OT: Napier Goes To Bed Hungry

[RockyMTblue2]

http://ctmirror.org/uconns-napier-on-altheletes-unionizing/

Puts a face on an issue.

 

[trisailin]

So I'm supposed to believe he got a scholarship which covered academics and room but not board? I'm not buying it.

 

[UcMiami]

Yeah, boohoo. There were nights when I went to bed hungry when I was at college, and that is probably true for 80% of the kids in college, and there were lots of times when I could really have used some money too - not just in college but for the first 5 years of my working life as well. And my parents were spending a crap load of money to send me to college.
People making money off that T shirt - who does he think pays for his medical coverage, trainers, coaches, and the facilities he performs in. Or the $32M practice facility that unfortunately he will not get to use. Let alone his professors salaries, tutors, etc.

Bottom line is ... there are very few athletic departments in the US that actually turn a profit and even fewer individual sport programs that do.

And while maybe he would like to sell his own line of t-shirts, I suspect he would sell a lot fewer of them that he thinks if he wasn't allowed to use the Uconn logo and design - the folks that buy a Uconn number jersey would probably still buy one with someone else's number on it the store didn't happen to have his in stock. Because what they are really buying is a Uconn jersey and given the choice they chose a player they like a little more than another. He is around for at most 4 years - the fans are around a lot longer and they 'move on'.

 

[ctdad]

Room and board at most colleges these days include extra dollars (might be called dining dollars, flex dollars, I've seen varying terms) attached to your ID card that can be used at on-campus facilities for food ouside the dining halls. If UConn doesn't offer that, they should. If he's going to bed at 3 a.m. hungery, maybe he needs to plan a little better and pick something up before the facilities close.

 

[ochoopsfan]

I would love to see an accounting of where the money given to the student athletes goes.
I know of one west coast school where the players are given money for room and board(they live off campus) and for food.
Come the end of the month they are short money or dont have the money to pay for their full rent. They complain, to their parents. Now one of the parents did an investigation and found out their daughter seemed to be using rent and food money to buy some new clothes.
Bad Girl

 

[JHHusky]

Everyone agrees that elite athletes need to eat more calories. Many have no idea what a this does to a person's metabolic needs.

See: NPR article:
Team sports (basketball, soccer) Extra carbohydrate intake but not loading 3,000-4,500 calories
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...-calories-do-olympic-athletes-need-it-depends
Michael Phelps ate 12,000 calories per day. He pretty much had to eat round the clock to avoid muscle atrophy.

It is nonsense to deny that elite athletes have higher metabolic rates and NEED to eat more frequently (after 7 pm).

Schools often do not give athletes additional opportunities to eat after 7 PM.
Is it even allowed by the NCAA to provide after hours meal allowance for athletes only?

 

[huskiemaniac]

Some of you people are downright nasty...they bring in million of dollars and between class, practice and games can't work. They work their butts off and you act like Napier is asking for keys to a new ride or something.

 

[UcMiami]

Most if not all Uconn WCBB players live in apartments with kitchens so I assume at least some of their board is in the form of cash for groceries. Suspect the same housing for mens BB players - he has a refrigerator ... keep it stocked.

 

[John Glass]

Some of you people are downright nasty...they bring in million of dollars and between class, practice and games can't work. They work their butts off and you act like Napier is asking for keys to a new ride or something.

They are getting a free education, traveling all over the country, staying in 5 star hotels, and have a chance to earn millions in the pros. The average student leaves college with several thousand in loans.... not scholarship student athletes. The millions they earn go to the non-revenue teams, and facilities. Napier gets no sympathy from me, most students would love to be exploited like this. .....instead they are burdened with loans that take years to pay off

 

[JimGunther]

Unintended consequence of this grab (by a few who think they are being exploited - or just want an opportunity to cash-in e4arly): the early end to college athletics (especially for smaller schools or not-so-great programs). Forget about the consequences for women's sports.

PS: Why should colleges be the farm teams for the NFL or the NBA?

 

[~*Jen*~]

I feel badly for him and honestly, I thought the full ride included room and board. Can't they get student loans to cover what the scholarship doesn't? It's still a very small amount compared to the amount of debt the rest of us rack up.

 

[UcMiami]

Some of you people are downright nasty...they bring in million of dollars and between class, practice and games can't work. They work their butts off and you act like Napier is asking for keys to a new ride or something.

1. 'I go to bed hungry' is actually something that turns my stomach when used in relation to a well fed elite athlete living in a very nice apartment on a pretty beautiful campus, in a country that has hundreds of thousands of people who know what real hunger is every waking hour of their lives and a world where the number reaches into the millions and millions.
2. If most of these athletes did not have a scholarship they would be either deep in debt trying to get an education or they would be working a minimum wage job while they tried to afford the training fees to develop their talent so a pro team might give them a open try-out. Instead they have an unlimited supply of training gear, access to world class facilities, trainers, doctors, and coaches, while having their housing and food taken care of and being given the opportunity to get a first rate education with all the extra help they want for free.

Everyone uses that $50K to identify the value of the scholarship these kids are getting, but that is just the academic aspect. The Uconn women's basketball program has a budget of $5M - and they could have 15 scholarship players without adding to the expenses significantly. That number includes the tuition room and board, so the total value of the 'scholarship' that they receive - academic and athletic - is 5M/15 or $333,333 per year per athlete. On this years team the expenses haven't changed but the number of people being run through that program is down to 9 which works out to a cost per athlete of over $500,000. On the mens side, I suspect the expenses may be higher even though I don't think the coach has quite as good a deal. And football programs that have a lot more scholarships have a much higher budget. Those number are a lot more than any of the women will receive as WNBA professionals (and that money is taxable), and without that four year 'education' a lot of them wouldn't have even a chance of seeing that money.
I have no idea what the average salary a developmental league men's basketball player receives but I am pretty sure it is no where near that and I know that with the exception of a few 'bonus baby' prospects in baseball, none of the minor league players are getting paid anywhere near that either.

I certainly am not blind to problems with the NCAA and how it handles athletes, but these are not the exploited masses - those are the folks working in sweatshops and at minimum wage jobs where managers are still stealing pennies out of their pay checks or in dangerous and dirty jobs with management cutting corners on safety and skirting regulations.
Sorry for the tirade, but a general distrust and dislike of the NCAA and the corruption that big time athletics at big time mens basketball and football programs is leading people to make martyrs of a small number of fit and well cared for young men (and women) who make up a fraction of scholarship athletes, and do not really deserve that label.
Those UNC athletes (and those at other universities) that could not read or write beyond a middle school level and were 'cheated' out of the 'academic' portion of their scholarship still received all the other benefits (room, board, training, etc.) they were promised and that still represents a great deal for them and a better one than they would have gotten as 18 year old illiterates on the job market, and its monetary value was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

(How much could Geno or CD get on the open market for an hour of one on one coaching from HS prospects? Accept a scholarship to Uconn and you get 100s of hours/year for free.)

 

[John Glass]

I doubt Napier goes to bed hungry tonight

 

[TheTruthBelow]

Well, this isn't nearly as bad as what he said after the NC game.

 

[UConnCat]

Well, this isn't nearly as bad as what he said after the NC game.

What did he say that was "bad?"

 

[bschwartz]

What did he say that was "bad?"

"This is what you get when you ban us"

 

[UConnCat]

"This is what you get when you ban us"

Right. You get Hungry Huskies. I loved that he said that right in front of Emmert. The ban -- a new penalty applied retroactively to kids who had nothing to do with it -- was a travesty. Emmert is a joke, just like the organization he runs.

 

[ffg53]

Right. You get Hungry Huskies. I loved that he said that right in front of Emmert. The ban -- a new penalty applied retroactively to kids who had nothing to do with it -- was a travesty. Emmert is a joke, just like the organization he runs.

Amen.

 

[Plumber Luigi]

You have four basketball players sharing the same apartment. I don't expect the fridge stays stocked for long. I remember pizza delivery almost every night even with dinner from the board plan.

And yes the board plan at UConn it includes Husky bucks but places still close "early".

Edit: You get an allotment of "points" per semester as well as the standard meals that are only useable at certain food locations on campus as well but are less flexible then Husky bucks. Meal plans also get an allotment of food tickets for guests or box lunches.

 

[huskiemaniac]

You have four basketball players sharing the same apartment. I don't expect the fridge stays stocked for long. I remember pizza delivery almost every night even with dinner from the board plan.

And yes the board plan at UConn it includes Husky bucks but places still close "early".

Don't try arguing with anyone who only sees things as black or white...it's not worth the trouble...

 

[EricLA]

That's because he's a "Hungry Husky". In perhaps one of the greatest UCONN quotes of all time, Napier stands on the podium right after the win and says to 80,000 fans, with Emmert standing but 5 feet away...

"Hey, I want to get everybody’s attention right quick! If I could have your attention! Let me get your attention! Ladies and gentleman, you’re looking at the hungry Huskies! This is what happens when you ban us, last year, two years…. We worked so hard for it. 2 years and hungry. Hungry Huskies."

 

[j66kicker]

That's because he's a "Hungry Husky". In perhaps one of the greatest UCONN quotes of all time, Napier stands on the podium right after the win and says to 80,000 fans, with Emmert standing but 5 feet away...

"Hey, I want to get everybody’s attention right quick! If I could have your attention! Let me get your attention! Ladies and gentleman, you’re looking at the hungry Huskies! This is what happens when you ban us, last year, two years…. We worked so hard for it. 2 years and hungry. Hungry Huskies."

Kudos to KO for harnessing this resentment and channeling it toward a phenomenal success

 

[UConnCat]

That's because he's a "Hungry Husky". In perhaps one of the greatest UCONN quotes of all time, Napier stands on the podium right after the win and says to 80,000 fans, with Emmert standing but 5 feet away...

"Hey, I want to get everybody’s attention right quick! If I could have your attention! Let me get your attention! Ladies and gentleman, you’re looking at the hungry Huskies! This is what happens when you ban us, last year, two years…. We worked so hard for it. 2 years and hungry. Hungry Huskies."

Emmert could not exit that stage fast enough.

 

[UcMiami]

I will say that I found it pretty darned tacky for the NCAA to run a 'Buy your officially licensed Huskies Championship gear at NCAA.com today' commercial in the first media break after the final whistle! (Was waiting for the 'and deep discounts on a limited supply of Kentucky championship gear are also available!')

I think Napier is a great player and a good guy for sticking around when so many left. I just think people are feeding these kids pipe dreams. Would I like to see the NCAA broken down and rebuilt, and would I like to see a group of arrogant ADs on the bread line. Yes. But I fear for student athletes and I fear for Universities. Not sure how great college football and basketball is going to be when there is a super conference of maybe 20 teams that are semi-pro. And you would be surprised some of the schools that might disappear. Is the whole population of North Carolina really going to be in favor of a tax surcharge on their state tax bill to support the UNC semi-pro basketball team - they have lots of fans, but more than 50% of the state willing to put their dollars behind them?

 

[uconnfan68]

I will say that I found it pretty darned tacky for the NCAA to run a 'Buy your officially licensed Huskies Championship gear at NCAA.com today' commercial in the first media break after the final whistle! (Was waiting for the 'and deep discounts on a limited supply of Kentucky championship gear are also available!')

I think Napier is a great player and a good guy for sticking around when so many left. I just think people are feeding these kids pipe dreams. Would I like to see the NCAA broken down and rebuilt, and would I like to see a group of arrogant ADs on the bread line. Yes. But I fear for student athletes and I fear for Universities. Not sure how great college football and basketball is going to be when there is a super conference of maybe 20 teams that are semi-pro. And you would be surprised some of the schools that might disappear. Is the whole population of North Carolina really going to be in favor of a tax surcharge on their state tax bill to support the UNC semi-pro basketball team - they have lots of fans, but more than 50% of the state willing to put their dollars behind them?

They have been for years, just like Kentucky. And they are using your money... they all get more than they put in.