Start giving these kids money and sports agents and unions are right around the corner. So are $200.00 face ticket prices.
One of the things about the internet that I find interesting is how people rationalize their positions, whatever the topic being debated (IMO the word "debate" is too civil for most arguments). The issue of college athlete compensation is a prime example. People like Jay Bilas don't realize how ignorant they appear when they expound their self inflating opinions. I find the rationale on the "let 'em get paid" side to range from not well thought out to downright laughable. George's post above is an example of common sense and logical thought. I don't see anything close to that on the other side of the argument.
Actually Terry I believe he's referring to the Rangers "acquisition" of RW in 98 as a "thank you" for staying in school to help out Mack's first season. He never played for the Rangers...
I personally don't think the players need more "compensation" than they currently receive. And I am not excusing JF if he has broken the rules as it seems. But... the O'Bannon lawsuit is about different stuff... and this could become a big part of it if the NCAA isn't careful. Telling players you own their likeness for perpetuity seems a big step to me. I guess we'll see how it shakes out...
To clarify (not that anyone cares about my opinion :lol: ), I was not referring above to the O'Bannon lawsuit. Those issues are too complex for my simple mind to grasp. I was referring only to the topic of compensating current student-athletes via money for autographs, sales of jerseys, etc.
Not as much as Tebow misses receivers... I'm not all too worried about this. There are a few things that people aren't really talking about. 1. These autograph vendors are below sports agents in terms of honesty and integrity. I'd put less stock in anything they say outside of anything leaving A-Rod's lips. 2. If JFF is guilty, there's going to be a whole bunch of people guilty. Just you wait. 3. You're still innocent until proven guilty. The kid should go the Cam Newton route and don't say a damn thing. Until you can absolutely prove that he took the money, you don't have ****.. and if you're relying on the word of an autograph vendor, you don't have ****. Who is to say that JFF didn't stiff the guy? Maybe he was signing for free, and maybe the subject of money got brought up...and maybe there was some sort of conflict in which the player walked away. That is every bit as likely to have happened, if not more so, than what the scribes are putting forth. Whenever stupid stuff like this pops up, it reminds me of a Thanksgiving about 4 or 5 years ago at the family cabin of the girl I was dating at the time. Her cousin played football at Miami. He had a good friend and business partner who played at Florida. They also had a very good friend who played at Alabama and while he was no NFL star, he's a guy who makes grown men gush in this state. One of the topics while sharing old war stories was the topic of '$100 handshakes' and the idiocy of the NCAA. They all had stories of fans, boosters, professors and even the autograph hounds constantly working these kids over. The fact of the matter is that there is just no escaping it. You have people literally shoving money in the pockets of these kids and contrary to the popular opinion on this board, these kids don't have it exactly on 'easy street' once the lights go down. Each kid is his own story with his own background. Not all kids need the money, but if someone sticks $500 in your hand just for you to introduce this jock sniffer to one of your teammates, what is the likelihood you'll say no? This one guy.. his family is quite affluent. One of his tales involved a person trying to get closer to another player who was poor and is a black inner city kid. (these are all grown ass men now and have been for some time) The guy tried to bribe him with $200 for a face to face. He laughed at him and told him (without bullshitting) that he makes more than that in an hour working for his father in the summer. (his family owns and runs one of the South's largest food distributorships) The guy sort of scoffed at him and offered a grand. He informed the jock sniffer that 'You could put 10 of those together and you still couldn't buy my watch.' (pointing to his Rolex on his wrist). That particular story ended without an introduction. The jock sniffer basically told him that everyone had a price with this guy telling him he could tell by the car he drove that he couldn't afford his. It was all good laughs and there were lots of great impressions of the coaches lecturing the kids on the 'perils' of such things. It's laughable. It can't be controlled. It's up to the kids. How long do you think it took that jock sniffer to offer someone else who wasn't a rich kid? I bet he wound up finding his mark. They always do. But can you prove it...? That's the thing.
another thought: ********. ********, ********, ********. The reason people dump all that money is because it's advertising. It enhances the brand of the school. Unless you want to study oil industry specific engineering and tornadoes, who in the hell wants to go to Oklahoma? Auburn? Did Penn State make the school, or is Penn State what it is today because of Joe Paterno? Did Boise State go from being a Junior College to a growing academic institution because of their potato research, or because of the guys out on the blue turf? They are all micros in a much larger macro. People want to go to these schools, and when they do, they donate their money to dear old Alma Mater. They send their kids there and pay ridiculously inflated tuitions and continue to do so in perpetuity. Outside of a very small group of schools (most of whom no long play football 'on the big stage'), many of these universities owe their ass to the football program. Even dear old Notre Dame.. Everybody.
Sid, I think we knew what you meant, but that's where the water gets muddy. No one connected with the NCAA would be "compensating" Johnny Manziel. Not the school, nor AD... That money is coming from outside the organization controlling the sport. And that is why the court issue is so sticky. It's a mess.
Corey...nobody is saying that the memorbilia guys aren't trash. Hell half the time a player signs something for a kid, the kid was put up to it by some memorbilia/autograph groupie. Or how about, can you sign this for my dad, he's a big fan and he's dying of cancer this would really lift his spirts. So do you think JFF doesn't know he's dealing with scum? So why is he dealing with scum.
Signing stuff comes with the fame. Are you telling me these guys are now to avoid scum? I hate to break it to you guys, but that means they won't be able to talk to about 90% of the coaches and administrators on campus. What I am saying is this... until one of these guys produce rock solid, irrefutable proof that this guy got money, I refuse to believe a word that leaves the mouth of one of these guys. They are bitter, shitty ugly people who will often stop at nothing to simply make a few hundred bucks and increase 'their rep' as a salesman. Jesus guys. We live in a world in which real killers walk because we claim we can't trust the eye sight of a prostitute but we can tear down a kid based on the unsubstantiated word of a pimp??!! Surely, you see my issue with this. Don't forget that the E in ESPN is entertainment. They built this kid up. They quite likely are responsible for his Heisman trophy, and now they are tearing him down based on less than reputable sources.. Ya know why? Because it sells. It's drama. It's the Kardashians on steroids (literally) and we eat it all up.
Re Jay Bilas: I know Sid just sort of tossed him aside, but did anyone actually stop and see what that guy did? He went to the NCAA's site and using the NCAA's search engine feature, he typed in the names of current NCAA players. This is something the NCAA has repeatedly claimed they don't do.. The numbers/names connections is just a coincidence. So anyway, he entered names like "Manziel' and was taken to a page of Texas A&M JFF stuff. He did the same with USC's Marquise Lee and a few others. The point is, and maybe this is lost if you don't understand web design, that isn't by accident. You have to hire someone to design a site and in the meta information for that page, they must link the player's name, number, school etc.. There's absolutely, positively NO EFFING WAY IN THE WORLD that is an accident. The NCAA took down their search feature off of their page IMMEDIATELY when Bilas broke that. They know full God damned well what they did and were doing. In case you were wondering, and before you go there, no the web designers don't just 'add that feature.' Web designers only do exactly what you tell them to do. They could be sued and lose lots of money for doing otherwise. The NCAA had to tell them to do that. I think that's the most unreported element of the Bilas story. The Bilas story assumes people understand web design when 99.9% of the people on the web have no clue about it. (you're not missing out). It allows people to discount Bilas' message because he's Jay Bilas. (admittedly a jerk) But just as in my other post in which I said 'I want proof'.. Bilas may be a dipshit, but he's a dipshit that proved once again the NCAA lies, cheats, steals and exploits while running a fake campaign of being about amateur scholarship..
All those who are think football players are getting screwed by the NCAA won't be happy till college football is semi-pro and schools are cutting non-revenue producing sports so they can afford to pay college football players. Oh and how about alums paying obscene sums for autographs of star players...talk about recruiting advantage. And hey what about HS players, shouldn't they be able to sign shoe contracts and also get paid for autographs and then they will only play for a school that uses their shoes. I'm all for paying for the total cost of school, which right now they don't get. Give'm laptops or iPads, issue them phones, have a supply room that they can tap into for pencils, computer paper, whatever they need to do their work in school. They already get free tutors, they already get room and board. They already get all sorts of gear, warmups, T-Shirts, shoes, etc. If they want to get paid then they should go pro. We need to get rid of the stupid one and done and let kids go to the NBA out of HS if they want, just like they can in baseball. Granted college is still the best route to the NFL, but it's not the only there are semi-pro leagues out there they could play in if they wanted. But opening the flood gates for players to benefit from their stardom will be the rape of college athletics as we know it.
I hope no one thinks I'm advocating paying everyone... I'm not. I'm simply pointing out - when it comes to what is lawfully someone's property to control... I suspect the courts are not going to side with the NCAA.
Sorry, Geor.....er.....Godfather. I should have recognized that your "100% agreement" clearly was a voice-of-reason comment.
I disagree, the courts have sided with the NCAA before. There was a WR/KR for Colorado who was also some sort of X-Games skier and he wanted to appear in commercials for skiing and the NCAA wouldn't allow it and he took them to court and lost. I can't think of a single instance where an amateur has sued somebody over his image and it's control and won.