The absurdity of our circumstance

[gorskic]

This is the problem right there. What's the alternative?

I think--honestly--the best answer is to fix the NCAA system.

• If you're going to give scholarships, give 'em the whole cost of their eduction, including housing, meals, etc etc etc. You should never hear someone like Shabazz complain about not getting enough to eat.
• Make sure they get the medical care they need.
• Be reasonable about the rules. Serving cream cheese with bagels should not be a secondary violation. Let them take more classes over the summer, instead of limiting it.
• Make sure the student's you're admitting have a fighting chance of doing college-level work.
• Be reasonable about agent rules. NCAA hockey players can have agents, I'm sorry, "family advisors", to help them make career-related decisions. Why can't basketball or football athletes?

I could go on, and so could most people...

 

[upstater]

I think--honestly--the best answer is to fix the NCAA system.

• 
  [ ]If you're going to give scholarships, give 'em the whole cost of their eduction, including housing, meals, etc etc etc. You should never hear someone like Shabazz complain about not getting enough to eat.
  [ ]Make sure they get the medical care they need.
  [ ]Be reasonable about the rules. Serving cream cheese with bagels should not be a secondary violation. Let them take more classes over the summer, instead of limiting it.
  [ ]Make sure the student's you're admitting have a fighting chance of doing college-level work.
  [ ]Be reasonable about agent rules. NCAA hockey players can have agents, I'm sorry, "family advisors", to help them make career-related decisions. Why can't basketball or football athletes?

I could go on, and so could most people...

Those are all good changes. Note: these big conferences would love to pay players but will not guarantee scholarships. That speaks volumes.

On the other side, I don't think any of these changes will assuage the people talking about exploitation.

The real changes are fewer games, admission standards.

 

[Pudge]

As a former student athlete, and the parent of a son who is about to become a D1 student athlete, there are tremendous additional burdens placed upon athletes in P5 conferences. To claim otherwise is just plain dumb.

Athletes in so-called "major" athletic programs have many more press conferences taking up their time, much more expected (and unofficial) weight room training, time in the gym/on the field practicing "unofficially" with your teammates, etc. In addition, the travel schedule for athletes in the P5 conferences is much different from smaller D1 programs. Do you think travel is comparable in the Big South conference vs. the American Athletic Conference?

All of these things add up to give the athletes in P5 conference much less time for work, social, and academic pursuits.

These schools are making a tremendous amount of money off of these athletes, and the system should be updated to reflect the additional burdens/expectations that have been placed on these kids. BTW, these are burdens that didn't exist years ago. The fact that scholarships are one year deals is total BS. Scholarships should be 4-5 years guaranteed, no matter what. A former athlete should have the opportunity to finish his/her education after their eligibility has been exhausted, at no charge. There should be excellent (not just basic) medical coverage, as well as expanded disability insurance. Athletes should receive a fair monthly stipend ($500 or so) so they can afford basic college necessities.

This is not a slippery slope. You can still enforce the rules, and it doesn't pit the package from school A against the package from school B any more than it does now.

Title IX - Can't wait til you justify killing the many solid women's sports along the way. Then, you'll find the court system to tear up your cartel institucts.

 

[upstater]

Title IX - Can't wait til you justify killing the many solid women's sports along the way. Then, you'll find the court system to tear up your cartel institucts.

If I were UConn I'd be seriously looking at the court system right now. I don't know anything about presiding law here, but that document the NCAA puts out ceding prima nocte rights to the P5 better pass legal muster. After all, these are non-profit institutions, many of them public, in league with publicly licensed broadcast networks, trying to cordon off a huge section of other deserving universities. UConn has the market, the victories t the top, the licensing revenue, to present a case that shows that by any metric, UConn is in the top half of P5 schools.

I know this would earn UConn eternal enmity, but it may be better than waiting for things to turn only to see the inevitable fall.

 

[The Funster]

I don't think the P5 is going to be able to exclude any school from its club that wants to be a part of that club. If they do, they be slapped with an injunction so fast their heads will spin. The P5 will have to stipulate financial requirements and every outsider that desires to meet them will be in. Conversely, any current P5 school can elect to opt out if they choose not to meet them.

Do you know why the NFL is successful? Because they know that the total is greater than the sum of its parts. The P5 conference leaders are deluded. They think that trying to grab the entire money pot will be a good thing. It won't be. It's just one more deep cut into the goose that lays the golden egg.

College athletics is quickly coming to its Rubicon. If it crosses, eventually it will implode under its own gluttonous weight. Ironically, it is people who are supposed to represent our institutions of higher learning who are making these profoundly short sided and self serving decisions.

 

[upstater]

I don't think the P5 is going to be able to exclude any school from its club that wants to be a part of that club. If they do, they be slapped with an injunction so fast their heads will spin. The P5 will have to stipulate financial requirements and every outsider that desires to meet them will be in. Conversely, any current P5 school can elect to opt out if they choose not to meet them.

Do you know why the NFL is successful? Because they know that the total is greater than the sum of its parts. The P5 conference leaders are deluded. They think that trying to grab the entire money pot will be a good thing. It won't be. It's just one more deep cut into the goose that lays the golden egg.

College athletics is quickly coming to its Rubicon. If it crosses, eventually it will implode under its own gluttonous weight. Ironically, it is people who are supposed to represent our institutions of higher learning who are making these profoundly short sided and self serving decisions.

I've made the point numerous times that the administrators are not vested in sports. So, to say it's the people running the schools who make these short-sighted decisions is to ignore that frequently these people do not know the sporting landscape and that they see athletics as a burden precisely because they subsidize it in an era when funds are precious. They will leave the big decisions to the politicians and the board of trustees who work in concert with alumni. And if sports is destroyed, I'm not sure these administrators are really going to know the difference.

As for your point about financial metrics, the funding question should NOT include conference TV payouts since that will unnaturally give an advantage to all the P5 schools.

 

[noeynox]

I don't think the P5 is going to be able to exclude any school from its club that wants to be a part of that club. If they do, they be slapped with an injunction so fast their heads will spin. The P5 will have to stipulate financial requirements and every outsider that desires to meet them will be in. Conversely, any current P5 school can elect to opt out if they choose not to meet them.

Do you know why the NFL is successful? Because they know that the total is greater than the sum of its parts. The P5 conference leaders are deluded. They think that trying to grab the entire money pot will be a good thing. It won't be. It's just one more deep cut into the goose that lays the golden egg.

College athletics is quickly coming to its Rubicon. If it crosses, eventually it will implode under its own gluttonous weight. Ironically, it is people who are supposed to represent our institutions of higher learning who are making these profoundly short sided and self serving decisions.

This is why I'm rooting for the athletes to win. Unionization, payment the whole shabang. I know it will ruin college sports as I have loved it. But fugg it. The greed exhibited by this "P5" cartel intended to put the squeeze on those out of the cartel is disgusting. College coaches and athletic directors make millions, but the athletes get an education like the one provided to them by UNC.

 

[The Funster]

I've made the point numerous times that the administrators are not vested in sports. So, to say it's the people running the schools who make these short-sighted decisions is to ignore that frequently these people do not know the sporting landscape and that they see athletics as a burden precisely because they subsidize it in an era when funds are precious. They will leave the big decisions to the politicians and the board of trustees who work in concert with alumni. And if sports is destroyed, I'm not sure these administrators are really going to know the difference.

I appreciate your point and the element of "insiderism" you bring from the academic angle. Still, decisions are made in the universities name that have little to do with academia but an awful lot with public perception.

your point about financial metrics, the funding question should NOT include conference TV payouts since that will unnaturally give an advantage to all the P5 schools.

It shouldn't but I bet the first proposal will. How else will the P5 be able to trim the herd? While they may feel compelled to demonstrate an element of fairness to avoid scrutiny I don't expect them actually be fair.

 

[freescooter]

Division 3: Student may as well be playing pick up games in the quad, but at least they have pads (as applicable), organized plays, and the school is partially paying their way.

Hey, let's not knock D3 programs. I had 2 kids compete at that level in college and in both cases they turned down D1 offers (and cost me a fair amount of money in the process) in order to take advantage of the academic environment. While the level of competition is obviously not high level D1, it is way more than pick up games on the quad. And the D3 players I knew put in plenty of their own time in the off season getting and staying in shape, working on skills and all the rest of it. I think Hank Stram once commented that D3 football is the same game as they play at higher levels, just played by smaller players.

 

[Alum86]

Tell me that there's more pressure at Syracuse than there is at UConn. Tell me that the travel is harder or the obligations are more oppressive.

That's what the P5 is saying. And ultimately, despite Aresco claiming that the conference will keep up, the new rules will make a scholarship at Syracuse much, much more appealing than a scholarship at UConn.

The P5 isn't looking for separation from Idaho - they already have that. They're looking to eliminate the American and MWC now. They've taken the bowls and the television money away completely and now they're looking to suck away the oxygen.

This sums it up. Join a P5 conference or fade into oblivion. The bowl scraps the Aboard Airlines Constantly conference have been thrown are hideous.