Amari Cooper, with the best one-sentence criticism of amateurism you’ll ever read: “I don’t know if it’s ever a bad idea for people to want to get paid for something they do.”
Amen to that.
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
“I don’t know if it’s ever a bad idea for people to want to get paid for something they do.”
QFT
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QED
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QBR
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FTW
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PBR?
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It use to be America. It ain’t no more.
Now what is he trying to say. Nobody has to pay you anything unless you have a good or a service worth paying for. What is that saying. Professional, whether an engineer or electrician, they get paid for what they do. Those who can, can, and those who can’t, they don’t. Or is that teachers.
Who gives a damn what coop says anyway. Legions of athletes say bull alot these days followed by the sportscasters. Most time they regret it or apologize for. Athletes need watches and understanding of being out after midnight is a time for trouble. Most working folk get paid for their work, guess that is what their ass is resting to get ready to hit the grind again. Athletes never work, they talk and stay out all night.
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Obviously Will’s not an athlete.
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I get where Cooper is coming from. Really I do. And it’s totally understandable.
But at the same time, when we sign our little darlings up to attend college, we’re looking at a six figure hit. My next door neighbor’s son lived in Bryant Hall last year – mostly likely with either Cooper or many of his teammates – and is spending a cool $30k per year. Or in her words, 10 easy payments of $3,000.
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This….if they think College is FREE they are clueless.
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I dont think that they are saying it is free…they are saying that they would like to negotiate their benefits.
Is that really such an awful thing?
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Seems like a fair trade to me…half of them wouldn’t even be on a College Campus if they couldn’t play football. It is one hell of an opportunity for most of them.
They will change their tune when they start getting paid, taxed and then have to pay for their schooling/board/etc…
That said, it is probably going to happen, and it is going to suck for College Football. IMHO.
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You thinking it is fair really has nothing to do with it.
I really doubt that you would let me negotiate your salary.
Obviously some of them don’t think that the current benefits package is fair and they wish to negotiate it.
That sounds entirely fair to me and something I that I am happy that I am free to do and I would not want to deny that freedom to someone else just because I have a perceived benefit by the suppression of the value of their labor.
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Fair enough, I will say that none of these kids are forced to play ball in exchange for a College Education…
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And if one day some group decided that they were going to set the wages and limit transfer for a certain skill set I would hope that I could find a legal remedy to their collusion.
Much like the case of the tech workers in silicon valley. They didn’t have to be developers and engineers, but they wanted to be and were good at it. Google and Apple had no right to limit their ability to move or artificially control their wages.
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I do that every day I work and I’m apparently not a good enough negotiator. What an 18 year old thinks is a good deal is questionable. If one entity negotiates for a bunch of kids, who do you think will benefit. You can say the same thing for the gov’t/schools.
They should get something more than.what they get now, but please don’t let collective bargaining dictate what the tax payers and ticket holders have to fund.
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Sorry that was for DPs response to BD
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No one gives a shit about your neighbor’s son because he doesn’t have the skills and talent of a big-time D-1 football player. Simple supply and demand.
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I think the players should recieve the full cost of attendance so that they are not tempted by jealousy or necessity into thievery, as we have seen the past few years. However, I’m beginning to think about the scholar-athletes as apprentices who are trained to then be journeymen and off to the rest of their lives. Hopefully they take full advantage of the gift they have been given.
I left UGA with a 50K tab. However, I have to say I threw away a full ride as a California Scholar in my teenage days….so I don’t criticize. It’s just a fervent wish for them to prosper.
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Apprenticeship is a nice parallel. How are they better off not being allowed to major in “football” verus being forced into a degree in one of the limited number of fields of study that the football coaches allow them to take. Graduates with a degree in General Studies, raise your hands!
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There is no such thing as a degree in “general studies”. That is the degree for students who have not declared a major. It used to be called “undecided”, but I guess the media folks decided “general studies” sounded better.
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Maybe colllege athletes should be thankful for the opportunity to learn how America really works. You bust your butt every day and the spoils of all your hard work go to a bunch of folks who claim the money is being spent for altruistic purposes, but is really being used to line their own pockets.
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Ha…was thinking the same thing. Hell, if makes everybody feel better, let the athletes negotiate a wage in addition to current benefits, then “tax” it (almost) all back for the good of the athletic program (to subsidize all the non-revenue sports programs, coaches and administrative salaries, recruiting, golf junkets, etc). I’ve been told that’s only fair, right? Yes, this is America….right?
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I had a similar thought, simply give them a check for the full cost of attendance, then take back all that is owed the college. Tuition, student fees etc. What ever is left over is then taxed as income and the players keep the rest. All should be happy and content by then? They are all getting paid and funding their own way through school, while being loyal subjects by contributing to the tax rolls?
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@Will Trane
July 28, 2014 at 3:39 PM
“It use to be America. It ain’t no more” (h/t Hot Air)
Someone better let Rodney know. He still thinks we can all get along
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/28/video-this-used-to-be-america-it-aint-no-more-okay/
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What’s wrong with taking from these football players according to their abilities and giving to them what they need; an education? I can’t think of anything more American than expecting from Todd Gurley a heisman level performance while giving him the exact same thing as aj turman.
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My head just exploded.
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If Cooper wanted to get paid for what he’s doing, he could have gone to Auburn.
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Damn, we need upvotes on this site.
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ohhhhhhhh, SNAP!
🙂
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They don’t have those perks at Alabama?
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Fine, pay them.
Also charge them for tuition, room/board, books, …..
If their academics are in order so as to receive scholarships, more power to them.
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+1 but don’t come ask for a non-deductible contribution or PSL from me
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I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Why does one preclude the other? Why can’t they get paid on top of receiving a scholly?
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Because they must be punished. Everything a college athlete does that draws the ire of fans mean said fans blurting out some strange punishment for the transgression. Even when there isnt a transgression.
Old testament style.
What to leave my Alma Mater? Well you should be forced to drag your belongings across the country and only attend one of 3 schools on the west coast and you and your family will be placed on the no-fly list.
What to get paid for your skills and risk assumption?
Well then you will be paid only enough so that you can then pay taxes and pay the school for your room and board. You will not be allowed to live anywhere else. Schools will also maintain the ability to fire your sorry ass at a moments notice and if you want to go somewhere else see the above rule on leaving.
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Senator, I hope your legal mind can clarify this for me. If the athletes get compensated by the university beyond the value of the scholarship, will athletic associations continue to keep their tax-exempt status with the IRS? It seems to me that the Service will immediately challenge the 501c3 status and challenge the tax deductibility of contributions made.
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If schools have gotten away with all the money grubbing they’ve done over the past decade without disturbing their tax-exempt status, I doubt player compensation would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
On the other hand, if they’re forced into horse trading with Congress to win an anti-trust exemption, all bets are off.
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I guess the reason for the 501c3 has been about providing educational opportunity not employment opportunities for athletes. If I were in Lois Lerner’s NFP group as an agent, I would go after that as a way to get the NFP status knocked over.
I agree with your perspective on anti-trust. I really do believe that they will have to exchange their tax status for the exemption.
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“Getting paid” means several different things here. It can mean supplementing their scholarships to include money to have a social life. It can mean contracted pay to do a certain skill job. It can mean. It can mean guaranteed pay by collective bargaining.
Slipping a little money with a handshake to poor athletes who represent your school has now gone out of style. If getting paid means that it will be an arms race for athletes then we each see a variation on the dooming of CFB. Why? Because for all the hand twisting and feelings for their “plight”, someone will up the ante to get that greedy Cam Newton who already has been given money that he has no time to spend except on big time clubs and impressing his friends for a weekend.
Show me how this can equitably be done for each player, each school and each conference and you have a proponent. But to not have a plan and keep pushing this turd uphill is sheer lunacy. Several times I have openly challenged for someone to tell me, in my ignorance, how this will work. No replies anywhere; not here, not from the pundits pushing this agenda and not even from networks who are positioning to make a lot of money from CFB. This indicates to me that no one has an answer. That doesn’t deter anyone from hopping on the pity-pot and bashing those who don’t want CFB to deteriorate into subterfuge and open cheating to get athletes on board and later let everyone try to clean up the mess that some do-gooders want to propose doing.
Senator, do you have a proposal for how this would work? Please don’t give the nebulous answer that we keep hearing,”Just supplement their bank accounts with a couple thousand bucks.”. How would such a thing be controled to prevent the cheaters from taking advantage of our heartfelt largess to 17-18yr olds? Until I hear a logical and rational answer to that question, consider that I’m against it.
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Pay them $XXk per year included with their scholarship.
direct deposit into an account every 2 weeks or whatever.
There are rules against all the items you are worried about now.
If you can’t afford to pay that, you can’t afford a top level basketball or football team.
I think people dont respond because the answers arent difficult.
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So you are fine if they get paid just a little but not too much? Because they might dare to use it to go clubbing? Would you be fine if you paid them more if they promised to use their “excess” wages as donations to the widows, orphans, and their church?
No one will be paying them for “heartfelt largesse”, they would be paying them to play football. The boosters who were slipping them $100s weren’t doing it out of some sense of charity, they were doing it because they want the football players to play football (and play it well) for their team.
How it can “equitably” be done is to let the market set their compensation, just like capitalism is supposed to work. Stop trying to control things. How it can work is by making it above board, open, transparent.
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+1 – your last comment hits the nail on the head
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Not sure if you’re stating your position on the matter or just raising a question, but for the life of me I can’t understand why this is such a sticking point for the “college football is dead as we know it” crowd. In what other line of business do we give two shits about whether marginal talent will be offended that premier talent may get paid more? Every other business in the developed world has somehow figured out a compensation model that rewards and compensates its talent commiserate with their skills / abilities. Why do folks seem to think this is an impossible task within college football?
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It’s nowhere nearly as impossible as trying to spell things without being thwarted by autocorrect
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