Bazz: NCAA leaves players hungry

[jleves]

Some things that are being a little overlooked here. If you offer basketball players a stipend (say $100/week) then you pretty much have to offer that to all scholarship athletes (don't you?). For UConn, according to what I just looked up, based on their D1 sports, they can have about 318 scholarship athletes. Now you're talking about $31,800/week in stipend money. If there are 30 weeks in a school year, that's $954,000/year in stipends. Sure, UConn could probably absorb that without too much impact, but a lot of schools can't. You could make the stipend an option that the school can choose to give or not (like some schools don't give athletic scholies of any kind). But if you did that, you would create and even bigger divide between the P5 and the rest as schools with kids knowing they're going to get an extra $3,000 stipend/year if they go to a place that can pay. Do we really need another recruiting advantage for the top?

It's just not as simple as we should give kids something for generating revenue for the school they play for. There's a lot of issues that arise once you open that can of worms.

 

[gtcam]

We can't buy him a burgher. Food plans may not cover weekends. He can't work, even in the summer. Some money would make sense just to avoid fencing laptops to make ends meet.

they can work summers IF they choose. Most choose to play the game or go to camps-Their choice
Look I applaud those who want to realize the dream of a professional athlete and the ridiculous money that goes with it but the percentages are against 90% of them. The ones who stay one year (shall I say season) and done? why waste a scholarship?
What about those who study medicine and get hit with $200,000 plus student loans? Aren't they as important and perhaps as valuable as alumni?
These kids can work the system and get free airplane trips home during the season - comes in handy during the holidays - I know they don't have extended vacations but,,,,
NO college student who comes from a less than upper middle class has it easy.
Love and appreciate the excitement, entertainment, convictions and sacrifices that these premier athletes provide and go through.
Normal students have pain and stress too-plus most owe plenty when they get out.

 

[Danzz]

a person of such stature like bazz shouldnt be eating crap meals. get that man some lobster dinners.

I believe that Ray Allen complained about the same thing recently. These kids should at least get room, board, and books. Also, because they really can't work, they should get a weekly allowance of about $50 per week. I think that keeps the spirit of amateur sports alive without starving these kids to death and allows them to have a decent college life.

 

[August_West]

Not going to really comment overall, but thinking about this reminded me of the mini scandal 10-15 years ago where the players were ordering 60 dollar quarts of orange juice from room service at the plaza, ( or maybe the four seasons can't recall).

So without taking a position, I will say that it works both ways, normal college students don't get to stay at 5 star hotels, order room service and fly private.

 

[UConnNick]

We can't buy him a burgher. Food plans may not cover weekends. He can't work, even in the summer. Some money would make sense just to avoid fencing laptops to make ends meet.

UCONN didn't offer food on weekends to anybody on the room and board plan when I was there. You're on your own from Sat. a.m. until Monday a.m. When the team has a Sat. or Sun. game they probably get a pre-game team meal provided, but that's probably all they get for the weekend if it's a home game. My guess is they eat better on road trips because they have to provide them with enough food while they're out of town traveling.

 

[ChrisSmith]

So do what normal students do - get some money from your parents or borrow $2,000 a year.

The UConn athletic department already loses money - if they give each student athlete another $2k, then normal students are paying for athlete's pizza.

I'm pretty sure the athletes are referring to grabbing a burger or pizza like a normal student. However, they fail to realize the myriad of other advantages their scholarship affords them

 

[huskymedic]

What athlete on a full division 1 athletic department doesn't have books, meals and housing covered along with tuition???

From the article:
"Currently, scholarships cover tuition to the university but fail to cover the expenses of items like food, text books, and often room and board."

I don't believe the article to be correct in that regard or at least as it applies to UConn's Full Athletic Grant-in Aid (which covers at least men's/women's BB and Football):

"Full Athletics Grant-in-Aid - A full athletics grant-in-aid by NCAA definition is financial aid that consists of tuition and fees, room and board, and required text books. It does not cover course-related supplies (e.g. art supplies for an art course, etc.)."

Page 14 - http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/conn/genrel/auto_pdf/2013-14/misc_non_event/SAHandbook.pdf

(More info on S/A Financial Aid on pages 14-18).

 

[BoatShow]

I remember back in the day Abrosimova was a waitress at some restaurant and people would leave her 100 dollars on 8 dollar checks.

 

[UConnDan97]

I remember back in the day Abrosimova was a waitress at some restaurant and people would leave her 100 dollars on 8 dollar checks.

In Soviet Russia, the checks leave YOU!

(ah...it wasn't that funny, but I always hear Yakov Smirnoff in my head and I wanted to share)

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Some things that are being a little overlooked here. If you offer basketball players a stipend (say $100/week) then you pretty much have to offer that to all scholarship athletes (don't you?). For UConn, according to what I just looked up, based on their D1 sports, they can have about 318 scholarship athletes. Now you're talking about $31,800/week in stipend money. If there are 30 weeks in a school year, that's $954,000/year in stipends. Sure, UConn could probably absorb that without too much impact, but a lot of schools can't. You could make the stipend an option that the school can choose to give or not (like some schools don't give athletic scholies of any kind). But if you did that, you would create and even bigger divide between the P5 and the rest as schools with kids knowing they're going to get an extra $3,000 stipend/year if they go to a place that can pay. Do we really need another recruiting advantage for the top?

It's just not as simple as we should give kids something for generating revenue for the school they play for. There's a lot of issues that arise once you open that can of worms.

Why couldn't stipends be awarded on a need basis.

 

[Tbone4457]

There's a lot of misinformation here. To learn the history see the documentary "Schooled" that is on netflix now. The scholarships do not cover all expenses and not having enough food is a common issue. The NCAA marketing has been so complete that many things that are legal are thought to be illegal by fans and athletes are not allowed to do things that other students are allowed to do. Other students can get paid by the school (like RAs), accept gifts from alumni, and work at jobs in their field of study or recreation. The NCAA and others don't want to share the money. The sneaker contract money alone is enough to take care of all athletes. But all of this won't matter soon as the major conferences are already pulling away from the NCAA so they can be fair to the athletes and still make hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

[jleves]

Why couldn't stipends be awarded on a need basis.

Again - the details become a problem. How do you define need? If you go by parents income, how do you differentiate between a couple living in a low cost place with one kid in college vs a single mom with 4 kids in a higher cost environment. What happens when you have 50 males getting a stipend and only 15 women? It sounds nice, but in the end, it's another thing that can be manipulated. In my mind, it has to be all or nothing, otherwise you open yourself up to problems no school wants to get into.

 

[CAHUSKY]

There's a lot of misinformation here. To learn the history see the documentary "Schooled" that is on netflix now. The scholarships do not cover all expenses and not having enough food is a common issue. The NCAA marketing has been so complete that many things that are legal are thought to be illegal by fans and athletes are not allowed to do things that other students are allowed to do. Other students can get paid by the school (like RAs), accept gifts from alumni, and work at jobs in their field of study or recreation. The NCAA and others don't want to share the money. The sneaker contract money alone is enough to take care of all athletes. But all of this won't matter soon as the major conferences are already pulling away from the NCAA so they can be fair to the athletes and still make hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

[David 76]

Not going to really comment overall, but thinking about this reminded me of the mini scandal 10-15 years ago where the players were ordering 60 dollar quarts of orange juice from room service at the plaza, ( or maybe the four seasons can't recall).

So without taking a position, I will say that it works both ways, normal college students don't get to stay at 5 star hotels, order room service and fly private.

Normal college students don't bring millions into their university either. I don't really think they stay at 5 star hotels either UCONN guides there visiting teams to a Marriott or Holiday Inn. The OJ was a scandal because the whole thing was exorbitant.

 

[Danzz]

Again - the details become a problem. How do you define need? If you go by parents income, how do you differentiate between a couple living in a low cost place with one kid in college vs a single mom with 4 kids in a higher cost environment. What happens when you have 50 males getting a stipend and only 15 women? It sounds nice, but in the end, it's another thing that can be manipulated. In my mind, it has to be all or nothing, otherwise you open yourself up to problems no school wants to get into.

You make a good point concerning manipulation and abuse of a stipend program. I don't think anybody wants a program that can be abused but there must be a way to put safeguards into effect. The amount would have to be minimal and standardized.
Maybe the money could be provided using a debit card good only at on campus eating facilities. No matter how it gets done there will be abuses but that isn't a good enough reason not to do it.

 

[Kitaman]

a person of such stature like bazz shouldnt be eating crap meals. get that man some lobster dinners.

I know there are some women living off campus (with a kitchen) that can and would hook a 'player' up. Bazz should have set all this up in Sept and Oct. before they started practice. They don't have to be pretty, just food luvin plump.

Come on Bazz!!........ are you a playa or a player?

Disclaimer: I will say though that his costs of such food services may be tricky.

 

[TheRogers]

The NCAA either permits meals and extra benefits or it doesn't. Logic would lead me to think that schools like UCONN offer similar benefits as other schools. If it gets to a point where players are starving, I have a hard time believing that this has not been addressed. Just quickly looked at some other schools and they all offer 3 meals a day 7 says a week for the school year. It would be sad if UCONN just does not offer this.

Then there's this:

http://www.holyturf.com/2011/05/foo...17000-annually-in-cash-all-within-ncaa-rules/

And this...

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201307/living-high-life-not-so-much-college-athletes-say

I guess I come out of this not knowing who to believe.

 

[seanmc94]

http://thebiglead.com/2012/11/14/john-calipari-tours-the-kentucky-basketball-dorm-video/

No one at UK is starving

 

[mauconnfan]

http://thebiglead.com/2012/11/14/john-calipari-tours-the-kentucky-basketball-dorm-video/

No one at UK is starving

When he started talking about "Kentucky Coal" I almost barfed already so I will never see what they eat there….I really can't stand looking or listening to the crook!

 

[UConn77]

I can appreciate the concern, but I really can't feel sorry for kids who are essentially getting a free education (many of whom never even graduate or use that education), when every nickel for my UConn education came from loans, summer jobs, my parents and jobs during the school year. If they can't work, let them take education loans or let their parents kick in a few bucks.

 

[Buffett10]

pretty much all athletes sophomore and above life OFF campus. So they cant just hit the food hall. I remember around Turkey break about 20 UConn football players were sending out tweets saying "hungry need food" "everything is closed nothing to eat" and to show how hungry they were "So hungry thinking of eating another person" We even offered to bring them up some food, but they said they couldn't because of NCAA rules. what a messed up system they have in place.

 

[mauconnfan]

I can appreciate the concern, but I really can't feel sorry for kids who are essentially getting a free education (many of whom never even graduate or use that education), when every nickel for my UConn education came from loans, summer jobs, my parents and jobs during the school year. If they can't work, let them take education loans or let their parents kick in a few bucks.

How much money did you make for the university while there? I get they get a free education but would you like to see how much UConn makes for the #13 jerseys they sell as well as every other piece of souvineir $$$$'s they help sell out there……..

Sorry not the same! I am sure you're life is good and all paid for now and respect what you say, I do but Shabazz Napier, Kemba Walker, Emeka Okafor and you represent the university in a whole different way…….that's life. I am never going to pay 40 bucks to watch you or anyone else go to class 15 times a year nor are 16K others………..different world.

 

[Husky25]

UCONN didn't offer food on weekends to anybody on the room and board plan when I was there. You're on your own from Sat. a.m. until Monday a.m. When the team has a Sat. or Sun. game they probably get a pre-game team meal provided, but that's probably all they get for the weekend if it's a home game. My guess is they eat better on road trips because they have to provide them with enough food while they're out of town traveling.

When was that? Are you a recent graduate?

From 1995-1999, On campus students were given a choice between 14, 17, and 21 meals. All came with Husky bucks to spend at the Student Union and to get crappy pizza from Ryan Refectory (Since closed). Freshmen were required to get the 21 meal plan, even though the major dining halls (McMahon, South, Jungle, Putnam and Whitney, etc.) were open for 19 meals during the week. Brunch was from 10-2 and dinner was from 4-7 every Saturday and Sunday. All the dining halls were open from breakfast, lunch, and dinner Mon-Fri. I lived in Alumni as a freshman and the Basketball team all ate together at McMahon most mornings. That was the Scheffer, Allen, King, Johnson, Knight year.

Was the food great? Not really and it was better in the small dining halls than the bigger ones, but the teams were not under nourished.

pretty much all athletes sophomore and above life OFF campus.

Is this a recent development as well? Eric Hayward was my neighbor in Alumni. He was a Senior. As a sophomore the Hart twins (Track) were in the other wing in West. My Senior Year, Jon Fitzsimmons and Taber Small Lived on my floor, as well as a DT whose name I regret I can't remember (I want to say McManus, but its only a guess). True, those athletes were not high profile. So I offer up, Ricky Moore, who had a single 4 floors below mine. He was a senior. Of course many athletes live off campus, but I don't think you can make the general assumption that most live off campus in any great a ratio than an other student group.

 

[sawxfan23]

Listen I love Bazz but he is way off here. I played baseball at UConn and had no problem eating well and having money left.
1. Room and Board,Books, and any other school needs are paid for by scholarship.
2. On road trips $35.oo a day is given for meals plus a small pre and large post game meal are paid for by UConn. I basically pocketed $30 a day this way.
3. During NCAA tournament $55.oo a day is given.
4. The dining halls at UConn have come a long way and athletes have the ability to special order meals.
5. There are plenty of opportunities for summer jobs on campus.{especially for athletes}

 

[Tbone4457]

Some of you are just completely missing the point on the issue. It's not about pocket change for food. (But, all the Div I schools breaking away from the NCAA admit the scholarships do not cover all expenses as listed in the financial letter sent annually to all students.) This is also not about athletes in sports that do NOT generate revenue. This is about having two sets of rules for students which is blatantly unfair and discriminatory, and the false notion of amateurism. This new push to pay athletes for their work is partly due to recent Court decisions that basically affirm it is unconstitutional to have two similar people but apply different sets of rules concerning their rights. Sorry, I don't have enough time or space for a full explanation. But, even Jay Bilas has commented on how he doesn't understand how his nephew on full non-athletic scholarship at Kentucky can also be paid as an RA and have zero restrictions on work, gifts, or anything else while athletes have a long list of rules to follow. Also, the writing is on the wall in the Ed O'Bannon case (schools and associated companies profiting from his likeness in perpetuity without his consent or sharing the profits) and the Northwestern football players starting a union. It's only a matter of time before there are a slew of new workers' comp cases that won't be stopped by the NCAA's original plan and reasoning to call them "student-athletes." (The schedule, expectations, quid pro quo, and profit will constitute employment.) Even the first head of the NCAA who made the power grab that started all this admitted in his last speech before he died that with all the money involved now the old rules are just crazy and unfair. Like it or not, the near future will have revenue generating athletes receiving a stipend and insurance like an employee. Those of you who still hold on to the false notion of amateurism will get over it like you did with the Olympics.