Edsall Says Pay CFB Players

[WrenchFan69]

If athletes are to be paid, UConn will no longer field a football team. This is a "look I'm on your side kids" recruiting pitch and I'm all for it.

 

[BlueDogs]

Bad idea. It seems to be lost that players are getting the benefit of a free tuition, meals and board, while the rest are enduring financial hardship and incurring huge debt because they actually value education enough to pay for it.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

This is about what’s right and fair. Good for Randy for speaking out.

I certainly wouldn’t like it if some rich old nitwits bestowed the mantle of “noble amateurism” on me and told me I was no longer free to get paid for my work.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Using that logic, nobody forced an athlete to accept a Division-I athletic scholarship either. If it doesn't provide enough, they could stay home and go to community college, get a job, or pay to go to UConn so they will have more time to study, etc. It's not unreasonable to recognize that if one side is stretching to make it happen (the athletes), there are others making different sacrifices to be at this state's flagship university.

Let's think about this. 85 football scholarship plus 13 basketball = 98. Of course, you'll also have to pay 98 members of various women's teams to stay in Title IX compliance. But if those 98 include women's hockey or soccer you will have to fund the corresponding men's team or make it clear those are undervalued sports and forget about getting competitive recruits. So add 18 for hockey and (??what is the soccer scholarship limit, let's say 18 as well) means we are up to 134 men and 134 women. There might be more such as softball/baseball equivalence, but let's just stop here (or we keep baseball and drop men's hockey, thereby saving on the new rink). 268 times how much money. $20 grand each perhaps. That's $5M+.

Where does it come from? First, all other sports will be cancelled. Track, swimming, crew, golf, tennis, etc. - gone. Forget about adding lacrosse on the men's side. The athletic department will basically be football, basketball, plus probably one or two of soccer/baseball/hockey for men and enough women's sports to reach the same number of scholarships (soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, softball, lacrosse and some filler sports). It's not so bad for women but the massive number of football scholarships means the men's side will be gutted.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Sorry, Randy. Paying athletes while they are (supposed to be) getting an education? That will be a death knell for 99% of college sports - including UConn.

They are getting paid, an education is expensive. If 99% of them don't use the education they are getting, it is not my problem.

 

[huskymedic]

NYP: Why the simple solution isn’t the answer for deeply flawed NCAA

 

[shakes65]

Randy made the Daily News today—-Page 35. Story by Evan Grossman. Just below story where O’Quinlan denies he took cash in college.

 

[kibblesnbits]

UConn students (the ones you make fun of if they stretch to afford to go to Storrs) are already subsidizing athletics. Football sure as hell isn’t making a profit. I love sports, but the Huskies are a money drain. Why should the students subsidize them more?

As for the NCAA, I hate them, but you seem to think they are sitting on an annual $800M profit. That’s revenue. Most of their money is distributed back to schools -and most of those schools are still losing money. Squeeze the fat cats (please) and their excesses, but you aren’t going to come up with another $5M+ per school to pay athletes (and that’s with big cutbacks in offerings). A handful of the biggest schools will be able to afford it. The rest, including UConn, will probably have to reassess where sports fit in.

Lastly, very few kids could go straight to the pros (at most a handful nationwide per year). For most D-I players, if they weren’t wearing the colors of State U, they’d be lucky to make meal money in some minor league. I root for our players and team because they wear the colors. Take that away and most people couldn’t care less. Remember the illustrious Hartford Hellcats.? How about the Colonials? Yup, nobody cared.

 

[Redding Husky]

My two cents:

1) As the father of a current college football player and having seen what the athletes do, I'm in favor of paying the athletes. My first thought about the money would be minimum wage for the hours they put in. A rough calculation results in payments of $5,000 per year per student athlete. It may be slightly more.

2) Now where do we get the money? The schools don't have it, except for possibly Texas and Notre Dame. Someone suggested the NCAA. That's perfect in an ideal world, but the P5 schools would never agree to a massive equalization of revenue going back to the schools when they think they're responsible for bringing in most of the revenue. Maybe they'd go for a staggered system, something like: $7,500 to P5 players, $5,000 to G5 players, $3,000 to FBS players, and $2,000 to everyone else.

Someone with far greater knowledge of this subject than I will have to come up with a workable solution. I don't see an obvious fix. Maybe the current system is the best in a group of impossible alternatives.

 

[mikedog10]

Sports Illustrated via MSN

UConn Head Coach Randy Edsall: ‘Pay the Players’

This article called Edsall a "current, top-level head coach", does SI know about P5/G5? Whatever, I'll take the compliment!

 

[bmayuc]

I'm not shocked at the completely retrograde opinions of many on the board, but you all should open your minds.

Aside from the right and wrong, we are currently totally duck**d as an athletic department. We are locked into a monopolistic and cartel-esque system that is slowly bleeding us to death. Literally anything that is done to break up the NCAA/Conference/TV monopolies shakes up all the pieces and gives us another chance to better our situation. As far as chaos theory goes, paying the players will abso-duck**ing-lutely throw that infrastructure into flux, renegotiation, etc.

That would be very good for us.

*on the right and wrong* all of those on the "don't pay them" are also completely wrong. Currently the system is structured to use the free labor of 100 teenagers to pay many adults large, market dictated salaries. The laborers are also restricted in their movement, while the handsomely paid administrators are free to come and go as they please. This is horribly unjust, and this must be first established and stipulated. 100%.

As to those who argue the reason this should not change are due to the dire claims of change in system collapsing college athletics: Please understand that this LITERAL ARGUMENT was the bad argument used to prop up and defend LITERAL SLAVERY in the US from oh 1790 to 1860. So, lets also just stipulate that that is a terrible argument and should be strait up shunned. gross.

Final note. If college athletics, through a regulated free market, can't figure out how to distribute LITERALLY BILLIONS of dollars equitably, and also keep in mind that unlocking the ridiculous NCAA ban on 3rd party income will bring in even further $$ streams, it should probably just not exist full stop.

 

[bmayuc]

I'm not shocked at the completely retrograde opinions of many on the board, but you all should open your minds.

Aside from the right and wrong, we are currently totally **d as an athletic department. We are locked into a monopolistic and cartel-esque system that is slowly bleeding us to death. Literally anything that is done to break up the NCAA/Conference/TV monopolies shakes up all the pieces and gives us another chance to better our situation. As far as chaos theory goes, paying the players will abso-**ing-lutely throw that infrastructure into flux, renegotiation, etc.

That would be very good for us.

*on the right and wrong* all of those on the "don't pay them" are also completely wrong. Currently the system is structured to use the free labor of 100 teenagers to pay many adults large, market dictated salaries. The laborers are also restricted in their movement, while the handsomely paid administrators are free to come and go as they please. This is horribly unjust, and this must be first established and stipulated. 100%.

As to those who argue the reason this should not change are due to the dire claims of change in system collapsing college athletics: Please understand that this LITERAL ARGUMENT was the bad argument used to prop up and defend LITERAL SLAVERY in the US from oh 1790 to 1860. So, lets also just stipulate that that is a terrible argument and should be strait up shunned. gross.

Final note. If college athletics, through a regulated free market, can't figure out how to distribute LITERALLY BILLIONS of dollars equitably, and also keep in mind that unlocking the ridiculous NCAA ban on 3rd party income will bring in even further $$ streams, it should probably just not exist full stop.

In short, as with many things in the world, you must decide whether you prioritize ORDER or JUSTICE. When you identify that decision-point, don't ever be the jerk on the side of order when people are being taken advantage of. Pay the kids.

 

[Waquoit]

How does HCRE think this cheap heat will help his program?

 

[gioff23]

If you believe for a nanosecond that the kids are not already getting paid, you're naïve. What I believe he is asking for is to take this out of donors' pockets and sleezy backrooms and make it transparent and somewhat equal. If the FBI were ever to conduct a review of Football, the way they stumbled upon basketball, the SEC would be shut down.

 

[uconnphil2016]

How does HCRE think this cheap heat will help his program?

Eh, we ended up all over the internet for a day. That's a good thing.

 

[uconnphil2016]

If you believe for a nanosecond that the kids are not already getting paid, you're naïve. What I believe he is asking for is to take this out of donors' pockets and sleezy backrooms and make it transparent and somewhat equal. If the FBI were ever to conduct a review of Football, the way they stumbled upon basketball, the SEC would be shut down.

I knew a guy who worked for Georgia Tech, and he said boosters would slip some players s$700 after a game so they could have a good weekend. GT is a pretty low tier P5 team, and even they were doing it to some extent.

 

[polycom]

100% with Randy. This will help start the end of college sports. Amateurism is such a joke especially now with TV deals. We don't need college sports. What we need is fairness and honesty which the current system doesn't give us. People don't want athletes getting paid but are fine with coaches making $M's/year because "the coach has paid his dues" what kind of nonsense is that? We are fine with the Warde Manuels of the world earning $000's of dollars but coaches shouldn't get any money.

Either allow booster to pay players or get rid of college sports but amateurism is over when it comes to basketball & football.

 

[weyuo]

The sport and the fact that people like watching the sport generates the income. Students come and go and get "paid" free tuition, state of the art medical care, housing, meals, transportation and a free audition on television to potential employers while they are briefly here. Lets not forget where the money ultimately comes from. In all of this they seem to be the ones nobody really gives a about but the sport can't survive without.

 

[zls44]

The sport and the fact that people like watching the sport generates the income. Students come and go and get "paid" free tuition, state of the art medical care, housing, meals, transportation and a free audition on television to potential employers while they are briefly here. Lets not forget where the money ultimately comes from. In all of this they seem to be the ones nobody really gives a about but the sport can't survive without.

Quit with the pearl clutching.

You watch for the players.
The players do the work.
The players generate millions.

Pay the players. Period.

As to those who argue the reason this should not change are due to the dire claims of change in system collapsing college athletics: Please understand that this LITERAL ARGUMENT was the bad argument used to prop up and defend LITERAL SLAVERY in the US from oh 1790 to 1860. So, lets also just stipulate that that is a terrible argument and should be strait up shunned. gross.

Amen.

 

[crewbear742]

Most players aren't worth the cost of a scholarship let alone a salary. If you did this fairly, each player would receive a market rate instead of a scholarship. Some players would make essentially minimum wage. A few would make six figures. Can you really field a team like this? The market disparity between the first basketball player and the tenth would be huge.

 

[polycom]

Most players aren't worth the cost of a scholarship let alone a salary. If you did this fairly, each player would receive a market rate instead of a scholarship. Some players would make essentially minimum wage. A few would make six figures. Can you really field a team like this? The market disparity between the first basketball player and the tenth would be huge.

Yes. Most companies pay some people a lot and others very little, people have their roles. If you think you can get paid more go somewhere else, thus salaries everywhere will increase.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Yes. Most companies pay some people a lot and others very little, people have their roles. If you think you can get paid more go somewhere else, thus salaries everywhere will increase.

If you want to make this a free market then things will change rapidly. Few, if any, markets have 126 (or whatever is the latest count of FBS members). Fewer still have the majority losing money. If a free market is desired then we'll be down to the P5- (the minus is because some P5's might not make it either). The absolute superstar players will go straight to the pros (a dozen or so per year to the NBA and very few to the NFL because they aren't physically ready) while the best of the remaining will be paid on a scale from a lot of money to less than the current value of a scholarship. The net will be far fewer opportunities in total. That makes sense as there is really no demand for 19-22 year old developmental football or basketball labor outside of the university marketplace. Fans are rooting for the school laundry and the primary economic value for most players is that they wear that laundry. There may be minor leagues that spring up to take some of the extra players, but they'll be playing for meal money and little else. Essentially they'll be "last chance" semi-pro operations at best.