01-14-2025, 03:53 PM
Color me old fashioned, but I don't see the value in paying a bunch of mercenaries big $ to play football with the name of my school on their jersey.
The whole point of college athletics to me was that it was your peers and friends playing the sport. They were your fellow students who also happened to be competing in a sport at a very high level. I was/am proud to support that.
If the players are yearly employees with little to no connection to the university beyond that being who organizes the NIL payouts (or in the future signs their checks)? Competing against other employees of schools that have no historical or geogrpahical ties to Stanford? Might as well pay a pro-team to put a Stanford patch on their uniform. At least we'll see a higher level product.
The whole point of college athletics to me was that it was your peers and friends playing the sport. They were your fellow students who also happened to be competing in a sport at a very high level. I was/am proud to support that.
If the players are yearly employees with little to no connection to the university beyond that being who organizes the NIL payouts (or in the future signs their checks)? Competing against other employees of schools that have no historical or geogrpahical ties to Stanford? Might as well pay a pro-team to put a Stanford patch on their uniform. At least we'll see a higher level product.