I’d like to think if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, this won’t exactly come as a surprise to you.
You know what else isn’t surprising? This. (h/t)
Iowa’s assistant football coaches have been given their annual pay raises, but the additional salary will largely be eaten up by the athletic department’s mandated cutbacks.
Iowa is paying out $5.27 million in base salaries to its assistant football coaches this school year, an increase of $575,000 from a year ago, in addition to the $1.1 million given to former strength coach Chris Doyle as part of a separation agreement this summer…
That means most of the assistant football coaches are set to make slightly more in Fiscal Year 2021 than they did last year. For example, Jay Niemann, the newest assistant coach, received a 17.2% increase in his salary to $340,000, before the 10% will be reducted, making his actual raise $16,000 instead of the listed $50,000.
At this point, it almost feels more out of habit than anything else. Amateurism is a helluva drug.
Get The Picture 
It’s unreal. Football and basketball players, largely African-American, do all the work and generate all the revenue to make it possible for Trip to play lacrosse, Chad to play golf, Muffy to do gymnastics, and Karen to participate in equestrian/petting zoo. Jesus, what a racket.
LikeLike
But they feed, care for, and shelter them. Wait, no that was slavery. But they get a free education!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you really believed college sports was modern day slavery, I doubt you would watch it or hang out on a college football blog to talk about it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really believe they are disenfranchised individuals deprived of the same basic labor rights we tout in our free-market economy. They should be happy with what they get though, right? They could always go back to Africa, wait, wrong ling again. I mean their (by & large) bleak education & economic prospects if they don’t like the deal.
LikeLike
ling /LiNG/ (noun): any of a number of long-bodied edible marine fishes.
LikeLike
Huh, so a cobia is a type of ling….who knew??
LikeLike
I’m a supporter of NLI reform. I believe anyone should be able to give any student-athlete any amount of money they like for an autograph, a picture, or just because. I think Todd Gurley should have been able to get a cut from the Free Gurley t-shirts that were being sold during his suspension (of course, I think his suspension was garbage). I think Athens BMW should be able to give Jamie Newman the use of one of their cars in exchange for an appearance in a commercial.
If you want to make college athletes employees, then accept the fact that every benefit they currently receive (the full COA scholarship) plus any compensation they negotiate is taxable. If that’s the outcome, I’m totally ok with that.
I just find the comparison of college sports to slavery to be apples and oranges.
LikeLike
Bonded labor/Indentured servitude is a form of slavery. They have no negotiable rights, they cannot contest the terms of their service. In Mother Russia, horse rides you.
LikeLike
They have the right to say no. I have been extremely vocal about the price-fixing nature of the NCAA and its members.
Once again, if you have a problem with the existing framework, take it up with the NFL and its players’ association who arbitrarily have cut out those out of high school for less than 3 years from participating in their labor market.
LikeLike
“Arbitrarily”? Anything but.
LikeLike
What’s different about whether an 18 year old can declare for the draft vs. a 20/21 year old (or 19 year old in the case of the NBA)? It’s an arbitrary barrier to entry collectively bargained to prevent a work-eligible person from being able to participate in the market.
LikeLike
Why can’t it be all three? NCAA, NFL, and Congress are all guilty. I can hate the players and the game, and I can still love watching the sport I grew up playing. You are advocating for NIL rights while intoning “careful what you wish for” if players are granted anything more than that. That reasoning sounds a little pregnant to me.
LikeLike
The “players” being the NCAA, NFL & Congress in my statement.
LikeLike
Agree, it’s a ludicrous comment.
LikeLike
The also get trainers, position coaches, strength coaches, world class facilities/equipment, nutritionists, and tutoring that other students do not. For the >1% that go into professional sports the value of all the extra resources is at least a 5 figure number.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So they get extra resources to make them the best players that they can be and keep them eligible to play? Damn, that’s altruism AF.
LikeLike
If you have a problem with the current system, take it up with the NFL and NBA franchise owners and their closed shop players’ associations.
There’s an easy way to do this. Allow student-athletes to trade on their NlLs.
Guess what the athletes in other sports don’t get that those who play football and basketball do get? Full scholarships. Guess what sports are taking the hit as a result of all of this? Non-revenue sports.
LikeLike
Don’t waste your typing energy, ee. That makes enough sense that no one even argues with it. Where’s the fun in that?
LikeLike
Not happy with title 9?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Why, I never! Who’d a thunk it?!
LikeLike
If Kark Marx were a college football fan, this would be his blog for sure. The football players generate all the revenue, so they should own the means of production.
LikeLike
“The Marxist free market,” said no one, ever.
LikeLike
I do think your analogy is backwards, but since the linked tweets are discussing money INSIDE the programs (not NLI), I struggle with some thoughts.
Should we have scholarship money for these perpetually revenue losing sports, or, should they be club teams ? When we’re talking about inside money instead of NLI rights, college was NOT designed to be a bastion of free market capitalism. I’m fine with that. I think it’s OK for the baseline position to be that a school pools all the athletic revenue so that it can offer those opportunities that would not otherwise be there. Ultimately, we’re talking about university-wide mission statements of sorts…..the job is to educate, not run only-profitable sports franchises. But I also realize that if we’re going to make one group (football) subsidize the education of another (volleyball), it’s probably disingenuous to say “muhhhh capitalism” on the meteoric rise in coaches salaries.
Just spitballing here— so which bucket do we take from and which bucket do we drop into ? What does that revised regulation / legislation look like ?
LikeLike
Also, I used to be a big “front of the jersey” guy. I still think that argument has some weight, but then I thought: Dak Prescott sure is getting a lot of money paid to him from the Dallas Cowboys….and I’m pretty sure the Dallas Cowboys have been tremendously branded for decades now. And would still be tremendously branded were Dak Prescott never born.
LikeLike
“it’s not to the athletes responsible for generating it” said Greg Garthwaite. He is correct not one of these or any other student athlete is or was responsible for designing the framework or negotiating the contracts that currently has some programs with a fair amount of revenue. At best the student athletes are there for 5 years doing what the other college students do which is prepare for their careers. It is not like that college football wasn’t on TV in the 60’s and 70’s but no one thought it was the players generating the revenue then. Other than the size of the revenue what changed? Nothing significant at all.
LikeLike
Social media is insignificant? Do tell …
LikeLike
College athletics and the NCAA created the technology and the platforms that allows people of all ages to have basically unlimited access to information/real time communication? By your logic College athletics and the NCAA have no claim to anything an individual gains on social media, yet here we are…
LikeLike
I never said that and it is irrelevant to the conversation. Those things would exist today if there was not such a thing as college athletics.
LikeLike
That they were not available in the 60’s,70’s,and 80’s but are today without assistance from CFB or the NCAA is exactly the point and why it is relevant.
Don’t pay the players, fine. I agree they are already compensated to a degree and they also know what they are signing up for. What I have a problem with is calling athletes students and not allowing them the same opportunity that every other student has.
LikeLike
“without assistance from CFB or the NCAA” True, but is irrelevant to college athletics. College athletics would get along just fine with out it. Now the coaches and players may like it and it may benefit them to use it but college athletics doesn’t need it. “the same opportunity that every other student has” Show me another student that can monetize themselves on social media because of their field of study at a given university?
LikeLike
The thing that pisses me off most is the schools are still taxing every student to pony up athletic fees.
LikeLike