NCAA basketball scandal

[MrTPlush]

How about college kids can play for college teams for up to four years and get a standard payment (say $75000 a year) but they don’t have to go to school, nor do they get to live in student housing or enjoy anything student related (access to university buildings, food plans etc). They don’t receive scholarships either. Anything that they need they have to pay for on their own. If they want to attend classes and get meal plans they can pay for them out of their annual payment.

 

Except all players and sports aren’t created equal. Another problem that student housing you won’t give them a lot of times is paid for by athletic boosters to put those kids worthy of being paid in them.

 

That’s the problem. Paying them is waaaay more complicated than people want to make it. I’d be in favor of them having the ability to make money off their own name if they can. Trying to get school to pay them outside of their tuition and board is one slippery slope of problems.

[paul253]

Yeah I agree. There’s just no good way of doing this. That’s why I think the best answer is to let kids go to the NBA out of high school. If they complain about not being able to get money for their “likeness” then you can always say “well then turn pro and see how much you really are worth”.

[stoutdude04]

Yeah I agree. There’s just no good way of doing this. That’s why I think the best answer is to let kids go to the NBA out of high school. If they complain about not being able to get money for their “likeness” then you can always say “well then turn pro and see how much you really are worth”.

 

I agree with this idea and think it's silly they force kids to go to college for basketball.

[owbc]

How about college kids can play for college teams for up to four years and get a standard payment (say $75000 a year) but they don’t have to go to school, nor do they get to live in student housing or enjoy anything student related (access to university buildings, food plans etc). They don’t receive scholarships either. Anything that they need they have to pay for on their own. If they want to attend classes and get meal plans they can pay for them out of their annual payment.

 

Except all players and sports aren’t created equal. Another problem that student housing you won’t give them a lot of times is paid for by athletic boosters to put those kids worthy of being paid in them.

 

That’s the problem. Paying them is waaaay more complicated than people want to make it. I’d be in favor of them having the ability to make money off their own name if they can. Trying to get school to pay them outside of their tuition and board is one slippery slope of problems.

 

Huh? No other sports league has a problem paying different salaries to different players. This is the easiest problem to solve in the world. The schools offer contracts and the player picks the best one. Done.

 

Just look at college coaching contracts. Is there any cheating there? Do the coaches get paid market rate for their services? Does it make us uncomfortable to think how much coaches in an "amateur" sports league are getting paid?

 

This whole naive notion of college athletics needs to go down the drain, the faster the better.

[FVBrewerFan]

Yeah I agree. There’s just no good way of doing this. That’s why I think the best answer is to let kids go to the NBA out of high school. If they complain about not being able to get money for their “likeness” then you can always say “well then turn pro and see how much you really are worth”.

 

I agree with this idea and think it's silly they force kids to go to college for basketball.

 

Nobody is forcing them to go to college. They could go overseas, or even go to an academy like IMG for a year.

 

But I agree, NBA should change the rule to going into the draft right of HS or wait 3 years. G League is more developed these days, so a lot of these guys could start their career there. The elite guys would go right to the NBA roster, as they should. Either way, they get paid.

 

NCAA needs to loosen up on the rules a bit for dinners and things like that. Even programs that are trying to comply get burned by some of these minor details. Beyond that, no pay. I mean, they could even pay a token amount but that wouldn't stop anything. Not when you're getting $100,000 and that's only what we know about.

 

All you can do is come down hard when there's a flat-out violation. Any coach that is involved or even knows about payments being made should be banned from NCAA for life.

[GAME05]

Any sort of contract bidding war for college players and you end up with a worse situation than professional baseball, where the same two or three richest schools would win all the championships.

 

I wonder what would happen if the NBA had a drafting system more like hockey, where a player could declare whenever they wanted, and the professional team could assign them to college or the D-League if they weren't ready for the NBA.

 

It would have helped had Mudiay become a better player, but I also wonder if the trend will develop that HS players will go to Europe or somewhere to get paid to play there instead of one year of the shady-pay system of the NCAA.

[owbc]

Any sort of contract bidding war for college players and you end up with a worse situation than professional baseball, where the same two or three richest schools would win all the championships.

 

An open bidding war is most fair to the employees, but I agree that some degree of competitive balance is good for the college basketball industry as a whole. However, it's not clear to me that the competitive imbalance would be more under an open system than the current system of the top schools paying/giving incentives to players under the table (which will undoubtedly continue in some form or another). It's also worth acknowledging that unlike a ~30-team professional league, a certain degree of imbalance is actually desirable in college sports.

 

To me, the more complicated issue is the redistribution of wealth from men's football and basketball to other scholarship sports, as well as the Title IX implications. But lets look at the current system for what it is--predominately black male football/basketball players from underprivileged backgrounds are subsidizing the scholarships of predominately white rowers/swimmers/volleyball players/etc from privileged backgrounds. So that injustice will eventually need to be resolved anyway, regardless of whether college athletes get paid or not.

[paul253]

The schools offer contracts and the player picks the best one. Done

 

And who pays for these contracts? Taxpayers who fund the universities? Boosters where the best players will go to whoever has the most money? Students through student fees?

 

This is ridiculous. This all started because the kids want it both ways. They want free school, free food, free healthcare, free housing, etc (which comes to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their time there), all while being treated as celebrities at schools that, lets be honest, the vast majority of them would never in a million years be able to get into if they weren’t good at sports. And even if they could get in they’d never be able to afford it. Then on top of all that they want to be paid too.

 

Yes the NCAA makes money. So what. That’s how life works. Companies make money off the backs of their employees. These kids are NOT victims so can we please stop treating them as such.

 

Anyone caught accepting money should immediately lose all eligibility AND be forced to reimburse the schools for their scholarships. . Any coach caught paying players should be banned from coaching at the college level. The reason this is so prevalent is because the rewards far, far outweigh the risks. If the kids don’t like the rules then don’t play in the NCAA.

[superfly]

The schools offer contracts and the player picks the best one. Done

 

And who pays for these contracts? Taxpayers who fund the universities? Boosters where the best players will go to whoever has the most money? Students through student fees?

 

This is ridiculous. This all started because the kids want it both ways. They want free school, free food, free healthcare, free housing, etc (which comes to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their time there), all while being treated as celebrities at schools that, lets be honest, the vast majority of them would never in a million years be able to get into if they weren’t good at sports. And even if they could get in they’d never be able to afford it. Then on top of all that they want to be paid too.

 

Yes the NCAA makes money. So what. That’s how life works. Companies make money off the backs of their employees. These kids are NOT victims so can we please stop treating them as such.

 

Anyone caught accepting money should immediately lose all eligibility AND be forced to reimburse the schools for their scholarships. . Any coach caught paying players should be banned from coaching at the college level. The reason this is so prevalent is because the rewards far, far outweigh the risks. If the kids don’t like the rules then don’t play in the NCAA.

 

THIS. I'm sick and tired of hearing a bunch of crybabys complaining about not making money. Likely 75% of them or more have never worked a job in their life and spent their days playing AAU etc when not in school. Do we really want a thousand LaVar Balls out there instead of the one we have now? It's time somebody stands up to these namby pambys and tells them to get out if they don't like it the way it is. It's no different than the burger flipper with no education at McDonalds thinking he's entitled to $20/hr so he has a "living wage." No, once you have life and work experience then you get to work your way towards the $20/hr.

 

Everybody whines and moans about Alabama and the big schools getting all the recruits. SO NOW WE WANT BOOSTERS PAYING THEM TO COME? YEAH THAT MAKES TOTAL SENSE! Talk about inequity and the level of play going through the floor.

[jerichoholicninja]

The schools offer contracts and the player picks the best one. Done

 

And who pays for these contracts? Taxpayers who fund the universities? Boosters where the best players will go to whoever has the most money? Students through student fees?

 

This is ridiculous. This all started because the kids want it both ways. They want free school, free food, free healthcare, free housing, etc (which comes to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their time there), all while being treated as celebrities at schools that, lets be honest, the vast majority of them would never in a million years be able to get into if they weren’t good at sports. And even if they could get in they’d never be able to afford it. Then on top of all that they want to be paid too.

 

Yes the NCAA makes money. So what. That’s how life works. Companies make money off the backs of their employees. These kids are NOT victims so can we please stop treating them as such.

 

Anyone caught accepting money should immediately lose all eligibility AND be forced to reimburse the schools for their scholarships. . Any coach caught paying players should be banned from coaching at the college level. The reason this is so prevalent is because the rewards far, far outweigh the risks. If the kids don’t like the rules then don’t play in the NCAA.

 

THIS. I'm sick and tired of hearing a bunch of crybabys complaining about not making money. Likely 75% of them or more have never worked a job in their life and spent their days playing AAU etc when not in school. Do we really want a thousand LaVar Balls out there instead of the one we have now? It's time somebody stands up to these namby pambys and tells them to get out if they don't like it the way it is. It's no different than the burger flipper with no education at McDonalds thinking he's entitled to $20/hr so he has a "living wage." No, once you have life and work experience then you get to work your way towards the $20/hr.

 

Everybody whines and moans about Alabama and the big schools getting all the recruits. SO NOW WE WANT BOOSTERS PAYING THEM TO COME? YEAH THAT MAKES TOTAL SENSE! Talk about inequity and the level of play going through the floor.

 

I'm pretty sure most people are upset at the NCAA not the kids The NCAA is the one that preaches about student-athletes and amateurism and all that crap and then turns a blind and let's the schools do whatever they want until they are backed into a corner and are forced to do something about it. Then the NCAA "vacates" wins and championships, which is equal to doing absolutely nothing, and acts like they've fixed the problem while claiming moral superiority again.

[paul253]

It all ties together. The kids are acting as though they HAVE to do this because how else are they supposed to survive? Then when they DO do it the NCAA doesn’t do squat about it.

[GAME05]

It's hard for me to feel too bad about athletes not getting big money to play in college. Don't a lot of us take unpaid internships or work low-paying jobs to build our resume and land a bigger job? It's the same thing for them. And even without UNC-created classes, there's plenty of blow-off classes one can take your first semester to not exactly get burdened by homework. And one-and-done players don't even attend second-semester classes because they're drafted before final grades come out. They're effectively taking a low-paying job to apply for a higher-paying one.

 

And if you're not good enough to go pro, you can still redshirt and get five free years of education. That's huge. If someone else makes money off of it, that's almost irrelevant. That's the deal you agreed to, isn't it? You don't *have* to go to college to make the pros. Plus how great is is that a D- high school student can use his athletic skills to earn his way into a top school like Duke or Wake Forest for free.

 

Possibly it's a side-note, but my brother is crazy tall. He's a bad athlete, but he's tall enough that he could have gotten a scholarship to most anywhere just on his measurements. He regrets not going for a scholarship to an Ivy League school. His grades were good enough, but we couldn't have paid for that. Ride the bench for four years and get a free degree from an Ivy League school!

[paul253]

Not to mention these kids have access to the best facilities on campus. They have their own tutors. They have their own physical therapists. Their own strength and conditioning guys. Their own nutritionists. Etc.

 

And I’m sorry, but free tuition and room and board is getting paid. Just because they don’t all take advantage of the opportunity doesn’t mean it doesn’t count as an opportunity.

[stoutdude04]

Yeah I agree. There’s just no good way of doing this. That’s why I think the best answer is to let kids go to the NBA out of high school. If they complain about not being able to get money for their “likeness” then you can always say “well then turn pro and see how much you really are worth”.

 

I agree with this idea and think it's silly they force kids to go to college for basketball.

 

Nobody is forcing them to go to college. They could go overseas, or even go to an academy like IMG for a year.

 

 

I did forget about going overseas like Brandon Jennings. I would imagine coaching for the most part is better at the bigger colleges, but I don't know that for sure.

[owbc]

The schools offer contracts and the player picks the best one. Done

 

And who pays for these contracts? Taxpayers who fund the universities? Boosters where the best players will go to whoever has the most money? Students through student fees?

 

This is ridiculous. This all started because the kids want it both ways. They want free school, free food, free healthcare, free housing, etc (which comes to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their time there), all while being treated as celebrities at schools that, lets be honest, the vast majority of them would never in a million years be able to get into if they weren’t good at sports. And even if they could get in they’d never be able to afford it. Then on top of all that they want to be paid too.

 

Yes the NCAA makes money. So what. That’s how life works. Companies make money off the backs of their employees. These kids are NOT victims so can we please stop treating them as such.

 

Anyone caught accepting money should immediately lose all eligibility AND be forced to reimburse the schools for their scholarships. . Any coach caught paying players should be banned from coaching at the college level. The reason this is so prevalent is because the rewards far, far outweigh the risks. If the kids don’t like the rules then don’t play in the NCAA.

 

Why should the taxpayers have to fund the coaches then? What makes the coaches more special than the players? Maybe the coaching jobs can also be unpaid internships for NBA jobs? If the coaches don't like it, too bad, there are plenty of coaching jobs in Europe.

 

I'm saddened by these opinions. These players are part of a multi-billion dollar industry and you expect them to work for free?

 

And don't even go into the education. We all know it's a joke. They are "strongly encouraged" to get worthless degrees so they can spend more time practicing sports. The facilities are another byproduct of the billions of dollars that could have been paid to the employees.

 

"How life works" is that if people don't like the status quo, they try to change it. Just look at the front page of the newspapers this week.

 

As a PhD student, the university pays me more than these student athletes. And yes, I have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of benefits including free healthcare and tuition, and I take advantage of the facilities offered to me by the university. I get this because my research makes the university money. I don't see how the athletes are any different.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Until the NBA and NFL stop treating the NCAA like their farm systems and have their own development leagues for talent out of high school, this will never markedly change for the better - if major universities were smart and still wanted these sports as revenue generators, the power conferences would leave the NCAA and create their own governing body. You don't see the NCAA being nearly the problem for college baseball, in large part because MLB has their own farm systems and elite amateur talent is routinely drafted right out of high school. Colleges are supposed to be focused on education, and in recent decades they've gone off the rails in terms of focusing on the almighty dollar - particularly with athletics at the D1 level.