A Pretty Damning Article About College Sports

[mikoyan29]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...ngle_page=true

I love college sports but sometimes I wonder if our priorities are a little to whacked at times.

[Greenday]

We can hire guys and pay them nothing, make millions of dollars off of them, and it will be okay because they aren't "professionals"? Brilliant! Then we can fine them or suspend them if they make just a little bit of money off of the sport? Holy shit this can't get any better!

/sarcasm

It's insane how much colleges and all sorts of sponsors can make such huge amounts of money while justifying not paying students a dime.

[AdminAssistant]

It's insane how much colleges and all sorts of sponsors can make such huge amounts of money while justifying not paying students a dime.

Except for: free educations, free housing, free meals, free books, free clothing, and in the case of my current institution, money for child support and legal aid (which more than a few of them need). And if you're a starter on the basketball team, a ticket to pretty much any NBA team you want. The university does make a lot of money from these kids, but the student athletes are pretty darn happy.

Here's the real question: Should all student athletes get paid? Or should only the football and male basketball players at major institutions get paid? Because there are a lot of schools (the majority, in fact) that can barely afford their athletic programs, and they lose. A lot. Are those schools supposed to strip more funds to pay the athletes?

If television wants to broadcast football from here on a Thursday night, he said, “we shut down the university at 3 o’clock to accommodate the crowds.” He longed for a campus identity more centered in an academic mission.

Replace football with basketball and at my school this is so fucking true. ESPN has an extreme amount of power over the University's schedule of events. Our theatre is very close to the basketball stadium, so we try not to put on shows on game nights. ESPN (or FOX Sports or whoever) can come in the week before and say, "Yeah, we need to televise the game on Wednesday instead of Thursday." And we have to make a decision as to whether to cancel the show or to keep it open and beg the University to let our patrons have a parking lot somewhere moderately close to the building.

[Greenday]

Except for: free educations, free housing, free meals, free books, free clothing, and in the case of my current institution, money for child support and legal aid (which more than a few of them need). And if you're a starter on the basketball team, a ticket to pretty much any NBA team you want. The university does make a lot of money from these kids, but the student athletes are pretty darn happy.

Here's the real question: Should all student athletes get paid? Or should only the football and male basketball players at major institutions get paid? Because there are a lot of schools (the majority, in fact) that can barely afford their athletic programs, and they lose. A lot. Are those schools supposed to strip more funds to pay the athletes?

LOL @ the education part. Many don't get degrees and I'd be surprised if most really attended classes/learn anything.

Athletes should be paid based on how much much they bring in. If a sport brings in little money, people shouldn't get paid much. It's a lot like most things in real life.

[Andara Bledin]

While I don't think that the universities themselves should pay the people on their sports teams (and I'm not entirely in favor of non-academic scholarships, either), I also don't believe it's ethical or fair that they should be allowed to forbid those same athletes from bringing in money of their own by trading on their skills, whether that be by trading autographs for goods or gaining sponsorship deals.

^-.-^

[mikoyan29]

While I don't think that the universities themselves should pay the people on their sports teams (and I'm not entirely in favor of non-academic scholarships, either), I also don't believe it's ethical or fair that they should be allowed to forbid those same athletes from bringing in money of their own by trading on their skills, whether that be by trading autographs for goods or gaining sponsorship deals.

^-.-^

While I agree with what you are saying but I can see where they are coming from. I graduated from Eastern Michigan and we have never really had a good football team. It would be hard for Eastern to bring in good players because we don't have the fan or alumni base that other schools have. I think allowing that would widen the gap between the haves and the have nots. Whereas Michigan (the team I'm a fan of and I wish I had gone there) would have an easier time. So from a pure compettive stand point, I can see where they are coming from. However, it is pretty clear that Eastern will never compete on the same level as Michigan soooo.

My only real complaint about the article is that it didn't really address schools where football is more of a cash drain than a cash cow (again Eastern is a good example of this). Eastern tries to field a Division 1A team and in the process ends up pumping some money from the General fund to do so. Is that right?

[Hyena Dandy]

While I don't think that the universities themselves should pay the people on their sports teams (and I'm not entirely in favor of non-academic scholarships, either), I also don't believe it's ethical or fair that they should be allowed to forbid those same athletes from bringing in money of their own by trading on their skills, whether that be by trading autographs for goods or gaining sponsorship deals.

^-.-^

I agree. There's no need to have colleges put athletes on some sort of payroll, what bothers me is that they're not able to put themselves on payroll. The colleges don't have money to pay them like pro athletes.

But its the athlete's work. they should be allowed to make money off themselves.

[AdminAssistant]

I was browsing the archives of one of my favorite comics when I read this one:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/arch...p?comicid=1086

*sigh*