[BostonCard]

Hate to say it, but college sports - at least football and likely hoops - are about to become a joke. Personally, I've been on the side of paying scholarship athletes "something" e.g. maybe three grand a month or whatever - so they don't have to work while in school. Never even had a set number in mind. But, the fact that some players - even if only a handful - can make millions while in college is just absurd.

Gee, who could have possibly foreseen this turn of events?  (Well, other than EVERYONE who had even a modicum of a clue).

And here's the really absurd part: this isn't even what Kavanaugh was lamenting about - "unpaid labor" - in his recent concurring opinion.  NIL isn't about paying "labor" anything, nor is it about paying the people for the value they bring to the table.  What's CRAZY about NIL compensation is that it has nothing (or almost nothing) to do with what the individual athlete uniquely brings to the table; and everything (or almost everything) to do with the fact that he is playing for college X or university Y.  In this case, Alabama.

If this continues, Stanford will be out of major sports in 5 years . . . 10 years, max.

The issue started when Ed O'Bannon (yes, that Ed O'Bannon) saw that the NCAA had licensed his image out to a video game and he didn't see one dime.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/...gal-cartel

Yes, what has happened is probably the beginning of the end, but the NCAA has wrought this unto itself.  Even if you believe that student athletes should not be able to leverage their participation in NCAA sports to make money, we can probably all agree that the NCAA shouldn't be able to make money off their player's NIL's if the players themselves are not allowed to share.  O'Bannon had a good case that this was exploitative.

By the way, in the meantime, yesterday it was reported that Mark Emmert made $2.9 million in 2019.  The crazy thing is that this would not have been a crazy number for a professional sports league (I mean, Roger Goodell's salary was $40 million, Gary Bettman makes $9.6 million as commissioner of the NHL).  But it is ridiculous for an organization that purports that its players are amateurs.  Amateurism for thee but not for me, as the saying goes.

The NCAA has only itself to blame for its destruction.

BC

[BostonCard]

Hate to say it, but college sports - at least football and likely hoops - are about to become a joke. Personally, I've been on the side of paying scholarship athletes "something" e.g. maybe three grand a month or whatever - so they don't have to work while in school. Never even had a set number in mind. But, the fact that some players - even if only a handful - can make millions while in college is just absurd.

Gee, who could have possibly foreseen this turn of events?  (Well, other than EVERYONE who had even a modicum of a clue).

And here's the really absurd part: this isn't even what Kavanaugh was lamenting about - "unpaid labor" - in his recent concurring opinion.  NIL isn't about paying "labor" anything, nor is it about paying the people for the value they bring to the table.  What's CRAZY about NIL compensation is that it has nothing (or almost nothing) to do with what the individual athlete uniquely brings to the table; and everything (or almost everything) to do with the fact that he is playing for college X or university Y.  In this case, Alabama.

If this continues, Stanford will be out of major sports in 5 years . . . 10 years, max.

The issue started when Ed O'Bannon (yes, that Ed O'Bannon) saw that the NCAA had licensed his image out to a video game and he didn't see one dime.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/...gal-cartel

Yes, what has happened is probably the beginning of the end, but the NCAA has wrought this unto itself.  Even if you believe that student athletes should not be able to leverage their participation in NCAA sports to make money, we can probably all agree that the NCAA shouldn't be able to make money off their player's NIL's if the players themselves are not allowed to share.  O'Bannon had a good case that this was exploitative.

By the way, in the meantime, yesterday it was reported that Mark Emmert made $2.9 million in 2019.  The crazy thing is that this would not have been a crazy number for a professional sports league (I mean, Roger Goodell's salary was $40 million, Gary Bettman makes $9.6 million as commissioner of the NHL).  But it is ridiculous for an organization that purports that its players are amateurs.  Amateurism for thee but not for me, as the saying goes.

The NCAA has only itself to blame for its destruction.

BC