For some reason, Mike Krzyzewski isn’t buying all the “it’s what’s on the front of the jersey that matters” talk. He’s a little concerned about what might be coming for college basketball in a post-one and done world.
Essentially, Krzyzewski said college basketball needs to be run more like a business in the face of increased competition, calling for a “new model” for the sport.
The current model doesn’t allow athletes to get paid beyond a scholarship, expenses and a small stipend. Athletes cannot profit off their own image and likeness, a hypocrisy that’s becoming more glaring as the television contracts have soared into the billions, coaching salaries have escalated to where Krzyzewski makes $9 million annually and recent federal investigations have shown a sophisticated black market to peddle players. “In this time, the definition of amateurism … it’s outdated,” Krzyzewski said. “We need a new model.”
Soon, elite players like Zion Williamson, the star of this NCAA tournament, will no longer be required to attend college. Krzyzewski called for more to be done to make the collegiate option more attractive or at least evolved from the current space. The G League has grown into a much more nuanced and sophisticated feeder system to the NBA. It may end up a landing spot for more top high school players once they don’t have to attend college for one season, a rule that went into place following the 2005 NBA draft.
Pffft. What does he know? He’s clearly not a fan.
Get The Picture 
In whatever new world emerges, Duke basketball is probably going to be ok. He can make that case knowing that if nothing changes he’ll still get the best of those who decide college works better for them. He knows he has plenty of untapped financial firepower in the Iron Dukes if he has to change his recruiting approach to deal with the public blue bloods.
I can’t say he’s wrong.
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I don’t know why you continue to scoff at the idea that the name on the jersey matters. Of course it does. That doesn’t mean players shouldn’t be compensated on some level, but the idea that their value doesn’t derive in large part from their association with a school is a denial of reality. Put another way, almost nobody cares what Maurice Clarrett does for the Columbus Salamanders in the NFL’s version of the G League, but a pretty large number of people care a lot about what he does for Ohio State.
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I don’t scoff at the idea that the name on the front of the jersey matters. Of course it does.
I scoff at the idea that the name on the front of the jersey is all that matters.
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I believe that if we let the athlete profit from his name & likeness he might be less likely to jump early to the NBA or NFL because of financial issues. If he’s got some money in his pocket and is comfortable I think he stays for his senior year.
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K’s interest here is self serving. Not getting into whether he is right or wrong, but this latter version of Duke basketball is just a Nike/ESPN sponsored warehouse of lottery picks idling in Durham for a season. Usually flaming out in the tournament well before they should.
If Zion were already in the NBA or riding buses in Fort Wayne, the college season would have had a decidedly different flavor. Maybe people would have paid more attention to Virginia and Kyle Guy. Or knew who Cassius Winston was. Or not been so surprised at the way Texas Tech is rolling through March. Or marvel at Auburn minus Okeke taking down the other OAD Warehouse Program. Now we’ve got a largely “Who?” Final Four
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Of course his interest is self-serving. He’s got nine million reasons a year for that.
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Well more than that. He has a corporate motivational speaker sideline that pays six figures a pop 30+ times a year. If anyone understands the value of TV Time, Personal Brand, and Name and Likeness, it’s K.
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I’m of a mind that college athletics should become a club level enterprise. Again. Play for your love of the game and your alma mater. If it’s money or fame you’re wanting, do what you have to do. I doubt the networks would want to pay big money the content, but who knows.
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Never mind the networks. Would you expect fans to shell out as much to watch club level football as they do to watch UGA currently?
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Relatively speaking, if the top, what, five percent of players were allowed to jump to the NFL instead of attending college, the “club level” game wouldn’t fall off by much. So how many players would college football lose to the league if they could pass on college?
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It’s a real question to me. I used to enjoy going to college football games. Now that experience is often a bloated mess. Same for college basketball games. I’m watching a lot less college sports on TV now too. The “bigger and better” those revenue sports get, the more distant they seem. You’ve talked about that.
The current model is clearly doomed and for good reason. I remember an article about the nun connected to Loyola Chicago a couple of years ago who signed an endorsement deal but the players couldn’t. That’s insane. But letting those Loyola players make some bank isn’t going to make sitting in traffic for hours to stand in lines and sit in cramped seats any more appealing.
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Gotta love the irony there. I’m no religious expert, but I did attend Catholic school—-pretty sure nuns take a vow of poverty. I think we should report her to the Pope for possible sanctions and probation.
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The Larry Scotts and Greg McGaritys don’t want that, either. The administrators can’t rake in big bucks off of club sports.
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Do you think Frank Sinkwich and Charley Trippi came to Athens for the love of the game or for their love of UGA? They didn’t.
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I think they were after that sweet, sweet NFL cash!
A couple decades later Jim Brown would pocket FIFTY THOUSAND whole dollars for a season with the Browns!
Possibly it was the free education tho. Perish the thought. One a foreign born immigrant from Youngstown via Serbia and another the son of a Italian immigrant coal miner from western pa, just trying to use their athletic talents to seek a better life for themselves and their families and avoiding the coal mines and the steel mills.
I feel dirty just typing that. Ewww….
Gotta end it now!!
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Derek, we agree on this. The schools let the genie out of the bottle with the rush for cash. The question is whether the
student-athlete should share in the profits now.
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There’s a G league?
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Maybe if the colleges pay enough we can get rid of the 4 and done too.
Imagine Herschel in his 9th season at Georgia! Winning!!
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Morality left the building when these massive windfalls did not go to offset the general costs of running these universities. You could have perpetually endowed so much and saved generations of Georgians so much money in educating the youth of this state. Instead, modest, generic facilities that have served athletes well forever suddenly became not enough.
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Amen, brother.
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