The stipend of all stipends!

[zooropa]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

There's a big difference between the Ed O'Bannon case, which involves the NCAA claiming perpetual, irrevocable and unlimited rights to the likenesses of players, and the issue of compensating players while they're enrolled in a university.

See, it's like this: What if I'm an employee of Bob's Widget Company, and I invent a new way of making widgets.

In the first year that Bob's Widget Company uses my new method, they save $10M. Because of these savings, the CEO gets a $2M bonus that he uses to buy a used jet.

I get a $1k profit sharing check, just like everyone else.

Is that fair? Probably not.

Is it illegal? No.

[Prairiehaas]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Or for a real life example check out the invention of teflon.

[Theee Catrabbit]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Does anyone really think $2000 is going to stop any players in the bigger schools from taking gifts? It's really kind of a laughable number when you consider what the guys at Miami were getting from their sugar daddy. To me, it's a slippery slope for the NCAA, because now schools will lobby "It's not enough". Right now it's a smaller pill that many can swallow as "Alright, i think we can afford this".

[Prairiehaas]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Wrong, right or otherwise, this stipend will change the face of college athletics. This will accelerate the movement of student athletes to richer programs. It will increase the difference in talent between schools in conferences and leagues. Stipends will grow. Taken to logical conclusion several large programs at schools that can afford it will become essentially "professional" with athletes that are paid but aren't really students.

Question is, what can the NCAA do when a smll group of schools form a sports league that is essentially professional and will generate more money than all the rest of college athletics?

[filbert]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Wrong, right or otherwise, this stipend will change the face of college athletics. This will accelerate the movement of student athletes to richer programs. It will increase the difference in talent between schools in conferences and leagues. Stipends will grow. Taken to logical conclusion several large programs at schools that can afford it will become essentially "professional" with athletes that are paid but aren't really students.

Question is, what can the NCAA do when a smll group of schools form a sports league that is essentially professional and will generate more money than all the rest of college athletics?

They already have. It's called the BCS.

[zooropa]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Wrong, right or otherwise, this stipend will change the face of college athletics. This will accelerate the movement of student athletes to richer programs.

I disagree. This stipend is no different than many scholarships outside of the athletic realm. It's not outright pay-for-play, in that it's difficult to grasp how a student is going to get rich when probably half of his stipend is going to go for books and the other half for extra meals.

If the stipend creates any advantage, it's this: Less expensive schools will be able to put better offers on the table. From this point forward, not all full rides are created equal.

[Prairiehaas]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Yes. That is why I believe that schools with greater resources, more money, will be able to attract more and better players by offering stipends.

And, I believe the richer schools will lobby the NCAA to increase the value of stipends. This will likely go on until the schools with the richest athletic programs at schools with lower academic standards (I'm thinking of Texas and Alabama as examples) are able to obtain such and advantage in athletic talent that they can break away from NCAA (or dictate) and establish an upper echelon league.

[goon]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

I guess many get their education for free. I guess if they need extra money to pay for stuff they could just get student loans like everyone else who needs extra money for college expenses.

[Prairiehaas]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Or perhaps the NCAA should take the money generated by their marketing and distribute that equally to all the athletes as a stipend?

[CatchEmAll]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Here's a horrible analogy....

Google, Apple, Microsoft...all multi-billion dollar companies that pay workers a salary and benefits, bonuses in some cases I'm sure. Capitalism at it's finest. Someone is making a boatload of money off of the work of thousands who do not see a fair share of the profits. So now we have an industry, college athletics, where certain student athletes in the "money making" sports are, over the course of four to five years receiving the equivalent of up to $100,000 plus (in some cases) in educational opportunities that would not be otherwise afforded to them without an equivalent cost that they would have to fund in some way (i.e. loans, grants, parents) in exchange for "work". You do something for me (play football, basketball), I give you something in return (an education to help you have a career after four to five years). Now we have people saying that these "workers" (the student-athletes) need more money in return for their services because a free education isn't enough. So let's give them an additional $2,000, which most universities will not be able to easily fund, because they can't go out and earn it themselves (i.e. get a jobby-job). So apparently summer jobs aren't available to college athletes anymore. Student loans aren't available. Grants of any sort aren't available.

I think this is asinine. I know big time college athletes feel taken advantage of. They whine about it all the time. Seriously though, the one's that are whining the hardest are the one's that are squandering the opportunity presented and ending up with nothing because of their own lack of effort. Figure it out like the rest of the student body, who by the way is working just as hard in the classroom and many are putting in more hours working jobs to pay for college (funny, just like student athletes who are getting a scholarship for their "work"), while taking out loans that they'll be re-paying for 20 years after they graduate.

I think every student athlete should be shown Christian Ponder's resume before they start school - graduated in 2 1/2 years from Florida State, then earned an MBA and began work on a second graduate degree while quarterbacking the football team and oh, by the way getting drafted into the NFL. Probably not a whole lot of complaining being done by Mr. Ponder.

Full disclosure - I was a walk on at SDSU for 3 semesters, earned a 1/3 scholarship my 4th semester, then a 3/4 ride to finish my career. I'll be paying back student loans for 10 more years. I had grant money and had work-study jobs for 2 years. And I was greatful for the opportunity to play college football.

[zooropa]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

Yes. That is why I believe that schools with greater resources, more money, will be able to attract more and better players by offering stipends.

Eventually every school will offer these, as the cost of doing business. If stipends are an advantage, they are a temporary one.

And, I believe the richer schools will lobby the NCAA to increase the value of stipends.

The BCS controls 6 of the 18 seats on the NCAA's board of directors. How would they be able to 'lobby' poor schools to support initiatives that will make them less competitive?

This $2k amount was supported by the Knight Commission and falls far short of meeting the cost-of-attendance at many, if not all BCS schools.

an upper echelon league.

1 - if this happens, so what?

I mean seriously, so what.

2 - do you think that Delany, Slive, Scott et al. would trust each other far enough to join forces to create a new athletic sanctioning body, or that they could make a successful run of it? These people don't trust each other. The odds that they would splinter off from the NCAA and attempt to run a rival sanctioning body are so low that you may as well buy a lottery ticket as bet on this happening.

Seriously, people like to talk about this happening or that happening, but it would require a coordinated, secret, transparent and honest collaborative effort between people who are deeply suspicious and who aren't really suffering under the status quo.

[Prairiehaas]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

I think this is happening already, though not in concerted effort. The richer, stronger programs are already manipulating the situation in the money sports to prevent dilution of the potential profit. The BCS is one example, separate TV contracts another. Sports marketing and media is helping this along with the stong focus on a few schools in a few conferences.

The mistrust that Zooropa cites is a factor slowing this process down. Is this bad, I don't know? I though don't want to see a college level NFL or NBA.

[joeboo22]

Re: The stipend of all stipends!

But there are ways around how money is dolled out. Now maybe this is only true in some places or every place. But part of the scholarship is allowed to pay for meals. Now as for example a basketball player, you are on the road quite a bit, gameday meals are provided, road meals are provided and many times coaches have he kids over for meals, and so on. Now some schools provide the students with meals that can only be used at on campus facilities. But I've also seen it where they provide them with $ that is then paid to the students when they pay for their school, or they have money cards from the school but many businesses in the community allow them to be paid with them.

I just have a hard time saying that these college athletes are hurting because they don't have meal money. Because they do. But at the same time I could see where already it is different from place to place. Just my view on that.