NY Times: UM Regent Acker advocates paying players
UM Regent Jordan Acker makes 2 main points in a New York Times guest essay:
1. Players should be paid.
2. The NCAA should either lead or get out of the way. (He suggests replacing the NCAA if it keeps fighting payment.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/opinion/college-sports-broken.html
September 21st, 2023 at 10:57 AM ^
Beta - respectfully, I think you have inaccurate information. Shedeur purchased a Mercedes Maybach - about $190K, and is considering buying a Rolls. I don't think he's purchased the Rolls yet.
Your point is quite fair and accurate. And, though I support athletes and NIL in principle, it's just another example of excess and lack of controls by the friendly NCAA.
I wonder how many boosters will say - "Young Man, you're a five star prospect - there's a group of this team's supporters who will pay you $2M if you sign ten pics of you in the team jersey and commit to the team." This is just a complete mess - and, it's not going to change.
Oh - what color Rolls would you like - the boosters will find, or buy, one for you too...
September 21st, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
I'm reading Shedeur drives a Cullinan, just like his hero (Tom Brady) drives. (Note: I have been wrong before, however). Nothing as plebeian is a Maybach --- a Rolls. 😁 Nice car:
September 21st, 2023 at 11:00 AM ^
You do know who Shedeur's daddy is, right?
September 21st, 2023 at 10:35 AM ^
When it comes to paying players, at least for football and basketball, I think that ship has sailed whether I like it or not and university are running minor league professional sports franchises just like they run hospital enterprises.
When the red hat guy went on the field last week with eleven seconds left, I realized that much of what I like about college football is left to nostalgia and that I will have to like the new college football for what it is.
September 21st, 2023 at 3:19 PM ^
I agree. Call me old but there's already a professional football league. When this all came up, I thought a good way of doing it would be to give the players their share of revenue upon graduation, and upon completion of a course that teaches them about managing money. The player may or may not take it seriously but universities are in the business of preparing their students for life after college. If they're still going to be "student athletes," the student part has to be taken seriously or this is all just false bullshit, and college football is just NFL lite.
September 21st, 2023 at 11:07 AM ^
Gene Smith and Cardale Jones said schools need to pay $5K to $15K for 5* kids just to visit campus.
NCAA needs to become like all American sports and have a players union and standard contract.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:29 PM ^
He suggests replacing the NCAA if it keeps fighting payment.
Do it.
September 21st, 2023 at 12:38 PM ^
Everyone hates the NCAA so they’re an easy target, but I’ve yet to hear a solution for universities to:
1) Pay each athlete their worth, whether it be as an individual or as part of collective bargaining
2) Remain compliant with Title IX
Barring major reform, it’s impossible in my opinion. And if the answer is to give every single athlete the same stipend, isn’t that a complete violation of every pillar of capitalism?
September 21st, 2023 at 12:44 PM ^
I do hate the NCAA and I think based on the OP, Acker was either saying the NCAA should try to be part of the solution or get out of the way.
But I agree that I have yet to hear a practical solution. I think people in position to do something should start looking for one.
But the other issue is who has the incentive to go out of their way to try to pay players? Players have threatened to strike at the Final Four but it's hard to see players en masse ever walking out. They're all just temporarily there anyway.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:40 PM ^
In theory, the simple solution is to rewrite Title IX so it captures the essence of college sports in 2023 and beyond as opposed to what it was in the 60’s and early 70’s. I’m just spitballing, but clauses could include how compensation for athletes would work; maybe it could be written in a way that gives carveouts for “revenue” sports.
Whether something like that would stand up to lawsuits from various women’s-rights groups is another question entirely. If you want to call a spade a spade, 99% of the entire argument in this thread is about colleges funneling more money to male athletes opposed to women, which is going to create a large optics problem no matter how you go about it.
Given all that, I have no idea how one organization would go about finding a president, 50.1% of senators and 50.1% of house members that would want to undertake this issue, but I have also been plenty wrong about things in my life before.
September 21st, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
This is obviously where everything is headed. While I fully support these athletes getting paid, I am... frustrated ... by the decades of sheer greed that has led to this point. But, if we're cutting athletes in on a percentage of the revnue then it's time we give up the veneer of "student-athlete" and call it what it is - a professional feeder league to the NFL. No more square peg round hole - transfer rules, classroom attendance, grades that one school says is OK but another doesn't. Just make contracts, free agency, whatever union-negotiated benefit you want.
College football should become it's own entity - independent contractors for a university. And if the kids want to go to school, fine - but let's cut the crap of a "student-athlete." These are professional athletes striving for a lucrative NFL career. Stop mandating hours in class and maximum hours in practice and just acknowledge what we already all know.
September 21st, 2023 at 8:19 PM ^
Here's where I am on this:
No pay beyond a full ride. If they want to be paid, professional athletes, let them go play for the NFL, NBA, D League or one of the other professional leagues.
Let college sports go back to being real amateur athletics with student-athlete participants, emphasis on the student part.