College sports’ real criminals: Those getting rich under the guise of ‘amateurism’(WaPo Jenkins)

[huskymedic]

Perspective | College sports’ real criminals: Those getting rich under the guise of ‘amateurism’

>>It’s going to take more than an FBI investigation to correct this problem. It’s going to take “Congress or the President,” mediator Kenneth Feinberg said. For the past several years, Feinberg has watched the NCAA intractably resist any attempt to deal fairly with athletes, while pocketing sums such as the $1 billion a year the athletes attract in broadcast rights fees for March Madness.<<

>>The key to any meaningful collegiate sports reform is to do away with this fundamentally dishonest “spirit of amateurism,” which is the root of so many NCAA ills, and creates the black market in the first place. It’s nothing more than a fig leaf for pervasive corruption. Take away the incentives for bribery, kickbacks and money laundering. Open the market, and settle on a fair metric to compensate the revenue-producing athletes, with the help of a mediator such as Feinberg. But that of course won’t happen voluntarily, because it would mean NCAA athletic directors must agree to take less. A lot less.<<

 

[Travelman6]

.....settle on a fair metric to compensate the revenue-producing athletes.....

it would not be significant enough to compensate the athletes (AND would you even want to do that?).

The athletes already are compensated with free tuition for UNI. American UNI is freakin expensive these days, that is nothing to sneeze at. They get free room and board, free travel, sometimes even abroad, exposue on TV, training and access to great trainers, playing in super expensive state of the art arenas and other state of the art training centers and so on. So how else can we compensate them while the average student NONathlete continues to pay exorbitant fees for college? Most of those things listed above technically have nothing to do with academics and yet, cause tuition to increase...While the average student continues to pay 10, 20 or even 30K or more per year, no sympathy.

 

[upstater]

Crap article, rehashed a million times before.
The NCAA doesn't take a billion, it takes a $600 million, and $400m of that is then plowed into hosting the championships. So what we're talking about here is why is the NCAA taking $200m a year? Emmert's salary is gross. I'm sure there are a lot of other fat cats too. But even if you eliminated the NCAA, and you shared that $200m among all the schools (D1, D2, D3) it would not be significant enough to compensate the athletes (AND would you even want to do that?).
There's a national university meltdown going on and people like Jenkins are just clueless and out to lunch on it

 

[BUConn10]

Where are all these people in the journalism industry who are crying and sobbing over the criminal fees regular students have to put up with? What about all the unpaid internships? All the unpaid lab tech positions we have to gruel through just to kiss ass to some professor for a letter of recommendation or networking? Where are all the tears for these average people?

Sports journalists love to act high and mighty on this issue because athletes in college being paid opens pandoras door for them to cover them. College athletes being paid directly benefits the bottom line of the guys writing these very articles. We put such a massive premium on athletic ability in our culture that we lose sight of things... that well, actually matter in the grand scheme of things.

 

[intlzncster]

There's a national university meltdown going on and people like Jenkins are just clueless and out to lunch on it

What are you referring to?

 

[intlzncster]

Never understood the "pay the athletes and their will not be corruption" idea. Of course there will. Boosters would then kick in on top of whatever guys are making to entice kinds to school.

You could actually hide it more easily. Kid's driving around in a Mercedes; but don't worry, he's paying it out of his ncaa paycheck. Not because a booster gave it to him.

 

[BUConn10]

Never understood the "pay the athletes and their will not be corruption" idea. Of course there will. Boosters would then kick in on top of whatever guys are making to entice kinds to school.

You could actually hide it more easily. Kid's driving around in a Mercedes; but don't worry, he's paying it out of his ncaa paycheck. Not because a booster gave it to him.

I agree. Paying them openly makes backdoor money so much easier, and lucrative.

 

[upstater]

What are you referring to?

Massive cuts, not just at UConn, but at most schools.

That coupled with the huge drop in foreign students paying full freight, increased costs, and now the tax bill that is set to tax tuition waivers for grad students, all these are causing budgets to bleed. Inside some of the universities I know, administrators are hitting code red. I imagine athletics are the least of their concerns.

 

[whaler11]

I gotta tell ya it’s amazing that people think the coaches and admins should be showered with money and the players should be grateful for what they get.

 

[upstater]

I gotta tell ya it’s amazing that people think the coaches and admins should be showered with money and the players should be grateful for what they get.

Unless you can figure out a way to cap AD and coach salary legally in the USA today, that's how it is.

Unless you decouple these programs from the universities themselves, they should be run using institutional parameters, not according to what Sally Jenkins thinks.

 

[whaler11]

Unless you can figure out a way to cap AD and coach salary legally in the USA today, that's how it is.

Unless you decouple these programs from the universities themselves, they should be run using institutional parameters, not according to what Sally Jenkins thinks.

I don’t have to figure out anything.

The athletic departments got greedy and it’s going to implode on them pretty soon.

It makes sense that you hump useless admins getting paid - I still don’t get why others do.

 

[upstater]

I don’t have to figure out anything.

The athletic departments got greedy and it’s going to implode on them pretty soon.

It makes sense that you hump useless admins getting paid - I still don’t get why others do.

You can write any nonsense you want but none of what you wrote is true or applies. In fact, it's laughable since I despise admins.

 

[auror]

Crap article, rehashed a million times before.
The NCAA doesn't take a billion, it takes a $600 million, and $400m of that is then plowed into hosting the championships. So what we're talking about here is why is the NCAA taking $200m a year? Emmert's salary is gross. I'm sure there are a lot of other fat cats too. But even if you eliminated the NCAA, and you shared that $200m among all the schools (D1, D2, D3) it would not be significant enough to compensate the athletes

Even if it's just d1 football and basketball only, you're talking less than $13k per student athlete. It's money, but you're classifying them as employees at that point... that's below minimum wage if you figure out hourly pay.

The money isn't there unless you spin off P5.

 

[huskymedic]

The NCAA doesn't take a billion, it takes a $600 million...

It seems that it is the new deal will bring it over a $billion down the road: Turner, CBS and the NCAA reach long-term multimedia rights extension for NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship

>>The extension covers an eight-year period for a total rights fee of $8.8 billion. As with the current and previous contract, more than 90 percent of the revenue generated from this extension will be used to benefit college athletes through programs, services or direct distribution to member conferences and schools. Further, the agreement ensures student-athletes across all three NCAA divisions will continue to be supported through a broad range of championship opportunities, access to funds for personal and educational needs, and through scholarships in Divisions I and II.<<