Real Sports story implicates Auburn, other schools

Except for the cartels set up by the NCAA and its member institutions, the NBA, and the NFL.

 

Those aren't the only leagues that pay guys to play.

 

For football it's just the NFL and the SEC.

 

Haha.

On a serious note, one need not be the sole option available to possess market power--and raise antitrust concerns.

 

+1.

We've seen basketball players go overseas to play out of high school. I doubt that becomes a trend, but if you want to get paid for your talents, try something else.

Here's a novel idea: You can quit your sport and just be a student in protest of not being paid money.

 

So, by your logic, it would be perfectly acceptable for every newspaper, magazine and website in the U.S. to openly collude and agree that they would pay their employees no more than minimum wage? Tough luck writers-pick a new field or go overseas.

 

They already did that.

 

Or the athletes could just continue to do what they're doing, which is take money under the table, which doesn't seem to bother or disturb anyone until Yahoo Sports reports on it. I don't see why you put the onus on the athletes to reform themselves. Those guys did just fine in the system, they are paying no penalty for it, and whatever the NCAA thinks about it doesn't mean a hill of beans to them anymore.

I am not taking issue with Yahoo Sports here, they do a fantastic job and I am starting to believe Dan Wetzel will deserve a Nobel Prize if he takes down the BCS. But you never see the NCAA just up and say "How the fuck did O.J. Mayo end up at USC/Cam Newton end up at Auburn/Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans end up at Memphis, maybe we ought to look into that." They only get shamed into doing stuff.

Reggie Bush had to give up his Heisman. Big whoop. He knows he won it and you know he won it and I know he won it, just as we know which team Kansas beat in the 2008 NCAA championship and we know who were the back-to-back runners-up in 1992 and '93 and we know Kentucky isn't going to give $4 million a year to a coach who has never been to the Final Four, which is "officially" what it did.

And out of all that bullshit, the only thing you think should change is that the athletes should voluntarily deny themselves a piece.

 

Am watching the HBO thing right now. Former UMass player Rico Nunez just detailed how in 95 a group of the nation's best basketball players allegedly organized a planned revolt where they would all refuse to participate in the NCAA tournament to protest their exploitation, but it broke down when some got cold feet.

And that was allegedly in 95, the system's inequities are far more glaring now. I would have no problem applauding players with the balls to attempt something like that today.

 

Which would be great and all if, you know, they were actually being educated.

How many days of classes have teams in the Final Four missed in the last month? I'd say more than half. And yet, they supposedly can receive tutoring help, which the majority of the student population does not receive. If it was money, instead of tutoring help, the NCAA would consider it an "extra benefit". Yet, the athlete-students can receive this benefit. More hypocrisy.

As I've ranted on here numerous times, just let the kids earn whatever they want to outside of their scholarship. Regular students on academic scholarships are allowed to receive extra monies from whomever. If some guy wants to buy a regular student a beer, he's allowed to.

Why is it that the NCAA insists that athletes be treated the same as students, except when it comes to compensation freedom? More hypocrisy.

 

I know it's fashionable to lament coaches' salaries vs. players' scholarships, but like it or not, this is the way things work in academia to some extent: Tenured people get the cash and grad students do the grunt work of research.

 

Cover a major college program for a couple of years. Pay attention. See how much free everything the players get. Health care. Meals. Supplements. Muscle Milk. Powerade. Weight-room access. Top-flight training. High-tech tutors. Favorable class schedules. Books. Gear. Travel. Nutritionists. Help with social skills and public speaking. A full, um, dance card. Mentoring. A multitude of community outreach and other programs that teach them to network and connect with the world beyond campus. An education that, if they choose to take advantage, is worth near or at seven figures in a lifetime.

Then tell me with a straight face about their exploitation.

Yeah, I know people make money off them. Show me how to give them a cut that will make it through the courts. Can't happen. Won't happen.

Find a better deal, guys, if you don't like this one. Meanwhile, don't try to sell me the bullshit I smell and call it an apple. You really want a worthwhile change? Give their scholarships to someone who wants to learn and maybe help fix this broken, entitlement-addicted country.

I do not weep for major college athletes.