OT: The best story on college sports I've ever read

I heard a recent interview with Eric Dickerson who admitted he was paid while at SMU, and he contends that many players get paid, period.

That said, if it were agreed that athletes, especially the revenue producing jocks in football and basketball, should be paid, how would it be determined how much each received? Worse, would the stars demand higher compensation than their less talented comrades? Would we then have strikes when the players decided they were not being paid commensurate with what their "employers,"
their schools, were reaping.

Finally, a playoff system would greatly compromise the last bastion of a sport having a regular season with meaning. Every game is in a sense a playoff game. Where else does that exist?

LAWYER JOHN

This is total BS. As difficult as it is for smaller schools to compete in big-time college athletics, especially smaller schools in less affluent areas, pay for play will destroy many athletic departments. These guys get a $40,000-$60,000 scholarship that covers everything. It's total and utter nonsense that they don't have enough money for a burger or a bus ticket. What they don't have enough money for is a nice car, 60inch LED TV, gold and diamonds, etc... Hell when I was getting financial aid, half scholarships and half grants, I had enough money left over after tuition and room/board to live very comfortably. I had 0 help from my parents. These guys also get nutritionists, strength and position coaches, tutors, countless other perks that cost A LOT of money in the real world. Should I feel sorry for them because they can't drive around in bimmmers and bling? Please.

I'd rather the NFL and NBA get their act together and get a minor league system, and if they don't then (at least in Basketball) declare freshmen ineligible and bypass the stupid one-and-done-rule. I think this could also help in football. If the student is only in it for the minor league experience, let them bypass college. Frankly, the sport and the Universities will be better off without them

I'm ok with the stipend idea that the Big 10 has been floating, but per title 9, it's going to have to be for all sports, even if it is funded through football/basketball revenues. Alternatively, make the pro leagues finance the additional costs for student athletes.

Slavery? How absurd.

No one's forcing any college athlete to play. All on scholarship receive tens of thousands of dollars in compensation over the course of their college career. I'm sure many student-athletes would be grateful for the chance to play at all.

Punish those violating the rules, but don't insult our intelligence by comparing college athletics to slavery. More importantly, don't diminish the real suffering endured by those who've lived and died under the institution.

Amillennialist, the NFL does force them to play. By forcing kids to either go to school or do nothing and get virtually ignored when they're of age, players don't have a choice. The NBA does the same thing. It forces them to go to college or to run thousands of miles away to other countries where they have no business being in the first place.

The fact is that it's a broken system. People are making millions upon millions of dollars off of 18-22 year olds. You can't eat an education. You can't buy gas with it. The athletes aren't even being given the proper tools needed to use that education post-school.

We are all entitled to use our own labor to ply a trade in exchange for compensation to enjoy life and provide for our families. Some of us use our labor from our minds as writers or lawyers. Some of us use our labor from our hands as doctors and artisans. For some, their only marketable labor is the engagement in athletic events. To create a cartel in violation of this nation's antitrust laws to require those to ply their trade for no compensation, or for compensation substantially less than market value, reeks of slavery at its worst and feudalism at its best.

Some of these athletes have families to support. They have a right to use their labor and ply their trade to support their families. They are being barred from doing so under the auspice of "student athlete". Who are any of us to say, "You, sir, are not entitled to fair compensation for the labor you produce" while at the same time forcing that man into an educational system with little or no choice or alternative but to enter that system. Not all of us are cut out for higher education. There is no shame in that. But to force someone into the system while at the same time grossly profiting from their labor is unjust, to put it plainly.

Fortunately, other major sports provide a for-compensation alternative to being a "student athlete". Baseball and hockey have minor league systems. Basketball has a developmental league and overseas alternatives. Football has none. Either a player enters the "student athlete" system or the player is boycotted from entering the labor force for at least 2-3 years.

I guess $40k to 60k a year doesn't qualify as compensation? Or do minor league hockey and baseball players have it that much better than full-scholarship university athletes?

Football players are on scholarship......they are getting paid and in addition, given the odds a quarter of them would not have gotten into UCLA otherwise. If they need a C-note a month for a burger, no one is going to, give a sh+t....just have the NCAA write it into the bylaws.......anything more than that and then the student body of any school is going to get angry and just look upon the players as mercenaries......

System is not broke it just needs to be policed better.

"the NFL does force them to play. By forcing kids to either go to school or do nothing and get virtually ignored when they're of age, players don't have a choice."

So, historically, slavery required those living under it to play games in exchange for undergraduate degrees at esteemed institutions of higher learning, and eventually, if they were good enough, they were paid millions of dollars annually to run around in their shorts chasing a ball? That's the barbarism of which Thomas Jefferson observed, "If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong"? That's what led eventuall to the Civil War?

Take off the race-tinted glasses for a moment: Someone who wants to be a teacher has to earn their degree, earn their credential, and intern. That's slavery, too, right? After all, "by forcing kids to either go to school or do nothing and get virtually ignored when they're of age, [teachers] don't have a choice."

If these young men don't want to play football, they don't have to. That's a freedom of choice actual slaves never possessed. They had (have) no Liberty, unless you call slavery or death "options."

With all due respect, the analogy is inapt.

"the NFL does force them to play. By forcing kids to either go to school or do nothing and get virtually ignored when they're of age, players don't have a choice."

So, historically, slavery required those living under it to play games in exchange for undergraduate degrees at esteemed institutions of higher learning, and eventually, if they were good enough, they were paid millions of dollars annually to run around in their shorts chasing a ball? That's the barbarism of which Abraham Lincoln observed, "If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong"? That's what led eventually to the Civil War?

Take off the race-tinted glasses for a moment: Someone who wants to be a teacher has to earn their degree, earn their credential, and intern. That's slavery, too, right? After all, "by forcing kids to either go to school or do nothing and get virtually ignored when they're of age, [teachers] don't have a choice."

If these young men don't want to play football, they don't have to. That's a freedom of choice actual slaves never possessed. They had (have) no Liberty, unless you call slavery or death "options."

With all due respect, the analogy is inapt.

Ya want a level playing field? Well here's a level playing field for big schools and small, get varsity athletics out of colleges and universities period. It ain't part of a 'higher' education and the 'real' money is in the for-profit professional franchises. Let them fund and administer their own minor leagues. This will shift the burden onto the pro owners who are raking in the bucks and onto the marginal athletes coming out of high school to step up, roll the dice and live with the consequences. The 'stars' will always be taken care of. As it is, once the revenue created by the football and basketball programs is divvied up to support the non-revenue producing sports, it's pretty much a wash for the school anyway. The bloated division 1 athletic departments will go away and the focus of the university can go back to what it was intended to be all along. Case closed.

But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes

Scandal? Ahem. They ARE already paid. Free ride, plus sneakers, sweats, training table, medical care, room/board, tuition, books, incidentals, free tutoring and often getting TAs to give them the test questions beforehand, free coaching, etc. And the biggest “payment” in most cases is the chance to go to a college they otherwise would not get a chance to w/o athletics. Then, they get FREE marketing on TV, press, radio, etc. so they can possibly make millions of dollars some day. And now they want to get “paid” to boot? Shame of college sports? Shameless (and apparently thankless) shills for so-called “exploitation”!

Oh, and Jon, you need to read more. A LOT more. "Best story"? Wow, talk about hyperbole.

U of Chicago dropped out of the Big Ten Conference in 1939 when it became patently clear that some of the 'student athletes' only showed-up on campus on Fall afternoons for practice and at the stadium on Saturday to play in games. For almost a quarter of a century there was no organized football on campus.

Although the loss of 'big time' college football shook the alumni, the U of C survived and has done well in its continuing mission to educate students, while not having to train athletes for the professional ranks.

The Atlantic article Mr. Gold made available encapsulates the myth of “wholesome” athletics touted each fall as being an important component of the modern university experience. I agree with Mr. Ryerson’s contention to get all ‘big money” athletics off campus, but universities are trapped by the money maw. Most will never give up the revenue stream and students will cry about not having bragging rights about wins and championships, especially with college team blog writers and their readers who refer to “our team” as if they are players.

The reality is that big money college football and basketball are here to stay for most schools, although some have recently dropped football, specifically Hofstra (former FCS school), which was referred to derogatorily as being small potatoes by former Texas coach Darryl Royal.

For me watching from the clouds above, I enjoy watching football being played by student-athletes in Division III games now played at U of C. The relative talent among competitors allows for an enjoyable 2-hour entertainment experience without the hoopla and hype of BCS schools.

But that’s just the opinion of a dead former coach, who was instrumental in inventing the modern game.

MRyer: Interesting take.