I enjoyed college sports while it lasted.

[swardboy]

Heard the Northwestern QB who raised this issue: It only deals with private universities (only 17 in the country play football), it mostly deals with continuing medical expenses for football-related injuries, and further studies into concussions. State universities are not included in the suit.

While these are the main issues I think it will ultimately deal with compensation. And if the student-athlete is now considered an "employee", won't they be responsible for taxes on all benefits? For example, taxes on a $250,000 education?

[ouflak]

The NCAA isn't making billions. The NCAA's budget is quite small.

Oooops! 10.8 billion dollar TV deal!

[PrideMom]

I do not understand going into debt to go to school. I worked full time and went to night school, it took me ten years to get my first degree in education, then I went back and got another degree in accounting because my employer said I had to have it to get a bigger position in the company. Then the company was bought by T. Boone and I was out of a job.

[Soonerjeepman]

As I sat and ate my chicken sandwich at the sports bar last night they had the NCAA Indoor track championships on....wonder if they'll get to unionize...? noticing that there was NO ONE watching them..

[badger]

Are you talking only about the 23 schools with athletic departments that actually make money?

I know that's the common argument when saying that college athletes shouldn't be paid, but I doubt anyone here believes that athletic departments don't fudge the numbers a lot to make it seem like they're non-profit (or in the red).

For example, the endless OU t-shirts that they sell on gamedays? Clearly, an academic institution's product unrelated to athletics.

The athletic scholarships that are endowed and therefore no longer an expense (at least entirely) of the department? We still are writing checks, aren't we? Expense report!

I'm sure there's more examples of how athletic departments easily cover themselves and their expenses/revenues to ensure that they never "make" too much money.

[FaninAma]

I say pay them but take away their tuition scholarships and room and board. They should be treated the same as any other employee of the state or university.

[BoulderSooner79]

I say pay them but take away their tuition scholarships and room and board. They should be treated the same as any other employee of the state or university.

Then you could kiss big time CFB goodbye. In the case of NW, that's $75k/yr tuition. Everyone assumes unions are bad forgetting what this country was like before they existed. Unions are bad when they have too much power or leverage - just as industries can be bad if workers have too little. I know it's a grey area to even consider CFB players as employees, but even if that holds up, there is no way such a union would *ever* have much leverage/power. It could be a good thing if it causes the NCAA to back off a bit and allow the schools to provide weekend meals or a little cash. But athletes going on strike or something like that? Yeah, right - and endanger their NFL or NBA chances. Not gonna happen. As for other sports, who would notice? Zero leverage.

[jkjsooner]

Oooops! 10.8 billion dollar TV deal!

Billions over many years. Only a tiny fraction of that money stays within the NCAA organization itself. Most of it is distributed back to the member institutions.

"The NCAA" does have a staff and executives and I'm sure they're paid well but it is not a behemoth that accumulates billions a year as some believe.

Where does the NCAA’s revenue come from?
Television and marketing rights fees, mostly from the Division I men’s basketball championship, generate 90 percent of revenues. Championship ticket sales provide most of the remaining revenue. Current revenues total approximately $800 million.

How are NCAA funds distributed?
Ninety-six percent of NCAA expenses benefit student-athletes at member schools through services or direct distributions. The NCAA supports operational expenses and student-athlete travel expenses for 89 national championships in 23 sports. The association also provides catastrophic-injury insurance coverage for all student-athletes and various scholarship, grant and internship programs. The NCAA and member schools together award more than $2.4 billion in athletic scholarships every year to more than 150,000 student-athletes.

[jkjsooner]

I know that's the common argument when saying that college athletes shouldn't be paid, but I doubt anyone here believes that athletic departments don't fudge the numbers a lot to make it seem like they're non-profit (or in the red).

You can ignore reality all you want. The numbers are the numbers.

Does the rest of the university make money off of the athletic department. Sure. Am I buying that t-shirt because I went to OU or because I like the football team. Who knows? That is still not money directly available to the athletic department which could be used for compensation of players and if it is then it's on their budget.

A large percentage of schools have general student fees to help pay for athletics. In fact, even among the 23 who were in the black, 16 received some type of subsidy.

You seem to be denying reality because you have some sort of grudge against the NCAA or athletic departments.

[jkjsooner]

One sports legal expert on Marketplace yesterday said something interesting. I'm curious about how this would play out in the courts.

The host asked if the players could demand money. The expert responded, "Of course but then the NCAA would simply declare them ineligible."

It seemed to me that the courts/unions could possible force NW and other private institutions into breaking NCAA rules.


At some point we have to back up and realize that sports leagues have to maintain some level of integrity and fairness. Whether it's little league or NCAA, they have to be able to set eligibility standards without being subjected to being labelled by the courts as being a illegal cartel.

[badger]

You seem to be denying reality because you have some sort of grudge against the NCAA or athletic departments.

nah, i'm just skeptical of both sides as I don't think either side is entirely a victim, nor is either side completely to blame for what is wrong/unfair/etc about college sports.

[NorthernIowaSooner]

They can cut many of them but they would need to keep quite a few women's sports just to balance out the scholarship numbers for Title IX. (Someone here pointed out that Title IX doesn't exactly require equal scholarship numbers but if I remember correctly the easiest and least ambiguous way to be compliant was for scholarships that reflect the gender distribution in the university.)

I'm not so sure scholarships would be a factor anymore. Why give them out if you have to pay players? If they are employees then pay them like a student working their way through college. I may be more cut throat with this than others but there are consequences for actions and they may change their mind when the bill comes tuition.

This might change the whole system.

[BoulderSooner79]

One sports legal expert on Marketplace yesterday said something interesting. I'm curious about how this would play out in the courts.

The host asked if the players could demand money. The expert responded, "Of course but then the NCAA would simply declare them ineligible."

It seemed to me that the courts/unions could possible force NW and other private institutions into breaking NCAA rules.

I think this is the only leverage a union could provide. The school can just defer and say they are following NCAA rules and then the union can sue the NCAA. It would just be nuisance level, but it could be bad PR for the NCAA and they might choose to bend a bit instead of fight it. The NCAA has bigger fish to fry with the elite programs trying to take more control of their sports.

[8timechamps]

nah, i'm just skeptical of both sides as I don't think either side is entirely a victim, nor is either side completely to blame for what is wrong/unfair/etc about college sports.

Fair point badg. I am in the same camp.

[ouflak]

I may be more cut throat with this than others but there are consequences for actions and they may change their mind when the bill comes tuition.

Oh they'll change their mind alright. They'll change their mind about which school to attend, favoring instead the ones that will pay them enough to cover the costs of their tuition and then some. It's all about money now and it will still be all about money. Nothing is going to change that much except maybe who's getting paid.

[Jason White's Third Knee]

I wonder how the IRS will figure in to all of this...

[Pricetag]

If the athletes are employees, does that mean the schools can outsource to save money? Maybe "Kasey Studdard to Texas" wasn't such a joke after all.

[PrideMom]

Now with the Affordable HealthCare Act, no one is supposed to be without health insurance. So that argument doesn't hold up. Also, they want to be considered employees? Be careful there... You can be FIRED for no reason at all. The athlete student that gets a full scholarship is paid with free classes, food, rooms, clothes, trips, tutors, etc. I bet everyone of those that are complaining have Ipods, phones, etc. If they don't have money for dates, they are not budgeting their money.......

[KantoSooner]

I wonder how the IRS will figure in to all of this...

Are schollies today considered 'income'? I know that if an American is employed overseas, a typical benefit is tuition for his/her kids at a local 'American' school. These little money mills generally run $20k/yr or so in Asia. And that's considered income by the IRS.

I wonder if the players at NU have considered that they could easily end up with close to $100K/yr in taxable 'income' before they see a dime of cash (when you count tuition, housing, food, insurance, etc etc.)

[8timechamps]

Are schollies today considered 'income'? I know that if an American is employed overseas, a typical benefit is tuition for his/her kids at a local 'American' school. These little money mills generally run $20k/yr or so in Asia. And that's considered income by the IRS.

I wonder if the players at NU have considered that they could easily end up with close to $100K/yr in taxable 'income' before they see a dime of cash (when you count tuition, housing, food, insurance, etc etc.)

Scholarships are tax-exempt and do not qualify as income...yet. I suspect the NCAA is already building the IRS into their case against this whole thing.