Do you really think the athletes are worse off, though? Think of the free education (yeah, I know), the exposure, the chance to be BMOC, etc. The other model is minor league baseball. Do you really think the guys down in single A making $10k/year are living a better life than the PG at Kansas?
*BaseClogger* (03-21-2013),coachpipe (03-21-2013)
Imagine being Mack Brown. You take the university jet to visit a recruit in rural west Texas. This kid has all of the potential in the world to make the pros, but he lives in absolute squalor. His athleticism is his best opportunity to raise his family out of poverty. So, after disembarking from your jet, you talk to the kid about loyalty to the university and how it is a family atmosphere. The best thing you can offer the kid is a chance to play football at Texas and to get an education, which may lead to a professional career, may end in injury, may end because the kid isn't good enough, etc...Is the college education that kid gets going to be enough to provide his family with the help they need? How could Mack Brown (making $5.1 million dollars a year) possibly walk into that living room and leave feeling anything other than dirty offering that kid only a scholarship when the kids yearly value to the school is estimated at $510,000?
I'm not saying that college sports need to go away. There simply needs to be a reasonable alternative for kids to reach the pros and help their family along the way.
Variatio delectat - Cicero
A system like minor league baseball? Where the kid might get an initial $100k, toil away for 3 years at $10k/year and then get tossed out like a piece of meat if he can't hit a slider? That's better?
Yes, I think they are worse off. Again, Duke basketball profits $15M a year. There are 12 scholarship players. Minor league players aren't bringing in those kinds of profits.
I just can't understand how anyone thinks it is ok that the guys bringing in the big bucks get paid the same as the guys who are costing the company big bucks (nearly all womens sports and most mens sports).
To each their own.
So who the hell is FORCING these kids (who become adults in their 1st year unless Mom and Dad hold them back to make them 1 year better than their peers) to go to these colleges and play?
Do not like a free college education, then do not play. Bide your time and then enter a draft when you are allowed. Do not like the waiting period, then go after the NBA and the NFL (like Maurice Clarett and his Mommy) for making you wait.
Sounds simplistic to me. It is a free country and no one is forcing you to be "exploited" and get a chance to earn a college degree for playing sports.
coachpipe (03-21-2013),Old school 1983 (06-22-2014)
Well, I don't believe the players get royally screwed. I think the players are provided something of serious value in this situation. Frankly, the exposure they get beats the hell out of what the tennis team gets.
And if you blow the system up by paying them, that all goes away. So yes, I'm fine with the system with all its warts. I'd also be fine if the NCAA paid every scholarship athlete a set stipend.
coachpipe (03-21-2013)
A player in a BCS league gets access to world class training facilities and world class coaching and strength and onditioning all the while they are getting a free education as a plan B the overwhelming odds of which will need to be utilized.
In fact I'd somewhat boldly state that nfl players wouldn't be in the nfl if not for their collegiate training.
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
I'm not sure you can hold up Maurice as an example of a legitimate method of making the pros. Look, part of this is the fault of the NBA and NFL. The NBA's one year rule has forced the college game into practices that even they find unsavory. The NFL's three year rule does the same thing.
Variatio delectat - Cicero
Old school 1983 (06-22-2014)
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