1st paragraph of Jacobs article. Stealing from the late Alan Greenberg.

[Madmannsucks]

STORRS — Game after game, the UConn basketball team falls with a dull thud. Game after game, the sight of empty seats and scent of mediocrity fills the senses.

The real noise, the real agent of change, must be found off the court …

When Randy Edsall tweeted out #PayThePlayers on Friday, the UConn football coach drew plenty of attention around the country.

 

[Purple Stein]

 

[Travelman6]

When Randy Edsall tweeted out #PayThePlayers on Friday, the UConn football coach drew plenty of attention around the country.

Pay the players while tuition continues to sky rocket and spiral out of control for students who are not athletes? Eduction is a benefit to society and everyone in it. Why not use the massive revenue generated by fball and bball and pump it back into the system to help in promoting affordable EDU for all. Everyone benefits from educated youth. No one benefits if only the players are paid except for the players.

Or, if you do pay them, no longer offer full scholarships to them and let them use the money they earn to pay for college.

 

[Madmannsucks]

Pay the players while tuition continues to sky rocket and spiral out of control for students who are not athletes? Eduction is a benefit to society and everyone in it. Why not use the massive revenue generated by fball and bball and pump it back into the system to help in promoting affordable EDU for all. Everyone benefits from educated youth. No one benefits if only the players are paid except for the players.

Or, if you do pay them, no longer offer full scholarships to them and let them use the money they earn to pay for college.

Thanks my point was Jacobs once again does not come up with anything new-the style of the report smacks of Alan Greenberg. No Thread drift allowed.

 

[Travelman6]

No Thread drift allowed.

It is not a thread drift, you mentioned "#PayThePlayers" in the quote "When Randy Edsall tweeted out #PayThePlayers on Friday, the UConn football coach drew plenty of attention around the country" and I responded to that.

 

[gtcam]

Jeff Jacobs is , well Jeff Jacobs
The guy is a jerk and couldn't even maintain a position with that commie rag The Courant

 

[upstater]

Edsall is a UConn employee. Coaches make millions of dollars. So do ADs.

Now, since Edsall tweeted that, I'm sure he realizes that any pay wuld come out of his pocket, and he's likely fine with that. But still--other kids are going into debt paying subsidies and "athletic fees." This is a difficult one to sell to your main customers.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Pay the players while tuition continues to sky rocket and spiral out of control for students who are not athletes? Eduction is a benefit to society and everyone in it. Why not use the massive revenue generated by fball and bball and pump it back into the system to help in promoting affordable EDU for all. Everyone benefits from educated youth. No one benefits if only the players are paid except for the players.

Or, if you do pay them, no longer offer full scholarships to them and let them use the money they earn to pay for college.

Why not, instead of paying you, we just use your salary to accomplish a bunch of nice things instead? After all, the only one who benefits from paying you is you. Do you see the problem with that line of reasoning?

Explain to me why Mark Emmert should be free to earn what the market will bear, but the athletes who actually play the games that earn millions for their schools are not.

 

[Guapo]

Pay the players while tuition continues to sky rocket and spiral out of control for students who are not athletes? Eduction is a benefit to society and everyone in it. Why not use the massive revenue generated by fball and bball and pump it back into the system to help in promoting affordable EDU for all. Everyone benefits from educated youth. No one benefits if only the players are paid except for the players.

Or, if you do pay them, no longer offer full scholarships to them and let them use the money they earn to pay for college.

I don't agree with where you're coming from in any way, shape or form but you might be on to something in your last paragraph.

My take on the whole scandal is it is clear that a full scholarship is nowhere near these kids' full market value. If they were compensated close to their market value, the black market wouldn't exists.

 

[Fishy]

If most of these kids were compensated close to their market value, they’d receive tuition bills....

 

[bobbyinaz]

If most of these kids were compensated close to their market value, they’d receive tuition bills....

This is the real problem.

Outside of a handful of kids in 2 sports the remaining 1000's of scholarship athletes across the country are nothing more than an expense for their schools

 

[upstater]

Why not, instead of paying you, we just use your salary to accomplish a bunch of nice things instead? After all, the only one who benefits from paying you is you. Do you see the problem with that line of reasoning?

Explain to me why Mark Emmert should be free to earn what the market will bear, but the athletes who actually play the games that earn millions for their schools are not.

Because they don't earn millions for their school?

They earn millions for Emmert and the coaches.

The students & taxpayers subsidize it. Everywhere, not just UConn.

 

[upstater]

To be clear, I am in favor of the players getting money from outside sources.

I also believe it will destroy college sports.

I'd also add a caveat to that, which is that if players are getting all this money, then there is no reason for the school to subsidize them.

Also, players should have the option of not attending class. They don't have to be students. Make it a pro thing affiliated with the college (i.e. using the college's name).

This way, the SEC knuckleheads can continue doing what they're doing, while everyone else loses interest. I know I would.

 

[Palatine]

The NBA should create a minor league. And kids who want a college education should go to college.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Jeff Jacobs is , well Jeff Jacobs
The guy is a jerk and couldn't even maintain a position with that commie rag The Courant

Cannot fathom by what standard an awake or aware person could interpret a corporate-owned media outlet to be a "commie rag," let alone not capitalize "Commie," let alone use the term in 2018 (except in reference to the eating of a mojo sandwich), let alone not imagine the Hearst newspaper group these days to be an upgrade from the Courant...and I don't even have any particular affinity for Jeff Jacobs.

As to big money sports, I'll watch until I don't, and imagine that it will continue to be monetized - legally, illegally, ethically, unethically, fairly, unfairly profitably, unprofitable - by various means in accordance with various market forces.

 

[HuskyV]

This is the real problem.

Outside of a handful of kids in 2 sports the remaining 1000's of scholarship athletes across the country are nothing more than an expense for their schools

There are scores of scholarship student-athletes, coaches and administrators who are over compensated. If you are going to treat this as a business, then they have to talk somewhat honestly to these issues. There will be no problem paying the coaches and administrators less - that will work itself out in time. There are scores of non-revenue teams that should lose funding - that is where this will blow up. Title IX does not survive a true market test. If players were "paid" their value there would be many more walk-on's and fewer teams. There would need to be a way to divide revenue sports and revenue schools. I am not sure that college hoop and football survive.

The big schools should break off and become semi-pro teams. Athletes/students higher agents & have the freedom to "go pro" or go to school.

There are really only 15-20 college hoop players that are really making a sacrifice and not making NBA money in today's communist model. There are plenty of students on scholarship that do not earn their keep. Those that prove themselves are rewarded by getting drafted and a good shot at the NBA. Every April there are 60 kids that quit college for the NBA draft & "the next level" - most are never seen again on TV in the USA.

It will be interesting to see if the whole thing survives.

 

[CL82]

Explain to me why Mark Emmert should be free to earn what the market will bear, but the athletes who actually play the games that earn millions for their schools are not.

Because the core of college sports is based upon the (somtimes fictional) idea of college students playing for their school. If you take that away they are just a low level pros and entirely uninteresting the vast majority of the existing fanbase.

I have no justification about the Emmert part of your post. Frankly he could not be fired soon enough for me.

 

[Austin316]

If I was a high school kid and one of the head coaches tweeted #paytheplayers I was getting recruited by... I would immediately think hey, that guys on our side. I wanna play for him.

Well played Randy

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Because they don't earn millions for their school?

They earn millions for Emmert and the coaches.

The students & taxpayers subsidize it. Everywhere, not just UConn.

The players earn millions for their school. The fact that many athletics departments lose money anyway is not inconsistent with this.

Athletics departments lose money because the millions that FB and MBB bring in are spread around to cover the costs of other college athletics that no one watches.

Athletics departments also lose money because the inability to pay players leads to incredibly inefficient forms of “competition” to attract players, like paying coaches massive salaries and arms races to build new “state-of-the art” facilities. These are market distortions that result from not being able to pay the players directly.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Because the core of college sports is based upon the (somtimes fictional) idea of college students playing for their school. If you take that away they are just a low level pros and entirely uninteresting the vast majority of the existing fanbase.

I have no justification about the Emmert part of your post. Frankly he could not be fired soon enough for me.

You raise a very good point. Yes, it’s true that the NCAA argues that paying players would ruin the experience for us as fans. The NCAA has a lot riding on that story and they go to great lengths to promote it. I’m not sure there’s a lot to back it up.

And if it is true, we should all be asking ourselves some pretty searching questions. Namely, why does our enjoyment require that the players we profess to cheer for be denied the right to get paid the market value for their talent and hard work?

 

[champs99and04]

There is a huge socioeconomic factor at play in the discussion to pay the players that people often want to sweep under the rug. The inequalities and imbalances of our capitalistic society are exposed and not created by D-1 athletics. The guy who has a daughter on the women's soccer team can get paid market value for his work at an accounting firm but then when it comes to consuming what's really a dressed up term for entertainment in college athletics, everything has to be pure or else he loses interest. That's nonsense. If we're not going to compensate people fairly in the real world and people who do nothing but work hard are going to continue to live in poverty, then at the very least we can maintain those principles when it comes to college athletics to help offset those inequalities. It isn't too much to ask that the mother of player x be relieved of some financial burdens while her son plays in front of 70,000 people.

Where it gets tricky is in determining how much to pay them - the vast majority are compensated quite well under the current model, and you can't simply auction them off on the open market (which is kind of what happens now under the table) when it's virtually impossible to discern how much money an individual player is worth. You can't be paying Trae Young $200,000 while the sixth man is paying tuition bills, but you can take the aggregate of the earnings and divide it preferentially based on things like financial aid. The absence of the perfect system should not prohibit us from striving towards a better one. Anything is better than Emmert and his cascade of corrupt puppets rolling in nauseating amounts of money while Shabazz tries to scrabble together enough change to buy something at the vending machine. When you have kids leaving school - which happens regularly, every year - because they feel they have to, you need to re-examine your system.

 

[upstater]

The players earn millions for their school. The fact that many athletics departments lose money anyway is not inconsistent with this.

Athletics departments lose money because the millions that FB and MBB bring in are spread around to cover the costs of other college athletics that no one watches.

Athletics departments also lose money because the inability to pay players leads to incredibly inefficient forms of “competition” to attract players, like paying coaches massive salaries and arms races to build new “state-of-the art” facilities. These are market distortions that result from not being able to pay the players directly.

1. The players earn money that is then plowed into their coaching, their training, their tutoring, their facilities, their travel, etc. They have a setup (facilities, trainers, coaching) that no other pro minor league int he entire world has. Emeka Okafor just wrote an article about his experiences this season in the NBDL (middle school gyms, long bus rides, etc., Gold's Gym) that make the differences stark. In other words, the schools have no interest in losing more money when all the proceeds already are used in that arms race.

2. If you paid the players, do you think the school would then NOT compete for coaches (top dollar) or build top notch facilities? Of course they would. There would still be an arms race. Not to mention the fact that players already get $5k over and above their tuition, food, housing, utilities and fees.

3. The cost of other college athletics argument is effectively irrelevant these days. Budgets are approaching $150m at schools. Most schools run their entire Olympic athletic programs for $5-10m tops. It is a very small part of the budget. I know a MAC school that ramped up D1 football, and their budget went from $7m for the entire athletic program to $30m+ in 2 years.

 

[upstater]

You raise a very good point. Yes, it’s true that the NCAA argues that paying players would ruin the experience for us as fans. The NCAA has a lot riding on that story and they go to great lengths to promote it. I’m not sure there’s a lot to back it up.

And if it is true, we should all be asking ourselves some pretty searching questions. Namely, why does our enjoyment require that the players we profess to cheer for be denied the right to get paid the market value for their talent and hard work?

We cheer for the schools. That's why. We cheer for our alma maters. For our state schools. Just like we did in high school.

The market value of a basketball product that is inferior to the NBDL is somewhat less than the NBDL. Until you bring the laundry into the equation. Only then does the market value increase. Which explains why people like rooting for their college or state school.

 

[upstater]

There is a huge socioeconomic factor at play in the discussion to pay the players that people often want to sweep under the rug. The inequalities and imbalances of our capitalistic society are exposed and not created by D-1 athletics. The guy who has a daughter on the women's soccer team can get paid market value for his work at an accounting firm but then when it comes to consuming what's really a dressed up term for entertainment in college athletics, everything has to be pure or else he loses interest. That's nonsense. If we're not going to compensate people fairly in the real world and people who do nothing but work hard are going to continue to live in poverty, then at the very least we can maintain those principles when it comes to college athletics to help offset those inequalities. It isn't too much to ask that the mother of player x be relieved of some financial burdens while her son plays in front of 70,000 people.

Where it gets tricky is in determining how much to pay them - the vast majority are compensated quite well under the current model, and you can't simply auction them off on the open market (which is kind of what happens now under the table) when it's virtually impossible to discern how much money an individual player is worth. You can't be paying Trae Young $200,000 while the sixth man is paying tuition bills, but you can take the aggregate of the earnings and divide it preferentially based on things like financial aid. The absence of the perfect system should not prohibit us from striving towards a better one. Anything is better than Emmert and his cascade of corrupt puppets rolling in nauseating amounts of money while Shabazz tries to scrabble together enough change to buy something at the vending machine. When you have kids leaving school - which happens regularly, every year - because they feel they have to, you need to re-examine your system.

If the NCAA weren't affiliated with universities, that would be fine. BUT universities have many different kinds of employees, and our legal system has already chosen to regard student athletes as the same as other student employees at a university. I'm referring to the NLRB's decision that grouped the Northwestern athletes together with the Brown University grad students. You can't have one area subsidizing another and making it worse off for the kids in the other area.

 

[noeynox]

The NBA should create a minor league. And kids who want a college education should go to college.

1. They sorta have.

2. Why go all in on that if the NCAA does it for them?