Corey I read it. He's like so many other left side brain folks who don't look at the whole picture. So, once again, let's review: 1. If you pay the poor exploited football airheads, you have to pay all of the female athletes in the school under Title IX and then you'll have to pay all the other male athletes also. 2. If you are paying the players they are now employees. The school will have to cover them under Worker's Compensation Insurance laws. Costly. 3. Last but certainly not least, if the players are now "employees" they will have the right to collectively bargain. They can demand increased pay and of course strike if their demands arent met. And of course Wetzel and other idiots like him will be standing around wondering "how did this happen?"
You're preaching to the choir Gip. There's an elephant in the room that absolutely no one talks about and that is the schools themselves are out of control. This isn't 'rick em rack em sock em' football of days long gone. The very nature of the beast has changed and the schools are the crackheads who will blow you for another 5 dollars. There are some shining examples of doing it right, but they are nowhere near the majority. I don't believe in paying the players. I believe the system does need to be restructured from the top down. People keep hanging their hat on the two polar extremes. One of the reasons we've reached this point is the naked greed of schools that literally exploit these kids by pumping them full of drugs, place an athletics first mindset over the university all the while running a disingenuous media campaign to let everyone know how lucky they all are that the schools and NCAA are there for them. This could have and should have been avoided a long time ago. It wasn't handled because they were too busy exploiting the whole damned thing. I just hope it's not too late..
Terry, The schools have clearly lost their way. These aren't academic institutions with football teams. These are semi-pro athletics programs that are hiding behind the guise of academics and amateurism. The problem is, they are running this ******** charade without everyone getting compensated. You've got 2 choices. You can either continue on in your exploitative professional ways, or you can start acting like a gosh darn school. Jesus, even in business, you have to have a Mission Statement. What is the mission statement here? The one they are advertising is a lie. It's a straight up GD lie. Under this current model, the players DO deserve to be paid. They need to right this ship. They need to scale it way back and place the emphasis on educating and raising the men. This GD system is the same one that mocked Jerry Tarkanian for making the argument that 'just having the students in college was education enough' while turning around and essentially endorsing something far worse. There's no universal enforcement, testing or code for drug testing, drug abuse or conduct. (other than not taking money to play). There's no real standard or educational expectation or progress. It took me right about 10 seconds to find out last year over 52 football coaches (it may be more, that's just what I found) made OVER a million dollars last year. You can't make the argument that paying all the players in all the sports is going to break the bank when more than one half of all the coaches are making well in excess of 1.5 million dollars a year. The only expectation is winning. The only standard is winning. At the moment, there's 10 times the amount of honor in pro sports than there is college athletics. Before you laugh that off, while the NFL may hire murderers, rapists and drug abusers.. they make no bones about who and what they are. They don't lie to you. They don't pretend they are something they are not. That's all the NCAA does. So you wanna know my plan? My plan is to follow the GD rules. Let's blow up about half of the ******** no one is ever going to follow and let's get back to being academic institutions with football teams..not the other way around. There is so much double standard, so much hypocrisy, and so much 'wink and nod' **** that goes on in college athletics. FFS, a pimp's life has more honesty and integrity than the NCAA/College Football world does I had no problem with Delaney's proposal. I thought he was bullshitting, but I would have supported him 100%. And I very much believe the SEC would have gone the 'hookers, blow and paychecks' route.. and that's fine too. Whatever they do, they need to stop lying about who and what they are. I, for one would like to see a much greater emphasis placed on academics, personal development and integrity. I know.. that's just crazy talk. It's so much easier to lure kids with cash, drugs and hookers.. then continue on to expect the play like pros while we spoil them with the same things that lured them in... and then wonder why these guys are so ****** up when they come out the other side of the pipe.. We aren't spoiling these kids. We're failing them.