Two very telling quotes from Jon Solomon’s piece about Jeffrey Kessler:
“I think if we go down the road of paying football and men’s basketball players, as the agents and their agents, the trial lawyers, would like us to do … we’re going to be put in a situation as a series of enterprises that we’re going to be forced to make that exact decision, that the non-revenue sports are going to get eliminated,” Texas athletic director Steve Patterson said at a recent forum sponsored by the Big 12.
“You’re going to see schools ask to go from 16 sports, which is the minimum to compete, down to 12. I’ve already sat in meetings where those kind of conversations have happened, and that’s bad for the country. That’s bad for Olympic sports. That’s bad for opportunities for people to get out of lesser environments, get to a university and have a better outcome in life.”
Kessler brushes aside such doomsday warnings. He focuses instead on the mixed message he says universities apply while attempting to educate students and be commercial enterprises without paying players.
“What is there about an educational mission for the SEC schools to spend $25 million this year on digital television studios on their campuses for the SEC Network?” Kessler said. “It’s a very nice business investment, but does that have anything to do with educating their students? Does that have anything to do with the student-athlete experience? It has to do with one thing: selling cable television programs. That’s OK, but acknowledge the reality.
“The people who say, ‘Gee, I wish we went back to no television schedule and no sponsors and none of this and just focus on the educational mission,’ that’s a perfectly worthy viewpoint and small schools, like the Ivy League, do that. That’s a perfectly legitimate choice. Maybe in some sense it’s a better world. But the world we live in, there are more than 150 schools who have made a very different choice, and those schools have decided to engage as businesses to generate huge amounts of revenues, and what they need to do is treat fairly the people who helped them generate those revenues.”
Which do you think a trial court will find more convincing?
Get The Picture 
The committee for player compensation. The fair pay committee. Nominees
Todd Gurley, Johnny Football, Jameis Winston, A J Green, any running back at Ohio State, chairpersons…Lou Holtz and Mark May…at large Mr. Slive.
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Think Cory Brinson could break down the disappearance of Bobo’s offense in the 2nd and 3rd quarters at UF [can throw in the 4th because UF was already in post game …saying how the offense could not move the ball on them]. Or dial back the 3rd and 4th with the Hawgs. He likes to give Pruitt and the defense hell. Perhaps he forgot those were the guys who set the table against Missouri and Arkansas. Go ahead let’s pile on, throw a flag or two and rant on some more
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So, UF’s defense letting up late is fine because the game was in hand. But UGA’s offense letting up late in the Arkansas game was not fine? Interesting.
True, the offense didn’t play well in the Florida game. But to bitch about a conference game where the offense puts up 45 points, or 34 points just comes across as a vendetta against the offensive coach. UGA still leads the SEC in scoring offense.
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“Change” doesn’t bother me
…on the other hand
“hope and change” scares the shit out of me!
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If players are paid, college athletics will be ruined. Football and basketball will be nothing more than minor league pro leagues with the league office (the NCAA) putting salary caps on teams and teams finding ways around the caps to entice the top players. How much will the soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, equestrian, softball, track, etc athletes be paid? If they’re not paid, they will sue, and win, and those sports will be dropped because schools don’t have the money to pay all the athletes. Colleges will be turned into NFL and NBA development leagues.
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Texas is going to pay $5,000 more in cost of attendance and $5,000 for NIL, which is $6,000,000 per year in total. Most of the power conference programs can afford an extra $6M per year if they would divert some of that sweet, sweet coach money. If they can’t, they should consider whether they really want to be in the upper most tier of college athletics.
In addition to NIL compensation and full COA amounts, the NCAA should allow players to sign sponsorship deals in the same vein as Olympic athletes. If you want to have some vetting process, or put some restrictions on who and what (so as not to embarrass the university), then that is much easier to figure out than how to keep all money from all outside sources out of players’ hands. This puts the onus on the market to decide which players receive what. The university is in compliance with Title IX, and the market will bear what the players are worth. While they are at it, they should eliminate the agent rule immediately. There are ways to register agents to keep out seedy types, but players should be able to retain and use counsel to protect their interests and negotiate side deals on their behalf.
As long as the players keep up their end of the bargain in terms of staying eligible academically, what is so wrong about them making a little money and protecting their business interests?
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You’re either ignorant or an idiot.
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The strength and nuance of your rebuttal has persuaded me.
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Lol!
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I object to your use of your title on such a pedestrian blog as this. (Said while sneering)
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Maybe he’s just that cereal guy.
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Good point. Paying athletes will ruin sports. That’s why we should eliminate the NFL, MLB, and the NBA. Imagine how much purer the sports would be if, instead of watching Peyton Manning throw perfect strikes to receivers, because he’s worked countless hours as a highly paid professional, we were watching a house painter who throws balls for a couple of hours on the weekends?
Why, without paying the athletes, we wouldn’t have to drive hours to get to Atlanta or Charlotte to watch football games. Every small town could have these teams. I would love to watch the Athens Bulldogs take on the Watkinsville Wildcats.
Also, why should we stop at limiting the earning potential of college athletes? I say all college students should be barred from holding jobs. It ruins college. It really just turns college into a minor league for the professional world. I mean, why should future accountants have summer jobs as accounting interns, or waiting tables? No! Those kids should be kicked back and relaxing spending their parents’ money. And if their parents don’t have any money to give them, then those kids don’t belong in college. They should be consigned to a lower class job straight out of high school. The world could always use more ditch diggers.
Yessir, I like the way you think.
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It’s already all of that. That’s the problem. We’re already there except for there the players getting their cut. It already became everything you said with the universities, coaches, ADs, tv ads, ESPN and Nike getting more than their fair share.
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“Which do you think CONGRESS will find more convincing?”
Fixed it for you. I hate it. But, I think that’s the route this is ultimately headed (well down the road).
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No way a guy as smart as Kessler lets Congress within 100 yards of the final decision. And Congress prefers to talk and let courts make the big decisions these days.
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I hope you’re right. And there’s a lot of truth in what you’re saying about legislators leaving all the tough decisions to the courts.
But, I could see a host of liberal constituencies turning the knives on each other over this one. It hits all of the right notes – equal compensation for athletes regardless of gender, collective bargaining rights, higher education administration, etc.
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No matter what Congress thinks, you’re going to have to convince Hillary to sign off on it …
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Perish the thought.
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Boo Hoo.
You have to figure out a way to share the billions.
Cry me a river, babies. First World Problems.
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Pssst! Hey…NCAA. Just change the definition of amateurism and you can make a lot of this go away. You know, stuff like being represented, salaries, signing with a pro team, etc.
Shhhh! Don’t let anyone know I tipped you off.
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More players at QB position than RB position. Why did the Dawgs’ O coaches not want to use the 2 QB package ULM ran against Baylor and Arkansas? Moving the ball re hash markers and changing setting the edge. Notice why is seems less RBs in the spread have injuries vs those playing in the I or pro set.
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That would be a great idea, if we used quarterbacks capable of running like running backs and catching like receivers. Alas, we don’t. Although Bauta can run fairly well for a quarterback, he won’t be mistaken for a running back.
So, I think that because Richt and Bobo recruit personnel to run a pro-style offense, that’s probably what they should run. Trying to run a spread attack or a gimmicky two quarterback system with our personnel would be unlikely to work.
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I understand your question. But, you are going to get a lot of answers to the questions, “What do YOU find more persuasive?” That question and your question are two totally different things.
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