PAC-12 Athletes' Demands Summarized in Players Tribune | The Boneyard

PAC-12 Athletes' Demands Summarized in Players Tribune

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Lots of demands, or they'll opt out.

"...the NCAA has failed us and we are prepared to ensure that our conference treats us fairly whether or not it continues its NCAA membership."

Football players' demands include:

- Larry Scott and all coaches and administrators voluntarily reduce their lavish salaries

- Protect all sports (example given: Stanford needs to add back all sports recently dropped)

- Name, image & likeness rights and fair market pay, rights and freedoms

- Much more...

 
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Several crazy things in that manifesto.

They said Stanford could pay for all this with their endowments. Whoever wrote that has no clue how endowments work. Most have stipulations from the donors on how it's spent. You can't just raid the cookie jar for the money. Almost all require only the interest be used, not the principal.

If they get 50% of the revenue, there won't be other sports, football pays for everything.

Colleges should just let them walk, plenty kids would love an opportunity to play and get an education, room, board, books, etc paid for. Even a cheap university costs nearly 40k a year now.
 
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I'm not sure this sort of thing would fly in the SEC, but the PAC12, who knows?
 

eebmg

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Has a specific big time PAC12 athlete spoken up directly on this?
 
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Athletes have certainly developed an inflated sense of self worth. The colleges should make a stand and let them play simi-pro and they will see what the are actually worth. It is college affiliation that drives up the value of college athletics. Let the athletes create their own minor league. There are already simi pro players better than most of the college athletes playing for peanuts or nothing.
 

GoDawgs4

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I would hope the players know that they are free to not attend a college and not to earn an education.

If they want to play for pay, then go ahead and go pro and forget college.There are plenty of athletes that will accept that scholarship and play a sport in exchange for getting an education and a degree and being prepared for real life after they are finished playing whatever game they play.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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But simply - who are these players making these demands?

Absurd demands, as well. Not all of them - I fully think that college athletes are exploited to a degree - but really. Especially the idea that players are going to set the salaries of the coaches.
 
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Let them sit out or turn professional. Some upperclassmen might have a shot but the freshmen & sophomores not so much. Most would fail though as there are only so many NFL jobs open and the competition for them is incredibly fierce. Then what do they do? They can't return to school (few could afford to pay the tuition on their own) so they don't have a degree or even a skill (other than for their particular sport) to fall back upon. So for a lot of them it would be go home to an uncertain future. Somehow I don't think the manifesto's authors have thought this through even a little bit being too busy focusing on their demands.

This manifesto is yet another example of how coddled, privileged, entitled and ignorant American elite level athletes have become. As far as I am concerned they can just go pound sand.

And no this post should in no way be construed as support for the NCAA. I am no fan of the big conferences either. Both are too powerful and corrupt to fix so they need to be abolished & replaced.
 
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PAC needs to shut down this season. Kids can keep their schollies, housing and food plans this year. They can get money for their likeness (but there probly wont be any/many displays of their likeness with no football.

In my opinion, the PAC schools are going to lose a bunch of money if they play this season. Their TV revenue is pitiful and their revenue from attendance is not a traditional strength. With Covid-19, the attendance will be pitiful. They may lose less money by not playing that they would lose if they play.

Take a stand by shutting this season down.
 
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One reason that the NFL does have a minor league system in place like MLB does is that college ball is the best promotion for the sport. When you think about it, college football and basketballs is what popularized the sport to the degree that it made professional sports in basketball and football viable. With baseball the college game never was. Professional baseball was more popular than the college game. They generally draft their players out of high school and send them to the minors where they play for a bare subsistance wage.

Minor league teams could never replace college sports, because what draws the crowds is interest by the alumni. ND got a national TV contract and it was active even in mediocre years, because they were ND who ahd a national following. This would not be possible if it were a simi pro team just in some city. Having good players and winning does play a part, but the main cause of finacial benefit is the ND name. Those that follow a school team just because they are good are a verys small percentage.
 
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One reason that the NFL does have a minor league system in place like MLB does is that college ball is the best promotion for the sport. When you think about it, college football and basketballs is what popularized the sport to the degree that it made professional sports in basketball and football viable. With baseball the college game never was. Professional baseball was more popular than the college game. They generally draft their players out of high school and send them to the minors where they play for a bare subsistance wage.

Minor league teams could never replace college sports, because what draws the crowds is interest by the alumni. ND got a national TV contract and it was active even in mediocre years, because they were ND who ahd a national following. This would not be possible if it were a simi pro team just in some city. Having good players and winning does play a part, but the main cause of finacial benefit is the ND name. Those that follow a school team just because they are good are a verys small percentage.

I can agree to an extent, but Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame, etc, all get more fans when they win. And a lot of those "fair weather" fans just go for who is good now.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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Somehow I don't think the manifesto's authors have thought this through even a little bit being too busy focusing on their demands.

This manifesto is yet another example of how coddled, privileged, entitled and ignorant American elite level athletes have become. As far as I am concerned they can just go pound sand.

And no this post should in no way be construed as support for the NCAA. I am no fan of the big conferences either. Both are too powerful and corrupt to fix so they need to be abolished & replaced.
I'm not with your last statement. Reform would work, I don't think there is a perfect system. And our fan club at Rutgers, complaining bitterly about the NCAA, was lectured every year by the compliance person "the NCAA is us"

I 100% agree that elite level athletes are somewhat as you describe - but I don't actually see very many elite level athletes associated with this initiative. The 3 from Arizona are - so far as I can tell - bit players.

And I object less to the Covid safety - and even the idea of financial benefit to players - than I do to the bit about coaches salaries and Stanford's sports. I happen to think said salaries are ridiculous - but I do not think that that - or the sports offered by an individual school - should be subject to mandate by players.
 

KnightBridgeAZ

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I can agree to an extent, but Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame, etc, all get more fans when they win. And a lot of those "fair weather" fans just go for who is good now.
Of course they do. But the vast majority of fans are largely fans of the school - local interest, alumni status or association of someone else with the school (parent, etc.). And this is who donate the money to keep the programs going.

I agree with the premise that support would just not be there for a minor league or semi-pro system of football or basketball absent the college connection.
 
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This is strictly football, basketball they can enter the professional ranks whenever they want. The NFL needs to be forced to accept players from high school up. Then there is a clear line for the ones that want to get paid, go professional or go to college. Basketball has pro players around the world at 18. Baseball has professional players at 18. Soccer has professional players at 18. It is stupid for the colleges to be made into the scapegoat when the issue is the NFL won't take players till 21.
WNBA should be open to all players out of high school also.
 

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