Count me in the “if it walks like a duck…” school of thought camp. So when I hear folks talk like this…
“Any little money will be nice,” said Georgia senior offensive tackle Kolton Houston. “There are spots throughout my college career that you definitely have to be like, ‘Do I go put gas money in my car or do I go eat dinner somewhere?’ That’s definitely going to make things a lot easier.”
… or this…
Bulldogs outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins said he’s “happy” to get his stipend.
“I’m hoping it’s a decent amount so I can get some new clothes instead of waiting for the holidays and waiting for mom and dad to get me some new outfits,” he said.
… or this…
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema thinks his staff needs to keep an eye out on of how players handle their money.
“You give a young man 18, 19, 20, 21 with a little bit of pocket change, with a lot of money to make bad decisions, things can go sideways in a New York minute,” he said. “So you got a kid that’s never had $1,000 in his pocket, and all of a sudden he’s got $2,000, that’s dangerous. That leads to dumb decisions. I think we have to monitor that as coaches and be aware of that.”
… or this…
“As a freshman, if you start saving, you can have a large sum of money saved,” Theus said. “Some guys like to spend their money. Some guys have the things they like, watches or whatever it may be. They might to choose to spend it on that. But coach Richt is going to educate the guys and try to make them realize this is money they can save.”
… as far as I’m concerned, they can skip the euphemisms. Student-athletes are getting paid, period. And plenty of schools are falling all over themselves to pay the kids as much as they can.
Surprisingly, the world as we know it isn’t ending. We haven’t heard so much as a peep lately out of Jim Delany about his plans to take the Big Ten to Division III.
So as amateurism is getting nibbled around the edges to death, how many of you are giving up on college football now?
Get The Picture 
The stipend will create a lot of positives for players, and some negatives. t
The negatives will be a minority and get all the headlines. What’s new in that? It’s time to help these guys IMO.
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Honestly, most of that sounds like my years in Athens. No money, old clothes and a bunch of fast food. If only I could have run a 4.4.
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I’m fine with the COA stipend, and it won’t diminish my enjoyment of the college game one bit, but where is all this going to take us in 5-10 years?
I fear the creep. How about adding endorsement deals?. What will young players be willing to do to get noticed? Remember, we live in the age of offering schollys to 7th graders. Look what’s happened to scouting services and media coverage of elite camps over the last 10-15 yrs. Could Nike, Under Armour, and the rest be far behind. Where do you draw the line between playing a game for enjoyment and making a living…freshman yr of college…freshman year of HS….maybe Junior High?
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And that is the issue. We are fine for 2-3 years, max, but where that spirals to is the great unknown. I feel the COA approach was a big mistake, just a flat stipend would have solved part of the issue but regardless of that, paying individual players for likeness, cuts of the license revenue, etc., is when we may as well go with a development league for the top athletes and have real “student athletes” for the college game. I am fine with that, more comfortable than where I think we are going. No need to take the entire college game down with this unguided bus.
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Agree with you, Mac, about the flat stipend. Done on a conference-by-conference basis, it would have been a straightforward approach and less subject to the obvious manipulation we see going on now.
But that would have been a bridge too far from the hoary amateurism regime the schools are still trying to defend.
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I can hear “price fixing” by other conferences being yelled if a flat rate stipend was set per conference.
But I’m with you guys and have been vocal here in this blog all along. The COA is a terrible way to pay players.
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The conferences are seen to be in competition with each other, so I don’t think there would be an antitrust issue with that.
The NCAA, on the other hand…
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Death by a thousand cuts. Giving the players spending money is fine. More televised games are nice. Playoffs sound fun. All together with some other things start to change the nature of CFB and it becomes only about the money. And I lose interest.
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When was it never about money? In the 1800s or maybe pre-WWI? As soon as the boob tube was invented “amateurism” had its door blown off.
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Hell, even old timers like Charley Trippi were driving Coke trucks (for very generous salaries) when they weren’t playing.
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First of all, you’re a first class horse’s ass. Secondly, no one has received a dime yet, so there is no way to know what is going to happen. I am willing to bet every penny I have that this will be a total disaster, regulation will be a nightmare and this will have a devastating effect on college football. To what degree? No one knows yet because, as I said, no one has been paid yet. No one knows and the more you write the more I believe you have the least clue about it. But it’s your meme and you’ll ride this bitch in the dirt. Of course, for a guy who loves to mock memes, you’re the king of this one. Perhaps you should change your handle from senator to king, dipshit.
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Jeez, man, take a breath. Take two breaths.
It was a tongue in cheek post directed at the apocalyptic predictions made by people like Jim Delany. Sorry if that offended every fiber of your being.
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I guess you get an A+ on the troll? Even if it was a bit unintentional?
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I am going to say you are in the minority with this opinion. Why not take your browser elsewhere?
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That’s pretty rude. Perhaps this will help.
This is a good start for creating your own blog.
http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/how-do-i-start-a-blog/
And this is a few reminders on how to carry yourself when you do start that award winning blog.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-simple-steps-to-not-being-total-asshole/
Glad to help.
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+1 That was an off-the-charts rude response. While there are varying degrees of support for payments/change among all here, it is reality that some form of additional monies are upon us. No one knows the way that will play out, and most fear he worst, but is is a great, timely topic of discussion and very much fits this blog of wanting to know more about any, and everything about the game we all love.
I suspect it will fall further down the list of interest when the whistles start blowing on the practice fields in another 8 days but we cannot completely ignore the elephant in the room. I also relish Boss Delany backing off his earlier comments, that conference seems to like having an easy path into the playoffs. 🙂
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SCDawg disagrees with SC Dawg on this one. that is just so over the top.
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“There’s no way to know what will happen, but I’m completely sure that it will be horrible.”
Cognitive dissonance for the win.
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I guess that like myself most of the readers of this blog enjoy college football more than the NFL and lament the creeping professionalism.
But if the alternative is to enrich the few (coaches, ADs, commissioners, etc) while the athletes making them rich don’t have enough money to go out on a date, I’ll take the creep.
Look on the bright side…In the end, we’ll still root for UGA, it will still be a great game and the guys generating enormous wealth will get a bigger share of it. ‘MERICA!
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Nearly everyone can agree with those plaudits, but to not view the future outcome and solve a few problems that are on the horizon before giving out the money is inviting collective angst to drive the game and the cheering. It’s was easy to recognize that recruiting was going to be affected, but to be in denial for other negative occurrences to the college game and spirit is just being hardheaded. Not trying to solve them before they occur is just foolish. Bidding for players isn’t that far away for many school teams that we are familiar with and who don’t give a big rat’s ass until they get a NC in the bag and are able to use that for recruiting, plus the money and when they get it to spend, etc.
Contrary to popular opinion and political machinations, this ain’t your free ‘MERICA as we all suppose, but ibstead is increasingly caught up in conflicting laws to undo what smaller groups didn’t want done years ago. Lawmakers won’t think twice about getting into CFB in any way to increase their electability. Then we gon’ see some fun!
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I’m watching way less now for a variety of reasons. It was never one thing with CBB, but it was the same basic trajectory from passionate fan to casual observer.
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One more little item that made fall glorious is gone with the wind.
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You summed it up: ” gone with the wind”. But like the old south, change is not a bad thing.
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WeLp, it takes a while but eventually the whole point of amateurism does settle in the mind a bit easier. In its purist form, it used to be young men who chose to attend UGA would compete against the young men that chose to attend Alabama. Winner had pride, waving the state flag. Now, of course, it’s coaches building teams under the endorsement of a school. Very little to do with who chooses to attend where from a regional and educational perspective. It will continue to transform into something far away from its origin, which might be okay. It’s just fact.
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It’s been established that the Chariots of Fire type of amateurism disappeared from college football like a fart in the wind. It didn’t take long at all for coaches to start recruiting players and for those players to start receiving benefits.
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Give them a few bucks now so that when the brain damage sets in they can at least say “Hey, at least I didn’t do it for free. Who are you again?”.
Adds up.
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Not sure if it’s just old age or if it’s the way college football is heading, but I’m selling most all my tickets to home games this year or giving them away. Even selling the Bama and SC ones. I still love it, but as it seems to be heading I’d just as soon sit at home and watch and save myself some $$$. That’s really what it;’s all about I’m told alost everyday by some article so maybe it’s just sinking in. Don’t know for sure. But if I get to the point where I care as much as I do about say the Braves or the Falcons (whom I watch as often as possible) I’ll be spending the same amout of money, which is whatever Dish costs. Afterall, it’s all about the $$$
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Yep, there’s a cost of attendance for the fans too…
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The invisible hand of the free market cannot be stopped. The kids did not make CFB into a big time business, they’re just the ones getting screwed by it. Like I’ve said before, if you want to watch real student athletes play for the love of the game, watch Div. III.
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Nah, Delany and his boys are gonna own that division! Won’t be competitive, he can get multiple teams in each year, he will be a big fish again; just like he wants it
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Jordan, Jordan, Jordan. Don’t call what your wearing an outfit.
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