At this level of expenditure, the coaches (and now players) are not valuable employees, they’re positional goods. Sheldon Cooper described this as “the economic principle of Neener Neener.” It’s beyond conspicuous consumption and into the realm of sparing no expense to have something, specifically so no one else can have it.
It’s distasteful enough when it’s 6 billion for a banana duct taped to the wall, but when it’s a meat market for young athletes, it becomes grotesque.
Oh, by the way, for most players who can compete at a p4 level, they need to come from a high school with generous funding for its athletics, spend lots of money on travel ball year round and private coaching and tons of gear, etc. The dream of a pure high school athlete from a poor family who gets a life changing opportunity to go to school thanks to sports is basically over at the p4 level, which is where all this NIL money is. We’re not talking about kids without other options here, we’re taking about kids whose families are trying to recoup their investments that they could’ve just put in a 529.
Thank you for posting. A couple of points stand out for me.
HC salaries. We all know that these salaries are mostly paid by boosters and not by the university themselves. The university does sign the checks but the money is coming from donors. A coach gets fired? The university is getting money by these same boosters. On the flip side, if a mid major can’t afford (does not have big donors) it can only afford a young/hungry HC or a semi retired HC.
The other point has to do with recruiting itself.
Since college sports started money paid under the table to recruit the best athletes was the norm. Even the days before NIL became legal all blue bloods bought the best players. Some do not want to admit it but reality says otherwise. This has been the dirtiest secrets that all in powers knew/know. Cam Newton going to the highest bidder, ole miss is one example among thousands.
A recent audit into uta recruiting is telling us that uta is paying in excess of $49M’s for their recruiting class. We have been told for decades that every athletes wants to go to uta…then why on earth is uta paying close to $50M’s? The same can be said for all blue bloods be osu, michigan, miami (see Ewers example) and others…Then you have the ones that “stopped” paying like USC.
The ncaa put itself into a corner. They never went after blue bloods but went after schools like U of H to protect others like uta. Until we all accept what has really been going on for decades nothing will change.
These athletes might not be paid by the schools but with NIL it is now legal for what was the biggest kept secret.
These athletes have been pros and we have to accept it. You want to change this state of affairs for good? What ought to be done is the following:
A student has to be accepted to college. Why should it be different for an athlete?
School grades and grades only should allow you to compete. Man I can already hear the noise level reaching 11 on the ACDC scale. With this same reasoning how many current athletes would be able to compete? Let’s not beat around the bush here. Let’s be honest with ourselves. These are the uncomfortable questions that ought to be asked. It goes back to the same point.
The nfl refusal to have a minor league. The nfl has used the ncaa to create their own minor league without to spend a penny.
You want to solve this problem? Get the nfl to create a minor league. We all know where this will go.
Solution:
Find the right balance with GPA college acceptance.
Oblige colleges to balance their athletics budgets.
Ratify a contract that stipulates that athletes can be paid a % of gates receipts under the following conditions:
3.0 GPA minimum to get into college and during college. Ghost classes? Independent student audits has to be a reality. You either go to school or not…like other students.
Leave early or trasnfer? Pay the school back for tuition and gates receipts.
These will be a few first steps that for sure will be stopped by many.
Sam Khan Jr. reporting that Nick Saban expected to be named Co-Chair of Presidential Commission on College Sports. Other than symbolic, I don’t know how this Commission will impact the current state of the game. They have no governing authority.
Over the yrs it was mentioned that schools etc would sue if a p2 breakaway happened and many said the gov has better things to do , to which I disagreed bc college athletics does affect the economies of schools, cities and states. I think the Utah senator got involved first to help UTah then Tulane got involved somewhat and the Washington st guy proposed a bill recently. So here is the fed gov stepping in with Sabin. Gov will get involved if there is enough out cry like now so we can forget the p2 stuff bc many will sue. Hopefully they put guard rails on the nil mess. The Texas tech guy on the board might keep it in the interest of the big12 also. I’d be concerned if it were all sec people.
It will be showtime watching Saban and Campbell as co-chairs. Saban has been railing about NIL and Campbell has single-handidly used NIL to build up Texas Tech’s roster.
Get some everyday folks on there who actually works at colleges where NIL and other factors have a bigger impact in terms of losing players they develop
What do those rich people know about the average college student - this is a joke commission at the end of the day if you don’t have a representative from all colleges to her the real impact of NIL
No way tv rights spread evenly. I’m ok with that part not happening. No way the sec or big share it unless they negotiate as 1 big deal then prorate it down but we could get screwed so I’m ok as is .
Right. That whole premise is preposterous. Beyond that, how would Congress legislate equal TV revenues across all NCAA schools unless it’s going to control the funding? The mix of public and private schools alone would make that a non-starter. Further, what’s the public interest in doing such a thing? At this point, it’s too early in the process to know with any certainty what impact the “new world” will have on athletic programs and schools.
There’s such a divergence of views across the spectrum that it’s hard to imagine any group in Congress coalescing around a single solution that makes sense and is workable. I hope they don’t waste time trying.
But if that same starting qb plays for a MAC school and lights it up and generates ratings why not share the wealth. It’s the players that people are watching at the end of the day - if a school sucks they aren’t watching
