Randy Edsall. Or, should I say, Randy Edsall!!!
I had to read that three times to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding. I guess there’s still the possibility of sarcasm, but, damn, of all the people urging market compensation for student-athletes, Randy Edsall wouldn’t have been close to the top of my list. Weird.
Get The Picture 
Growing up ‘poor’ and then having a son that played at the college level – I’m for it. Going to school and playing a collegiate sport is a full time job. To me it’s real simple:
There are 85 scholarship players. Pay them $1,000.00 a month. That’s $1,020,000 a year. And offer budget management staff to help them manage the money.
Next division down. Pay them up to $500.00 a month.
And please do not tell me that the Athletic Departments cannot afford it. Not counting the UF game; UGA has 7 home games this year. That’s about 650,000 seats. Works out to a little over $1.50 a ticket increase.
It just makes sense.
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How much do you pay the athletes in all the other sports? How long before the Title IX thing is brought up demanding female athletes are paid the same total amount as male athletes ? Are athletes “employees” at that point? Can they be fired if they do not perform their job to expectations? What about band members on scholarship, do they get paid for the considerable amount of time they put in practicing? Do cheerleaders get paid?
I’m not even bringing up the kids on academic scholarships who have to put in hours of study in order maintain their gpa to retain their scholarship. The simplest solution to the “NFL farm system” problem is to raise entrance requirements for revenue sport athletes. Some athletes would still be able to enroll but I doubt enough would to be able to supply the NFL with the talent it needs.
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For the umpteenth time: the NCAA could start tomorrow by letting SAs market their NLIs. No Title IX thing to worry about whatsoever.
And you’re wrong about the simplest solution. The simplest solution is to let the free market do its thing.
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So, allowing football and basketball players to sell their services to the highest bidder wouldn’t cause any Title IX problems? Surely, as an attorney, you know better than that. How long before a sharp lawyer would file a lawsuit claiming that female athletes were being discriminated against because they could not receive the same sums for their services? Or, how long before the high school athletes in sports that do not have the lower entrance requirements would sue to be admitted to colleges so they could sell their services?
If high school players were allowed to sell their LOI, would that be the sum total of their compensation for playing college football? It seems to me that if a player demanded “x dollars” for his LOI, that should be the limit of what he could expect to receive from a college and he would have to pay his tuition and other fees and room and board from the funds received for the LOI. I doubt many high school athletes would receive enough to pay for a four year degree in full like a scholarship provides.
If you want a free market system for an NFL farm system, let the NFL create a farm system and stop forcing colleges to take athletes who do not meet entrance requirements. Pay for play advocates need to accept that the scholarship IS payment and is more than adequate payment for the 98% of college football players who never go on to play pro football.
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I don’t care about a free market system for the NFL. I care that student-athletes should have the same access to the free market for their services that you and I do.
As far as your first-paragraph hypotheticals go, how come nobody’s sued schools after EA Sports settled O’Bannon with payments to the players whose likenesses were used?
If the scholarship is, as you assert “more that adequate payment”, why are you so vehemently opposed to the free market? Won’t the free market validate your position?
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All good points JC, agree on most all points.
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Me thinks Randy doth protest too much or maybe not. He has a hard enough time getting good players. It won’t be long until the bottom of the FBS is just a farm system for the big boys. This is better known as the chickens coming home to roost.
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Players are compensated plenty, maybe it is the parents/lawyers/agents who are pushing this. Someone very greddy for sure. Value and cash received for a full scholly, including “cost of attendance” is around $60-75K+? Tax free? For an intern? Come on, if that isn’t enough, let them go their own way. If they have so much value in the “free market”, someone could make a fortune setting up the minor league, or they can play in Canada or Europe. Perhaps the agent people could stake them to go to gurus and sharpen their skills. They put up nothing to get a place to showcase their skills, cannot believe anyone could bitch abaout that.
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That isn’t how antitrust law works.
But I expect you know that already.
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Don’t tell my oldest that she was very well paid for her internship while on a full ride. Also kids who do cohort plans in engineering get paid while they work every other semester. It happens for students in competitive industries now.
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I doubt your daughter’s full ride scholarship had all the benefits that go with a D1 football program at a top level. All full scholarships are not created/valued equally. And let any of the “undeveloped products” walk into a business and offer their services as an intern and see what they get offered. That is what interns get paid; now compare that to the value of fully loaded scholarship.
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Exactly how do you compare the workings of a free market and a cartel that limits compensation, Mac?
Again, if football and basketball players are already being fairly compensated, then what does it matter if you allow their services to be compensated in the same manner as you or I?
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Her full ride was such that she had everything including tuition, room and board, books, tuition and some spending money starting with her freshman year. She could also do what she wanted with her free time which is something a D1 football player can’t do. Her internship payed very well. Her internship paid very well and also included room and board. Working in the oil industry is a well paid profession.
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Well if Mr. College Football retires we have found his replacement.
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As discussed last week(?), it will be the black market not the free market that will cause the biggest problem. Giving SA’s access to NLI rights and/or compensation equivalent to time spent on the playing field would incrementally improve the financials and options for the players. Having said that, the back channel market would lead to the same problems facing college basketball. The entities making the money would shift from colleges/athletic departments/NCAA to agents/street agents. Both the NCAA, athletic departments, agents/street agents, and marketing/apparel companies see these kids as dollar signs. It’s just a question of who gets the money from the kids. This whole thing is a mess and there are no easy answers or good solutions.
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Tony Barnhart next?
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All you A-holes who want this done now, screaming like a bunch of hysterical CNN guests (#guncontrolnow), need to go sign up to be special counsel to the AD/President and outline all the things (pitfalls, both legal and financial, that face the entire university system). Seriously, get off your asses and get in the ring. I want to read a Seth Emerson article how lawyer senator blutarsky is helping UGA get this done—regulatory and statutory research, etc etc. Give them a memo of every snare trap coming their way and how to pay these players.
And please be man enough to take the blame when the zero sum game that is money eventually wrecks the whole enterprise because money goes so many places but back to the entity that built it.
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LMAO. I run a business and hire employees. Is it really supposed to be any harder for paying SAs than it is for anyone else in the real world?
It’s not rocket science, man. It’s emotional. That’s all.
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LOL!….exactly. ” The Senator” has been beating that drum for….”long time now”, hilarious.
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