"The Shame of College Sports"

[nmajdan]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/?single_page=true

A very long but incredibly interesting article about the NCAA.

[IslandSooner]

Ugh, too long to read at work...

[silverwheels]

Yeah, this is going to have to be read in increments, haha. Good stuff so far, though.

[hornswaggled]

As an amateur tv viewer, I wonder when the NCAA is going to start paying me. I own the eyeballs that the networks count when deciding how much they can charge their sponsors, thus I generate the revenue the whole system relies on. I wanna get paid.
--
hornswaggled

[badger]

I tried to read it all. I really did. I made it about halfway through when it got to be too long. I know the NCAA has a crummy past and that college sports isn't perfect, but it's like the lovable mutts that just chewed up your antique Nintendo tapes, their cases and their original cardboard boxes while you were away at work. They are likely never going to be replaced and you had them and kept them in near-mint condition since elementary school... but as upset as you are at those mutts, you love em anyway.

[NormanPride]

I have apologized for the dogs on countless occasions, and am doing everything within my power to ensure the situation does not occur again.

[silverwheels]

For all the outrage, the real scandal is not that students are getting illegally paid or recruited, it’s that two of the noble principles on which the NCAA justifies its existence—“amateurism” and the “student-athlete”—are cynical hoaxes, legalistic confections propagated by the universities so they can exploit the skills and fame of young athletes. The tragedy at the heart of college sports is not that some college athletes are getting paid, but that more of them are not

Yep.

[Lott's Bandana]

I have apologized for the dogs on countless occasions, and am doing everything within my power to ensure the situation does not occur again.

NP - http://www.ebay.com/sch/Wholesale-Lots-/48749/i.html?_nkw=nintendo&_catref=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1538


Shhhhhh.

[GDC]

Them's a lot of werds.

[GreenSooner]

A long article, but definitely worth reading. Makes the NCAA look terrible...not that that's very hard to do.

[badger]

I have apologized for the dogs on countless occasions, and am doing everything within my power to ensure the situation does not occur again.

You see, I insist repeatedly that I am not upset about this and NP insists on apologizing repeatedly anyway. Is marriage supposed to be one big standoff or something? :D

[soonerboomer93]

I have apologized for the dogs on countless occasions, and am doing everything within my power to ensure the situation does not occur again.

Did you make sure not to mention that the dogs chewed them up because you spilled bacon grease on the box accidentally?

[Mississippi Sooner]

Pups is pups.


(I haven't seen a Little Rascals reference around here lately.)

[hornswaggled]

It's easy to see that the NCAA is a defacto farm program for the NFL and is exploiting collegiate football talent for monetary gain. Both the NCAA and NFL benefit from this farm program, so they mutually support each other in legal matters. Here are two examples :

"The NFL age requirement bars young football players from turning pro
right after high school. This NFL rule withstood court challenge in 2004. The NFL and NCAA claim that the NFL age requirement protects young athletes by shielding them from physical injury and requiring them to mature emotionally and receive an education before entering the world of professional sports.
In fact, the NFL and NCAA are capitalizing on young athletes' entertainment value and turning a profit for three years, without compensating the "performers"."
http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/age-requirement-professional-sport

"The league informed teams that Pryor "made decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the NFL draft." Among those actions, the league said, were the hiring of an agent in violation of NCAA rules and a failure to cooperate with the investigation that cost then-Ohio State coach Jim Tressel his job. The NCAA committee on infractions is working to determine the school's final penalties."
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8218c80e/article/nfl-rules-pryor-eligible-says-he-must-sit-out-first-five-games

However, to compare the current collegiate system to slavery, as this article does, is hyperbole. If you really want to see college players get paid then get ready for the sport to be dominated by perennial powerhouse teams that can afford to buy the best players (eg. NY Yankees). Otherwise, the sport should remain amateur and the players who want to play professionally should be allowed to skip the scholarship education. and go pro.

The NHL, MLB, and NBA (probably tennis and soccer leagues too) all have rules that allow a player to go pro without waiting more than a year out of high school. The NFL doesn't want to change their rules, because the collegiate system currently gives them more time to evaluate talent without being financially responsible for the players' welfare. The NCAA doesn't want to let go of the revenue generated by the big-time professional prospects. As a result college football ends up being degraded by a few five-star prima donnas who are too full of themselves to care about the rules.

--
hornswaggled

[Caboose]

Yep.

Nope.

[silverwheels]

This is me caring.

[Caboose]

This is me caring too.

[BajaOklahoma]

So Spurrier is copying Switzer's belief that players should be paid a monthly stipend.

[agoo758]

It's amazing how the stupidity of the anti-paying athletes crowd never ceases to resonate.

[Joe Kidd]

While the idea of amateurism in Football and Basketball and to a lesser extent Baseball is kind of a joke, it is still true in many of the other sports. Paying athletes in Football and Basketball would do a lot to decimate those sports especially on the male side. And those are sports that seem to be doing what giving out scholarships in them originally was the intent, increasing the educational opportunities available.

It seems easy to me to see what would happen if schools had to start paying ever more to athletes to get them to come. Every university would cut down to the minimum 6 men's and 8 women's sports. The men would actually probably be even more morphed as teams with identical rosters would be the go to, cross country, indoor and outdoor track. Another sport with a relatively small roster such as Golf seems to be the likely 6th sport. This way it will be easier to maintain Title IX compliance with your 8 women's sports.

I'm sure for some that wouldn't be a big deal, but it just seems sad to me.

[Zing]

it's like the lovable mutts that just chewed up your antique Nintendo tapes, their cases and their original cardboard boxes while you were away at work.

Oh, no, Nintendo carts are officially antique? I'm getting old...

[cleller]

Just tell me, is the answer: Miami, USC and Texas?