NCAA decision and potential effect on UConn

[huskyharry]

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...emmert-insists-pay-play-model-coming#comments

BLUF: The big five football conferences (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and PAC 12) asked the NCAA for authority for the permission to pay athletes at their member schools. The link about provides details of this rejection. IMO this was the only option for the NCAA. Otherwise those select schools would have a systematic recruiting advantage not only in Men's Football and Basketball (where the money is intended to go) but inevitably also to at least an equivalent number of female athletes.

However, the end result will likely not be good news, as these select conferences have already threatened to secede and make their only association. Either way UConn will be severely hurt, particularly in Women's Basketball where the depth of the pool of elite talent is shallower then in Men's basketball. It would be very tough for Geno to get a top recruit when they could legally get say $5,000 per year cash to play at Stanford, Tennessee, Penn State, Duke etc.

Our only "hope" would be for a miracle to occur and UConn be accepted into one of the elite conferences (doesn't appear likely right now) and even if we did, at least to me it would be much less enjoyable to play in a 60 team association than in the current 300+ team.

 

[EricLA]

Not necessarily. a "60" league association of the best programs in the nation would allow for many more interesting games. UCONN tries to schedule as many top teams as they can. Unfortunately, many of them don't want to be destroyed by UCONN...

Honestly, I think it's only a matter of time before the shift you described comes to pass. Not sure what the remaining schools will do. The NCAA championships will be pointless if you have most of the top 25 teams in a different "Association".

 

[jsloanjr]

They are not paying top $$$ to their coaches and not compete in the best conferences. IMO, UCONN will leave the AAC after next season.............

 

[FairView]

They are not paying top $ to their coaches and not compete in the best conferences. IMO, UCONN will leave the AAC after next season.............

That would be great … do you have inside information?

 

[Creaky]

Nobody knows how this will finally shake out, of course, but to me it looks like this is all about making and keeping broadcast money from what are already massively profitable football, and to a lesser degree, men's basketball programs. This makes me think it wouldn't affect WCBB much if at all. Women's basketball is not a revenue-maker, or even a potential revenue-maker at more than a handful of places. I don't think there would be money for women hoopsters any more than for lacrosse players. I think Title 9 wouldn't cover the dough, just the opportunity to play. But I also think it's going to get a lot more complicated and legalistic as those involved realize there are questions like this they will inevitably be forced to work out.

 

[ctfjr]

They are not paying top $ to their coaches and not compete in the best conferences. IMO, UCONN will leave the AAC after next season.............

It must be true, I just read it on the internet (here)

 

[huskyharry]

Nobody knows how this will finally shake out, of course, but to me it looks like this is all about making and keeping broadcast money from what are already massively profitable football, and to a lesser degree, men's basketball programs. This makes me think it wouldn't affect WCBB much if at all. Women's basketball is not a revenue-maker, or even a potential revenue-maker at more than a handful of places. I don't think there would be money for women hoopsters any more than for lacrosse players. I think Title 9 wouldn't cover the dough, just the opportunity to play. But I also think it's going to get a lot more complicated and legalistic as those involved realize there are questions like this they will inevitably be forced to work out.

You certainly could be right, but the 80 additional scholarships that have to distributed among women's teams for schools that support a football team doesn't seem to be an access to play issue, but rather an equality for both sexes issues...in that vein, I think lawsuits would follow to secure additional # of paid positions for women.

 

[huskyharry]

They are not paying top $ to their coaches and not compete in the best conferences. IMO, UCONN will leave the AAC after next season.............

I think we would all be ecstatic to see that happen. But, which of the "big five" would take us in?

 

[huskyharry]

Not necessarily. a "60" league association of the best programs in the nation would allow for many more interesting games. UCONN tries to schedule as many top teams as they can. Unfortunately, many of them don't want to be destroyed by UCONN...

Honestly, I think it's only a matter of time before the shift you described comes to pass. Not sure what the remaining schools will do. The NCAA championships will be pointless if you have most of the top 25 teams in a different "Association".

The model for football is not unpalatable & clearly this whole CR stuff is all about football and $.

For basketball, I much prefer the current system and the NCAA tourney. You play a regular season against the other "big five" teams and then have a 16-team tourney for the title? Pales compared to the current tourney IMHO.

 

[intlzncster]

You certainly could be right, but the 80 additional scholarships that have to distributed among women's teams for schools that support a football team doesn't seem to be an access to play issue, but rather an equality for both s e xes issues...in that vein, I think lawsuits would follow to secure additional # of paid positions for women.

Leaving aside comment on this happening, as long as they framed the payments as % of revenue, it would be perfectly equitable not to pay WCBB and other non revenue sports in this case. There is still the free scholly thing as well (which could be officially quantified). WCBB players (and most non bb/fb athletes) will never be paid.

 

[huskyharry]

Leaving aside comment on this happening, as long as they framed the payments as % of revenue, it would be perfectly equitable not to pay WCBB and other non revenue sports in this case. There is still the free scholly thing as well (which could be officially quantified). WCBB players (and most non bb/fb athletes) will never be paid.

93 male athletes get, who knows, say $5000 per year and 0 female athletes, you clearly think that it is equitable.

Will feminist rights' lawyer feel the same? I think not.

 

[intlzncster]

93 male athletes get, who knows, say $5000 per year and 0 female athletes, you clearly think that it is equitable.

Will feminist rights' lawyer feel the same? I think not.

Depends. Do the female athletes (or male athletes in lesser sports) bring in money? If not, they don't get paid. It's not even about male or female, it's about the sport they play. There'd be plenty of men who don't get paid either.

There should always be equal opportunity (a chance to play). But that's separate from what your sport generates as income.

The reality is there is no fair system going down this road anyway. And this discussion is only touching on a few small points. The rabbit hole is far deeper than we are getting here, and the issues aren't that cut and dry.

 

[Sonny44]

I've already dropped a level from pro sports to College. When they start paying the college players I guess I'll have to drop another level from college to high school sports. The over emphasis of sports in our culture has become ridiculous. Stop the average guy on the street and ask him a question on any relevant political, sociological or ethical issue and he's lost. However, he/she can tell you all about his favorite sports team or how many points his nephew scored the other night. Schools should be educational institutions. If we can't live with that, then let's just start a strata of minor semi-pro basketball leagues starting at the say 5 -7 year old, then 8-12 and so on. Pay them, no need for them to attend school, give them an I-POD and produce a completely moronic segment of society that you can cheer for. One warning though: be prepared to pay their welfare support for the last 50 years of their lives.

 

[DaddyChoc]

I've already dropped a level from pro sports to College. When they start paying the college players I guess I'll have to drop another level from college to high school sports.

HS Sports are fun, entertainer and the effort is 1000%

 

[DobbsRover2]

It's hard to say what all the pay-for-play furor means and how it would be carried out. The extreme dangers that could arise from greater inequality between programs and that this could be a thinly disguised attempt to skirt Title IX by siphoning even more money away from women's college sports programs. I'm sure that there will be close scrutiny by the Department of Education upon any ruses the Power 5 schools use to move ever more money to football. The fact is, only 10% of D1 schools make any kind of direct profit from their sports that can be used to pay the football players, and most still depend heavily on subsidies from student fees that play a role in the continuing climb of college costs as ever more money is siphoned money from academics to athletics. And the football money drain is not necessarily doing all that its facilitators say it does for a school's reputation, as the University of Alabama may be #1 in the football polls in many years but the school will never make the top 75 list of the best national universities.

That said, few of the Title IX critics have much knowledge of what it stipulates, and I'm not sure that any court decree would say that all other athletes in men's and women's sports have to be paid if schools start paying their football players. Schools are not anywhere close to spending on women's sports what they spend on men's sports as it is now, but pay-for-play football could be one step too many for federal watchdogs. My guess is that a system for paying players will have to fight through a lot of lawsuits and would take many years to get off the ground. The effect on UConn is likely a long way off, though the issues of being outside the power conferences are here and now, big or small.

 

[ThisJustIn]

It would be interesting to ponder how a coach-player relationship might be changed by knowing that winning impacts your paycheck.