Running SCOTUS thread

While I think this was long overdue, this looks like it will spawn all sorts of unforeseen consequences. There are going to be big boosters offering recruits and players all sorts of inducements to enroll/transfer. It's going to be the Wild, Wild West until the NCAA figures out how to deal with it. Job offers, endorsement and advertising contracts, perhaps no-show/low-show jobs, modelling contracts, personal appearances, you name it. The schools who don't have big boosters willing and able to help with this are going to be at a disadvantage.

The rich get richer.

 

Gonna be fun when they have to declare the NIL income and pay taxes on it. The boosters will have to issue W2 forms, take out SSI, etc., since the athletes will be employees. Their job is being an athlete. So their scholarship is taxable income.

And when the IRS starts counting a scholarship and the cost of attendance stipend as income, since they will essentially be professionals. Alabama's QB will be making more than everyone who covers him.

Definitely gonna be some unintended consequences. Not all of them good for the players, either.

 

Factor in the Transfer Portal, and it's getting ready to be a shit show.

 

Yep. Some changes were necessary but I think at some point we're gonna miss the old days when college athletes were "exploited." Especially if you're a fan of a G6 or FCS program in football and a mid- to low-major basketball program.

 

Gonna be big fun the first time some linebacker gets turfed from his five-figure oil company “internship” for refusing to sing The Eyes of Texas.

 

It should
In my den I have a wall hanging commemorating Michigan State’s national championships, with pictures of Magic Johnson and Mateen Cleaves
Not like Magic needs the $$$ but he should be compensated for stuff like that

 

The ultimate logical solution -- which means it'll never happen -- is for the universities to disconnect their revenue-producing sports programs from a scholarship-based system to a "play for pay" minor league system independent of the educational process.

That also would require the NCAA to revert back to what it was intended for -- an oversight body that operates championships for amateur collegiate athletics, mainly non-revenue producing sports.

In the new scenario, schools could lease their stadiums and arenas for the amount of money needed to fund their non-revenue sports to a "for-profit club" with a board of directors -- perhaps with the NFL or NBA's guidance/checkbook -- which oversees the football and basketball programs independently of the universities.

That would allow 18 to 24 year olds to be recruited to play under contract without having to deal with those pesky GPAs and mandatory classes. However, anyone interested in a college education could then use a portion of the money earned to pay their own tuition like any other enrolled student.

The Gainesville Football Club could play the Athens Football Club in Jacksonville with the same fervor as before, only without the sham of trying to hide under the guise of "student athletes."

The larger question would be figuring out who would sanction these new clubs and how to maintain a competitive and comparative balance.

Obviously, boosters and wealthy alumni would add even more of a disparity, as Neutral Corner previously mentioned. And what counts as a "revenue producing" sport varies from region to region. Wrestling, ice hockey and baseball are three major examples.

And from a devil's advocate viewpoint, athletic revenue is nowhere close to the amount of research funding at a place like Florida. For example, UF spent $801 million on research in 2017, compared to the $159 million it generated in athletic revenue in 2019. But nobody pays $100 to watch a chemist in a lab for three hours.

UF research spending reaches record $801.4 million in 2017 - UF Research
How Florida, FSU athletics rank in revenue, expenses in 2019.

 

That's when I - and many others, I think - check out.

 

Why can’t the universities run the “for profit clubs” in your scenario? The University of Nick Saban already runs bookstores, a commercial TV station, a thriving “off campus” real estate portfolio and even collects mining royalties elsewhere in the state. And it is hardly alone. Universities aren’t virgins when it comes to capitalism. They’ve just asked their athletes to settle for handjobs in the back corner.

 

Najee
Who did I tell you to go to after you sprained your knee?
AFLAC, Coach

 

I may never say this again, but in order to be fair: Bravo Beer Bong Brett.

 

I checked out for good when it was disclosed Dexter Manley literally could not read.