College Athlete Bill of Rights . . . proposed legislation . . .

[Exit 4]

I am for allowing the players to get unlimited comp / earnings for any source, but not for direct payments by the school because that would make them employees. Student employees + education will not work (employees have complicated rights in the modern work environment).

I think legislation this extreme will push P5 football and BB to drop the education requirements and circle the wagons as a 50-70 super league. They will have no choice as a full bore revenue fightt will be on. Revenue sports will just be a business with kids wearing school laundry as employees, some of whom may actually go to school part time, but many dont even go near campus. Maybe some schools set up a separate board/corp to govern their sports unit as to keep the university free from sullied hands as general managers. The players will unionize, get there coin and benefits, and the system will become a pro league alternative. The funny question will come up about age, can this new league prohibit oldsters to maintain the thin facade of youthful amateurism?

I think all other D1 sports are put on a serious diet with the NCAA dropping the sports minimum. Investment, budgets, commitment will look more like DII and DIII. It could be that there is no impact to current DII and DIII programs since this is really about attacking revenue and DII and DIII have very little to fightt over. However, if DII and DIII will be require to treat players as employees, then I could see all sports moving to their respective alumni boards to operate and the education greatly minimized. These schools can't be minting more employees over what is supposed to be just school spirit fun.

 

[BlueDogs]

Why attach strings? Where does the forfeited money go? I don't know where this is headed but requiring a degree before distribution or a forfeiture of moneys earned are horrible, punitive ideas. Do you work for the NCAA?

They are students, not employees. Why tuition, room and board which the rest of middle American has to beg and borrow to pay for is not sufficient is beyond me. If they want to make money, go try and play for a paycheck. They’re free to do that any day of the week. Except for the very highest echelon, most couldn’t feed or house themselves on what the market would pay.

 

[Austin316]

My wife is a nurse... when she was in school she did clinicals at a local hospital. She didn’t get paid.

this will open up a can of worms for students that aren’t athletes in my opinion.

paying athletes will attract more young people to try the sports route when in reality, we need more youth shooting for Science, Technology,Engineering, and Math (STEM). STEM is so crucial to making sure our civilization thrive... it’s not basketball or football...

Think about the repercussions instead of just saying, yeah why not they deserve it.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Not enraged, and not faux. I don't believe the data would support the notion that the cancellation of soccer/lacross/fieldhockey/wrestling/tennis and so on would "decimate" the academic opportunities for anybody. You want to go to UConn? Qualify and go. If we want to help with money, we can and should, but there will be an abundance of kids who want to go to UConn who are qualified but who don't jump/dive/hit/swim, whatever. Why do the non-athletes get screwed? What about their "decimated" opportunity.

I'll just respond to the part where you responded to my comment about this plan decimating non-revenue generating sports.

This will cause an overall reduction of athletic scholarships. Some of these students who lose a scholarship would be able to get an academic scholarship but many will not. I don't know the exact percentage but I am confident suggesting not every athlete losing an athetic scholarship will get an academic scholarship of equal or like value.

And if athletes start going after general scholarship funds that is less revenue available for the remaining students.

The whole point of athletic scholarships for non-revenue generating sports is to get kids in to UConn using financial aid without dipping in to the general fund. The revenue generating sports cover these costs but not everyone in a revenue generating sport generates enough revenue to cover the cost of their scholarship,never mind generating enough to offset costs of other scholarships.

But why give out an academic scholarship if the student won't generate enough revenue while a student to cover the cost? And not all academic scholarships get the same output. This isn't any different than some athletes being able to use the scholarship as a springboard for future earnings and recognition and others getting a greater value in the free education and degree earned than they generated back for the university.