Compare this Q&A with Alston’s winning attorney to the nonsense Emmert spewed:
SI: What’s your response to the schools that say: This is going to turn into an arms race, and sorry, we don’t have $5,000 worth of computer equipment and iPhones and other educational benefits to bestow on our students, we just don’t have the resources?
JK: So, it’s an argument that sounds good, and makes absolutely no factual sense. And, the reason is, that arms race exists today. It exists when Alabama pays each of its strength and conditioning coaches $550,000 per year. It exists when these schools spend $150 million on some palaces for the athletes to live by themselves and have their own billiard rooms and gold-plated locker rooms, of which you can’t possibly imagine. There is no equality of competition in college sports now. There are the rich and there are the not rich. And, that’s not going to change today. But what will change is instead of Nick Saban making $11 million, maybe he’ll only make $9 million and the athletes will benefit from the difference.
SI: What excess did you come across that offended you the most?
JK: The spending is not what offended me the most. What offended me the most in this record is how the athletes are treated. It’s the fact that the average BCS football players and Division I basketball players work more than 50 hours a week for their schools, before they attend a single class. That they’re told not to pursue majors or classes that they’re interested in because it will conflict with the team. That their first priority is to support their team, not to be students. And then they come in and say, “Oh but we can’t let you have any benefits because you won’t be integrated as students in the campus.” It is so offensive. It is so exploitative. And let’s not forget that the majority of football and Division I basketball players are students of color. That’s what offends me the most.
“But what will change is instead of Nick Saban making $11 million, maybe he’ll only make $9 million and the athletes will benefit from the difference.” Ditto for the administrators. That’s what the amateurism fight has been about. Despite the money rolling in, the suits don’t want to share. They never have.
Get The Picture 
There is going to be a rush of anonymous coaches who say they want to leave college and head to the NFL to avoid having to deal with the ramifications of NIL, transfer portal, etc… Good luck! I don’t think the NFL has expanded it’s universe $5 million jobs. (While ironically missing that pro coaches have had to learn to deal with free agency, a free market for players’ NIL, all while having players who earn more than they do.)
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Ironic, huh? Coaches upset with the fact that players can now get paid, and their solution is to…jump to the NFL, where not only do all the players get paid, a lot of them make more than the coaches do.
(Except Dabo, of course, who will either drop down to D-III or become a pastor. Right around the 12th of Never.)
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Honestly, can’t wait for Dabo’s Football Prosperity Gospel:
“Listen to me, my players: Giveth of your earnings to the Church of Clemson and God will reward you tenfold!”
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I’m not taking a shot at the main message you espouse just sending a note that Dabo has had a strong faith that goes back, to my personal knowledge, for most of his life. Just resent anyone taking a shot at a man’s personal relationship with his God.
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Understood. I’m not irritated by Dabo’s faith so much as I am his eye-rollingly holier-than-thou attitude (on matters having nothing to do with religion). He’s even surpassed Auburn fans in that regard.
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You said it, brother. Amen!
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I share the concerns expressed by Kessler. The method to address them as a trial lawyer I’m certain was limited. I’m very doubtful that the new regime will make any of those concerns go away. I think there is a good chance that the concerns actually get aggravated under the “new way.” But, starting tomorrow, we’ll get to see in play out.
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I thought what senator quoted of Kessler could have been the same content you post here, almost literal.
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Ironic ain’t it?
But like I suggested its not like Kessler could sue them in a way that would directly cure those underlying issues. Instead we got a money band aid that may be a cure that’s worse than the disease.
TBD….
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Well, finally someone said the obvious. Of course the money is there. The schools are having a very hard time spending all of it right now.
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You nailed it there at the end, Senator. There’s no reason for the NCAA to have all of these administrators making six figure salaries (to say nothing of the people higher up who are making 7 or 8 figure salaries) and there’s no reason for the schools to have all of these staffers who make ridiculous sums of money. If the players start to get their share of the money, then someone will be losing some of theirs. Sure, some of it’s going to come from Saban’s pocket. But a lot of it’s going to come from the seven or eight associate athletic directors, too.
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These are not media executives; ESPN handles all that stuff. You can hire media lawyers/agencies to handle the contract negotiations when necessary. You DO NOT need to pay athletic administrators for a school as though you’ve got a whole staff of media executives.
Coach salaries becoming super competitive doesn’t mean that suddenly everyone else in the building is worth more. They’re not. Coaches are worth a lot. Players are worth a lot. ESPN executives are worth a lot. Athletic department employees are surely valuable… but they’re nothing like those others.
This absurdly enormous financial windfall wasn’t due to a whole bunch of crack administrators doing a great job; it’s because fans love the sport and will watch it whenever they can. ESPN, CBS, NBC, etc. figured that out, and so the schools have lots of money coming in.
When’s the last time a coach got fired where it wasn’t patently obvious that he needed to go in the eyes of a majority of that school’s fans? Now, how many times have coaches been given stupid extensions and way too much slack due to their relationship with an administrator? When’s the last time some unknown coach was hired by a major school and went on to win a title because the AD (or some army of well organized athletic department employees) knew something nobody else did? Now how many great hires that worked out well and resulted in championships weren’t completely obvious choices to anyone who even passingly follows CFB? How many times have AD’s completely screwed up the hiring process by being indecisive or allowing press leaks, or allowing boosters to stick their noses in it?
This is a teeny tiny sample of examples; it goes on and on. The HIGH DOLLAR stuff administrators do isn’t stuff they actually do; certainly nothing they do well, or that a big salary can purchase success in (look at the PAC-12). Their most important decisions are generally extremely obvious, and when they’re not….. here comes the ‘search firm’ to take the blame away from the spineless million dollar AD. Which, by the way, when’s the last time a fan base forgave a shit decision by and AD because “well, he DID hire a search firm, so…”
I’m sure there’s plenty of nuance to what an AD and their staff does; that’s why the job has always required good people and been sought after jobs…. but the stuff they want credit for to justify their current absurd salaries is simply not stuff that they have or had a single thing to do with.
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The story of America: management collects all the money towards itself through inflated salaries and golden parachutes and opaque payments all while telling labor to be happy with the meagre crumbs that fall from their overflowing platters.
Not sure why we’d think college sports would be different.
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Who would be stupid enough to be labor?
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Sadly, this is as true of higher and lower education in America as it is of most, or perhaps all, American companies. If you ain’t management, you ain’t shit.
Howard U doesn’t have enough money to keep its classics dept., but it has enough to pay Anthony Wutoh, the admin who “explained” the necessity of eliminating the department, $366,000 a year (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/02/opinion/howard-university-classics-department.html). Howard’s president makes well over a million annually. (https://nonprofitlight.com/dc/washington/howard-university).
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In simpler terms. Let’s say the value of what you receive from the University per year is $50,000. 50 hours a week works out to just above $19.00. And oh by the way, make sure you get in your classes and keep your GPA up. Anyone who either played in college or had a child who played in college, quickly realize that this is a job.
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That was the greatest of the great many hypocrisies of the NCAA. 20 hours a week my butt. Never enforced, never reported and with more loop-holes than Swiss Cheese.
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Those holes in Swiss cheese are for loops? I’ve been eating it wrong.
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Jdawg, we gotta talk!!
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Give me some etiquette lessons!
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Maybe Biology?!
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I have a hard time accepting the $50K number. The classes are there whether or not a football / basketball player sets foot in the room. One would need to assume adding a few athletes to a class jumps up the cost of said class.
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As someone who taught plenty of courses that athletes took, I can promise you I didn’t see any more money from the University because Aaron Murray was in there.
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I went to a smaller FCS school and kids regularly washed out of sports their freshman or sophomore years because it simply wasn’t worth the time commitment. You’re literally giving up your “college experience” in order to play sports, even at much lower levels than P5.
Just to do sports right is a massive commitment, to say nothing of doing it at a high level P5 school in a revenue sport.
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It will be interesting to see what happens with the paying (especially, donating) public when pay-for-play comes to a campus near you. I’ve never been a fan of P4P, and I do wonder if it will change my relationship with Georgia athletics.
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Then the schools start signing endorsement deals with Apple for iSwag like they do with Nike.
There should be room on the uniform somewhere for that Apple logo.
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I’m sure Kessler worked for free? He is just a paid shill like the others that do what he does. I can’t say all but most of the things he says here are simply not true at most major institutions.
And this:
“And let’s not forget that the majority of football and Division I basketball players are students of color.” It’s as if he is saying that how much or little skin pigment one has determines the degree of right or wrong something is in his mind. That is some strong ethics right there. SMH.
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Why does whether he worked for free have anything to do with this? He’s arguing these players should get paid. In other words he thinks people should get paid for their work, just like he is.
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His hypocrisy doesn’t bother me, I expect it from his type. I was merely pointing it out.
Those people have been paid for their work since I have been alive. I had to pay for my education their payment was forgiven in exchange for participating in athletics. That fact that many view that education as less important/valuable today doesn’t change that fact. .
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He’s not being hypocritical
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If you want to pretend he’s your garden variety street corner ambulance chaser, knock yourself out, bud.
The reality is that complex antitrust litigation is incredibly time consuming. Alston took seven years total. Plaintiff’s counsel worked on contingency and will be paid by the losing parties.
I have a feeling you know the interpretation in your last paragraph is inaccurate, so I’ll just leave things there.
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I guess that isn’t something that most people know. In antitrust cases, the losing party must pay the reasonable attorneys’ fees of the party that won the suit. So not only is the NCAA subject to treble damages, they are also going to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney, all costs of the plaintiffs, as well as post judgment interest.
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My point was he didn’t do this out of the goodness of his heart or to help right a wrong. He did it for a return on his investment. I have no problem with that until he implies otherwise.
As for interpretation, I simply went with the bottom line of what he actually said. No more and no less.
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Once more — if his side didn’t prevail in the case, he would be paid nothing. Seven years of hard work and fronting expenses with zero return.
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That is not in dispute here. Only that his motivation was something other than money. He gambled and won.
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Try applying that “I’m sure ___ worked for free?” mentality to other professions and trades. Let me know how it goes.
Also, try to budget pursuing a case like that “for free” all the way to the supreme court and see what you come up with.
I’ll let others dunk on the rest of your ridiculous comment.
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That isn’t deserving of a response.
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Simply because you don’t have one. “He’s being paid to do work so we can’t trust his opinion on the work he’s being paid to do.”
You’d rather him work for free?
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“He’s being paid to do work so we can’t trust his opinion on the work he’s being paid to do.” That is not what I said. In fact I said:
“He did it for a return on his investment. I have no problem with that”
It was the fact that he implied that he did it for reasons other than the money that I was referring to.
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via GIPHY
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So he’d be less offended if white kids were getting exploited instead of black kids?
It’s unbelievable what people don’t realize they’re actually saying.
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I am extremely excited to see this clustersf🕳ck unfold tomorrow. Really excited.
But I have a question.
Are players allowed to have Venmo or Cash App? Seems like lots of 💰could be hidden there.
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So he’s complaining about kids getting steered out of majors, to easier classes, spending too much time on sports, and his answer is …. commercialize sports even more, thereby even further marginalizing the educational aspect!
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Please explain how the educational aspect is further marginalized by allowing schools to provide better benefits to athletes and allowing marketers to pay the athletes?
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No buzz words, please: show your work.
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Time is a resource limited to 24 hours per day for most of us; the ability to earn additional money is likely to result in athletes spending more time monetizing their NIL, either directly (by engaging in commercial endeavors) and/or indirectly (by spending additional time at practice, in the gym, etc.); that leaves less time available for academic pursuits.
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First of all, they already regularly attend mandated signing events, fundraisers, booster dinners, photo shoots, etc. for the school… for free. There’s also these things called holidays. So there’s plenty of time to do whatever level of advertising they want… if time was even a remote concern in this discussion…. but it isn’t. That’s why we’re adding two rounds to the playoff; because the time commitment of these kids isn’t the slightest concern for the schools or the NCAA. Only money matters in this discussion. All these other “concerns” are just straw men they spew at the public, judges, and juries because if they said the real argument out loud it would kill their case. That argument being, “We will make less money if we let them do that.”
Here’s one that might resonate more with the amateurism crowd: “Well, I guess they’ll just have to spend less time playing xbox and getting tattoos if they want to do commercials.”
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Amazingly, there are some people who think the athletes shouldn’t have to do mandated fundraising events, or shouldn’t have to play in two more playoff rounds, or shouldn’t have to live, eat and breath at the football complex, when there are great classrooms and libraries available right down the street…. Forgive me for wanting to put the “University” back in your favorite semi-pro football team!
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NIL and putting the “University back in the semipro football team” aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact
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I’m sure all those athletes would be majoring in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and genetics if it just weren’t for those pesky sports.
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Here we go, crying for the players again. The players that don’t have to worry about rent , nutrition & training. Oh and they get a college degree if they put in some effort. The 99% that were never good enough for the NFL get to leave with that degree and not be in debt for it.
Great deal for players of any color.
But look someone’s making money ! Oh the horror!
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I still dont understand why schools have to foot the bill. I dont care how much Nike pays em.
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