One Step Closer to Paying College Athletes

[I_am_1z]

Kain Colter: Regional National Labor Relations Board Says College Athletes Are Employees | The Big Lead

 

[Hangman]

About time

 

[NinerSickness]

It'll never happen.

 

[seattlefan75]

Im not a fan of paying college athletes, if your going to pay these athletes then you should take away scholarships people dont realize how expensive a full ride to a Stanford, Notre Dame, Miami, UCLA etc costs. make them pay out of pocket with the money they earn.

 

[NinerSickness]

Im not a fan of paying college athletes, if your going to pay these athletes then you should take away scholarships people dont realize how expensive a full ride to a Stanford, Notre Dame, Miami, UCLA etc costs. make them pay out of pocket with the money they earn.

That's the first thing that would happen if college athletes were paid.

These schools would also be able to "hire" people who didn't attend their colleges, so it would essentially turn into minor league football with a bunch of NFL wash outs playing there.

It'll never happen.

 

[DoobieKeebler]

About time

Definitely.

And the NCAA's claim that paying football players at 'Bama or basketball players at UNC would mean the dissolution of lacrosse or rugby at BumFuck Blumpkin University is simply extortion.

The academic minds that run some of these storied universities, along with their respected educators that mold the minds of the Fortune 500 CEOs of tomorrow, could easily come up with a practical pay scale for college athletes. But if the NCAA's "party line" is true, that the concept of a pay scale is "just too difficult" for them to create, then they obviously aren't worth THEIR salaries.

Then again, it's the coaches like Mack Brown that make all the money in the collegiate system - heck, more than the collegiate system, the country.

 

[Hangman]

Im not a fan of paying college athletes, if your going to pay these athletes then you should take away scholarships people dont realize how expensive a full ride to a Stanford, Notre Dame, Miami, UCLA etc costs. make them pay out of pocket with the money they earn.

A scholarship is crap. How much does it cost to put an extra seat in a class room? The school makes $10s of millions for adding a few thousand dollars of variable costs. Most of the costs are fixed and the school would be paying them anyway.

 

[DoobieKeebler]

These schools would also be able to "hire" people who didn't attend their colleges, so it would essentially turn into minor league football with a bunch of NFL wash outs playing there.

Sounds like the ol' slippery slope fallacy to me.

 

[NinerSickness]

Sounds like the ol' slippery slope fallacy to me.

"Fallacy?" Have you never heard of the XFL? Those people were employees. College athletes are students. That's why the NCAA is popular. That's why Facebook became popular.

Like I said: it'll never, ever, ever, ever

...ever happen.

 

[Kinzu]

That's the first thing that would happen if college athletes were paid.

These schools would also be able to "hire" people who didn't attend their colleges, so it would essentially turn into minor league football with a bunch of NFL wash outs playing there.

It'll never happen.

I don't see that every happening. Essentially attending the school would be part of the job as the scholarship would still be the main form of payment. I don't think we will ever see non-student athlete's playing for schools. I also don't think we will see bidding wars and contract negotiations over players.

What I expect to happen is for a living expense to be added to the scholarships and for it to be a set amount for all players depending on the sport and the revenue. If anything I could see the payout being a small % of the teams revenue, but I would imagine the NCAA would rather keep it a flat amount across all schools. If it's percentage based of the school's revenue you will just see all the top talent go the the major school's for the bigger payouts.

A living expense of say $1000 a month is nothing a player is going to get reach off of, but it's enough to supplement their work as a student athlete alongside their scholarship. A large portion of the players come from families that can't afford to help them out so they end up over worked and broke student athlete's.

I've also said before a great stipulation to this would be to tie their living expense into their grades. The higher the GPA the more the student gets paid. This gives an incentive to the student part of the student athlete. The one's maintaining their grades while being an athlete deserve more than the one's just their to be an athlete.

 

[NinerSickness]

I don't see that every happening. Essentially attending the school would be part of the job as the scholarship would still be the main form of payment.

This is how people who live in "should land" think. In real life, if these players became employees, the school would have no incentive at all to give them scholarships In the first place. The only reason those scholarships are around is because of boosters.

Also, you could kiss every other college sport goodbye if the NCAA goes the way of the XFL because they're all funded by college football (except men's basketball & maybe 1 or 2 other sports that break even). That means thousands of staff members get eliminated across the country. Do you think the schools are going to let that happen? Academia & the courts are essentially lock-step in agreement with one another. The courts are not going to let this happen. One bureaucrat in Chicago is not going to convince the courts to essentially sink a billion-dollar industry.

 

[sjballer03]

On a related note, in case anyone was interested.

National Labor Relations Board rules in favor of Northwestern football players attempting to unionize | Campus Union - SI.com

 

[MHSL82]

I've also said before a great stipulation to this would be to tie their living expense into their grades. The higher the GPA the more the student gets paid. This gives an incentive to the student part of the student athlete. The one's maintaining their grades while being an athlete deserve more than the one's just their to be an athlete.

Even though it could be merit-based, people would eventually say this was somewhat racist and they would have some report showing how minorities received less and this was designed. At the best, you would get further accusations of schools helping forge grades, maybe even as a form of negotiating a contract. Grades? Don't worry about those (within reason). It would also be contended that it punished those more dedicated to the team. Minimum grades are required already so that should suffice. Kickers and backups paid more? (More time to study and more likely to know they need good grades because they aren't NFL bound.)

 

[MHSL82]

This is how people who live in "should land" think. In real life, if these players became employees, the school would have no incentive at all to give them scholarships In the first place. The only reason those scholarships are around is because of boosters.

Also, you could kiss every other college sport goodbye if the NCAA goes the way of the XFL because they're all funded by college football (except men's basketball & maybe 1 or 2 other sports that break even). That means thousands of staff members get eliminated across the country. Do you think the schools are going to let that happen? Academia & the courts are essentially lock-step in agreement with one another. The courts are not going to let this happen. One bureaucrat in Chicago is not going to convince the courts to essentially sink a billion-dollar industry.

I think I've heard it suggested that schools could have more independence in obtaining TV deals, etc. to be outside of the NCAA so they could fund other sports and remove the money grab from NCAA (it would just be a school money grab instead, though). They already can, but take more away from NCAA, make it smaller. But this would have to be forced, as the NCAA wouldn't voluntarily contract. Plus, small teams would be disadvantaged more.

 

[seattlefan75]

also if they start paying players then big time schools that make a ton of money like an alabama that have state of the art training facilities would pay all this money for 5 star athletes and the smaller schools like a UAB or Troy would never be able to compete

 

[-AC-]

Lots to consider here...

Everyone always seems to overlook all of the student athletes when this subject comes up. Most people focus strictly on Football and occasionally Basketball. What would be the solution for the rest of the student athletes that don't play a multi-billion dollar sport like Football?

Should the unionization come to be, it will obviously evolve over time. Eventually they will look for financial compensation as 'employees' always seem to do. If this were to happen, the NCAA could easily counter by no longer providing housing, food, books, tutors, everyday supplies and everything else that each school provides with a full ride scholarship. I wonder if student athletes are prepared to pay for all of these things that they would otherwise have covered in the current situation?

I am all for what the student athletes (who are trying to form this union) are trying to get. What they have talked about is not unreasonable and all student athletes deserve what these student athletes are asking for. For those who are not paying attention, it is not financial compensation, it is more guaranteed medical benefits that occur from injuries, a guarantee that student athletes will not lose their scholarships because of injuries or certain schools over signing more than they should (SEC we're looking at you) and other benefits like being able to eat more than the current allotted amount of food that is provided. The problem with a union is, eventually they will get to the point of demanding financial compensation.

This whole thing is a shame. If the NCAA had addressed these problems long ago, we wouldn't be in this position right now! If the NCAA were smart, they would allow for some sort of an outlet for the student athletes that wasn't as extreme as a union and the term 'employee' being thrown around. But unfortunately the NCAA has their ass so far up their own rear end that they will fight this head on and just add another nail into their own coffin...

 

[MHSL82]

also if they start paying players then big time schools that make a ton of money like an alabama that have state of the art training facilities would pay all this money for 5 star athletes and the smaller schools like a UAB or Troy would never be able to compete

I'm sure the first step would be either reasonable accommodations. But if they get to paying players money like on a market, then they'd move to steps like this: a maximum for any one player (with a roster limit), a cost per player standardized where you could designate 35 A-paid players (11 offense, 11 defense, 11 special teams, kicker, punter), or a salary cap (maybe too far-fetched). The argument would then be that they are grown adults and should be able to negotiate whatever they want. If so, the teams would want some guarantee that they'd commit a certain number of years. (Long term planning.)

 

[Kinzu]

Even though it could be merit-based, people would eventually say this was somewhat racist and they would have some report showing how minorities received less and this was designed. At the best, you would get further accusations of schools helping forge grades, maybe even as a form of negotiating a contract. Grades? Don't worry about those (within reason). It would also be contended that it punished those more dedicated to the team. Minimum grades are required already so that should suffice. Kickers and backups paid more? (More time to study and more likely to know they need good grades because they aren't NFL bound.)

Nothing wrong at all with backups having higher grades if that's the result then the system would be working as intended. The players that will never make an NFL squad are the one's that would benefit most from a system designed to reward them as students. The starters are the ones in the limelight with chances for much bigger paydays. Besides you're not talking about a huge difference anyway. A kid with a 4.0 maybe gets $1200 while the guy with a 3.0 receives $900.

It's not about paying them as professional athlete's in my opinion. It's about helping players out with some living expenses and teaching them how rewards are handed out and obtained in the real world. It doesn't fully have to be about grades, but they absolutely should factor into it. They could easily add stuff in like everyday your late to practice you lose $50 from you monthly allowance and apply the same stipulation to being late for classes. Bonuses could then be added in for good play on the field. QB goes for over 300 yards they get an extra $50 or a $20 for every Int etc. etc.

Let this same allowance system trickle down to all the other scholarship athlete's only at lesser values. I know it's a bit crappy but sadly the Football players deserve to receive a bigger piece of the pie than the Golf Team.

The biggest issue I see with any system like this is fewer scholarship. School's in an effort to maximize profits would cut smaller programs or stop offering scholarships for them. The NCAA would have to attempt to come up with a way to prevent that from happening.

Would also be a great method for teaching the players about managing their money. The school would not be depositing this money into personal accounts or handing out cash. The players would receive school issued Debit Cards that would be monitored by school officials to insure the money is never going to things that would be considered illegal or against school policy. It also creates a way for the NCAA to monitor payouts, and while yes a system like this could still be cheated by the school's to get higher priority players more money. It would have to done right under the nose of the NCAA who at any moment could pull up the kids payment records and audit them. Any violations would have to have serious repercussions.

 

[imac_21]

also if they start paying players then big time schools that make a ton of money like an alabama that have state of the art training facilities would pay all this money for 5 star athletes and the smaller schools like a UAB or Troy would never be able to compete

When's the last time Troy or UAB competed with Alabama anyway? There would still be roster limits, Bama would get the same players they get now, so would the middle- and lower-tier schools.

I haven't read everything in this thread because we had this discussion a few months ago. I'm not sure how to go about paying them, but I think something needs to be done. I definitely think they should at least be allowed to profit off their likeness(es).

 

[MHSL82]

When's the last time Troy or UAB competed with Alabama anyway? There would still be roster limits, Bama would get the same players they get now, so would the middle- and lower-tier schools.

I haven't read everything in this thread because we had this discussion a few months ago. I'm not sure how to go about paying them, but I think something needs to be done. I definitely think they should at least be allowed to profit off their likeness(es).

I'd be up for more life expenses and allowing them to market themselves (autographs, get a share (however small) in proportion to their jersey sales if any, commercials (if companies deemed any college player big enough and if the player knows the potential distraction), etc. I would also like to limit the money the NCAA limits and dedicate what they make to better causes in student athletics than paying the athletes competitively. Maybe also give schools moe control and opportunities to make money for other programs to make up for what they would now pay for. I don't know what these are and I'm not confident in that happening.