. Why do they need to be students, anyway? They're paid professional athletes at that point. Why should they even bother wasting everyone's time going to class?

[GP1]

@Dave, Always a good defender of the status quo and large institutions. When you were working, did you think your pay was fair with the value you brought to the company? If you didn't think it was fair, were you free to go somewhere else and work?

The point with college football is we have coaches making over $4 million a year and players making next to nothing. The players aren't free to go anywhere else to play football. There are ADs making more than they deserve for the talents they have and the players make next to nothing. There are TV networks making money hand over fist to televise the games of people making next to nothing. Universities are taking out taxpayer backed bonds to add to their stadiums, yet the players can't get paid?

Like I said, the ncaa losing this lawsuit could be the best thing for college athletic ever. It will introduce sanity back into it. Again, if we capped coaches salaries at $1 and gave more money to the players, who would be harmed? $1 million is a lot of money. What else would a college coach be able to do to make that kind of money? And the half wits that are athletic directors?

I guess the ultimate question is, "If college coaches salaries went up to $20 million a year and conference revenues from television quadrupled and the players still weren't paid, would that be a good system?"

[Dave in Green]

@GP1, that was a big long response that totally missed the point and failed to address the question of whether or not paid, professional college athletes should be required to go to class and maintain minimum grade averages in order to retain eligibility?

[Zip_ME87]

I agree that somehow the insanity of big money college sports should be stopped, but not by paying the players. You're going to create even more insanity. How about capping coaches salaries and the amount of money that can be put back into sports. Then take the remaining money and put it into academics and lowering the cost of tuition.

[GP1]

@GP1, that was a big long response that totally missed the point and failed to address the question of whether or not paid, professional college athletes should be required to go to class and maintain minimum grade averages in order to retain eligibility?

Yes, they should.

[GP1]

...the amount of money that can be put back into sports. Then take the remaining money and put it into academics and lowering the cost of tuition.

If they cap the money being put back into sports, how are they going to pay for the "building process" that has been completed (even though it never really stops)? Seriously, they have built one monstrosity after another. How are they going to pay to maintain them?

[Dave in Green]

Yes, they should.

So an enforcement process will need to remain in place to make sure that schools don't cheat up academic results of stud athletes to keep them eligible. And then someone will come along with the concept that it's unfair to keep professional athletes from earning their money just because they don't do as well in classes as they do in sports, and it will be the hot topic on all the sports forums.

[GP1]

So an enforcement process will need to remain in place to make sure that schools don't cheat up academic results of stud athletes to keep them eligible. And then someone will come along with the concept that it's unfair to keep professional athletes from earning their money just because they don't do as well in classes as they do in sports, and it will be the hot topic on all the sports forums.

I don't know if they should have to do as well in sports as they do in football, but they should be required to do the minimum to stay eligible. There are very few cases of academic problems compared to guys taking money.

There should be part of their "salary" held back and given to the person upon graduation. Half if probably too much, but something like 10-20% might not be a bad number.

[GP1]

SI Article

Note to Athletic Directors and Presidents. If you don't like what the NCAA is doing, change it. Take ownership of the organization you run you bunch of half wits.