Interesting Class Action Law Suit

[stamfordhusky]

How many indentured servants had scholarships worth, in many cases, over $200,000? As pointed out in a prior post, college athletes are the highest paid group of their age/education level.

Many will also get jobs far beyond what their experience/education level ordinarily would get them, due to employers liking to hire athletes and many athletes outperforming non-athletes. When one of my kids interviewed with a number of high-level corporations, her status as a D1 varsity athlete seemed to be more important than having been the valedictorian of that school.

 

[alexrgct]

Via Wikipedia
Indentured servant


Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed the paperwork.They included men and women; most were under the age of 21, and most became helpers on farms or house servants. They were not paid cash. It was a system that provided jobs and—most important—transportation for poor young people from the overcrowded labor markets (such as Europe) who wanted to come to labor-short areas (at first, principally America, later, other colonies), but had no money to pay for it. The great majority became farmers and farm wives.

Sounds like this system is similar to the NCAA of today. Groups like the NCAA and the International Olympic Committees need to protect their revenue sources and maintain their monopolies. They won't give this up easily. I just wish they would give up the farcical notion of student athlete...just be more transparent and acknowledge that the NCAA is big business powered by cheap labor that has very little recourse on issues they disagree with -- and almost no possibility to organize.

We love our sports in America probably more than funding other issues like public education. So if a kid can not transfer to the school he/she wants or has to generate revenue to the benefit of other students, we generally do not care. As long as we can live vicariously through these athletes and feel like we win when they do. It is a broken system, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Creating an alternative system risks destroying something we hold dear -- watching someone excel on the public stage that we think represents us.

It is what it is and that is what it is...I just we were all a little more honest about it. The NCAA doesn't oversee student athletes, it is a business that uses indentured servants to generate revenue. IMHO.

If there were a better way in this country to have a developmental league for football and basketball featuring mostly 18-22 year old players, one would exist. Baseball and hockey have leagues that compete for this labor segment with the college programs. The reality is that there isn't a better way for football and basketball; even most universities don't have a business model where they can run an athletic department at a profit.

Indentured servants basically sold their freedom in exchange for overseas transport, and they were then obligated to do work that, generally speaking, did not make them upwardly mobile at the end of their terms. This is clearly not the case with student-athletes.

College students throughout this country have completely unpaid internships that they take with the hopes that it will help them get a job down the road. As apprenticeships go, being a student-athlete for a revenue sport is pretty damn cushy.

 

[UcMiami]

Via Wikipedia
.

Bullpucky!
These kids are getting much more 'value' than any kids in any minor league sports system in existence. And for 95% of all scholarship athletes, their net revenue to their institution is negative - even taking their scholarship out of the funding equation, most scholarship athletes bring less money into the system than the cost of their equipment, training, coaching and facilities cost. I suppose in this brave new world when they sign their scholarship offer it should include a contract for them to pay the school for the facilities and other services rendered? And there are currently what 80 football scholarships allowed per D1 program - start paying those athletes and suddenly colleges will be dropping 40 of those - great benefit for those bottom of the line athletes - no money and no education.
You look around at a number of professions in this world and the first five years of life is pretty miserable in the real world even with a grad degree. And almost 100% of high school teachers are making less per year than these athletes get in benefits.
Sorry, but I find this attitude about how badly exploited these athletes are to be really repugnant. The good ones in the money sports are developing a real world market for their services. All the others including those in non-money making sports are getting the best deal around for 18-22 yr olds.
There are a lot of businessmen out there connected with the NBA and NFL - do you think they haven't looked at the cost/benefit analysis of creating 'minor leagues' for those sports - if there was 1% profit to be made those minor leagues would exist. Part of their problem is they would have to market those teams. For the college teams - the marketing is built into 100 years of history. Maybe the athletes that attend ND or Alabama, or FL State should have to pay for all that free publicity, like maybe sign away 20% of their first pro contract to the school in return for the right to play on the team. I actually like that idea!

 

[Phil]

That's an interesting proposition UcMiami.

Respond to the lawsuit with a counter-proposal - we'll share the TV revenue with you, but since we are talking about sharing, we spend the time energy and money to make these kids multi-million dollar athletes, we want a share of the pro revenues.
No individual school could go for that alone, but if all the schools, as member of the NCAA agreed, what could they do? The lawsuit wants to treat the schools as a group, not as individuals, so turn that on its head.

I bet the net revenue flow would be into the schools, not out of them.