Posted on 01/02/2016 1:31:43 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
With the money made from college sports increasing every year, the way colleges treat their athletes has become controversial.
That’s because college sports is a tremendously lucrative business for everyone but the athletes. The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) will receive $7.3 billion from ESPN for the right to broadcast the seven games of the College Football Playoffs (CFP) between 2014 and 2026, and $11 billion from CBS and Turner Sports to broadcast “March Madness†over the next 14 years.
Individual colleges also make out well: The University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team’s trip to the Final Four this year, for example, brought more than $8 million in revenue to the universities of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Each of the “Big 5†conferences will make an estimated $50 million from the college football playoffs this year.
And none of this counts the money made from concessions, merchandise and licensing fees.
Meanwhile, most college athletes are “paid†with scholarships that cover only tuition, room, board, books and fees — although in 2015, the NCAA allowed Division I universities the option of increasing this to pay the full cost of attendance. After adding up the time spent on practice, training and games, college athletes often “work†the equivalent of full-time hours for the universities they play for.
Many pundits call that exploitation
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You’re such a racist. A big meanie dog whistle. It’s people like you who keep Oprah from making three billion dollars instead of only two.
Free the slaves!
No More People of Color on the College Sports Team plantation!
Let the NBA & NFL find & pay for their own players.
Indeed, let’s hear them bitch and moan to Kingdom Come when these poor deprived athletes have the academic standards raised to normal levels
And let’s see how many of the complainers ever get the choice of accepting a scholarship and benefits worth tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands
Since many of them were “affirmative action’d” admitted, then maybe we can end all the unfairness by raising standards and having true ‘student athletes
Think they authors would be happy then? No more “expolitation’ no more hard work to get an education
THAT is the 64 trillion dollar question.
If college & universities are allowed/required to pay athletes, I can almost guar-n-damn-tee they will raise tuition and other fees to “cover the cost”.
I thought, "Finally, someone smart. He can afford any school he can get into if he wants to, if he retires or gets injured."
That wouldn't work if a student athlete gets injured. He's done. Stick a fork in him. No pro career, and maybe no degree, either.
Now that former athlete would be just another undergrad trying to make ends meet.
Maybe he's the one who should get compensation.
See, I'm not really a sports fan. I wasn't then, and I'm not now. Not since the Superbowl was numbered in only Vs and/or Is
When I look at the relative fortunes spent on athletic programs when I was at University versus the amount we scratched together to keep a seismograph running, to have enough microscopes and other equipment, or fuel for field work--and we were just one science department--the amount spent on academic pursuits was a pittance by comparison to that spent on sports.
I have to ask, what is a university for?
Training camp for sports teams?
Small wonder STEM is hurting.
Rules are different now. At least for the NBA and NFL.
NBA you must be 19 y/o.
NFL you must be three years out of high school (21 y/o)
Those rules changed to keep the NCAAs monopoly on just-out-of-High School players. No better deal in town, if they can’t play pro ball.
This is like saying that “racial prejudice” against whites, Chinese, and Indians causes the pathetically low wages of graduate student instructors and contract faculty.
Simple economics is sufficient to explain both situations: the universities want to take in as much money as possible and pay out as little as possible.
I agree completely. I’m just stating they can’t do it anymore.
If you can vote, go to jail forever, and go to war and die, you should be able to play ball. The idea that the leagues are concerned about their safety because they haven’t fully matured yet is BS. The colleges/NCAA get their money, and the pros get to see how they pan out. It is most certainly a racket.
read a story today that viewership to this years Bowl games is down 36 percent.
5 and 6 win teams going to the nothing bowl?
That was my first thought as well. My second thought is this: There might be a point in there somewhere, given how worthless a liberal college education is these days.
There were a lot of blowout scores such that a lot of casual viewers would have bailed out by halftime.
Now, schools are just feeders for the pro leagues and no one cares about education (at least as far as the Athletic Department is concerned).
They are getting an college education free. How much is that worth? $20-50k per yr.?
If they want to be paid, pay them. Then charge them the going rate to go to college.
One other point. Many of them would never pass any scholastic entry requirement.
If you ask me they make out pretty well.
If big-time sports were banished from some of the
campuses then where would the students ever learn about
capitalism, the business schools?
Only partly correct. Players do not have to go to college but they can no longer go directly to the NBA or NFL. The NBA requires players to be out of high school for a year before being eligible for the draft. For the NFL it is 3 years.
The entire article hinges on that sentence for which the authors provide not one shred of evidence.
In the case of the NBA that rule changed because teams signed so many high-school kids to big contracts that simply couldn't play. The NBA was protecting themselves from themselves.
It would. The incestuous relationship between money-making sports with rosters containing many unqualified "students" getting scholarships and the fake students only looking for a ride to multi-million dollar pro careers makes a mockery out of college education. Pay the athletes? Their scholarships are pay...it's to play sports, not to excel in the classroom. Baseball's minor league setup which keeps preparation for the pros out of college is a much better setup.
Perhaps football doesn't belong in colleges at all. Let the programs be run by the private sector in affiliation with the NFL.
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