At this point, what is the difference between a hypothetical minor league and CFB? How many more schools are going to be opting out, similar to the Ivy of years ago?
Yep, this will cull it down to the bigger schools who can afford it, and those that just can't will have to drop div 1. Can't wait to see how Title IX will get involved too.
Whatever increased benefits that football and basketball players will have to filter down to Women's archery and rowing that's for sure. I can imagine that it won't be a big problem for major conference schools esp the SEC and Big 10 schools, their networks generate so much money for those schools. B12 and Pac10 not so much.
Pac12 Ath Directors changing football, going to 8 conference games and no divisions. Pac-12 athletic directors and incoming commissioner George Kliavkoff have engaged in preliminary discussions about significant changes to the structure of the football season as expansion of the College Football Playoff appears inevitable. Potential changes are months if not years away, but they include the elimination of divisions and the reduction in the number of conference games from nine to eight. Pac-12 considers overhaul to football schedule as CFP expansion looms
Former ND player Brandon Wimbush highlighted in this article on the recent Supreme Court decision. Of course that Miami game that he talks about was a complete bust for him as a QB and the beginning of the end of his career at ND as a QB. Maybe he'd had to have reimbursed all those who paid him money before the game! As Brandon Wimbush sees it, his earnings power should have peaked in November 2017: ESPN used an image of him all week in onscreen promotions of a football showdown between Notre Dame and Miami, but Notre Dame’s then-starting quarterback didn’t see a dime from 65,303 tickets sold or the millions of dollars ESPN parent Walt Disney Co. pays for broadcast rights. Soon, Wimbush’s start-up, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based MOGL Corp., may begin to change that, thanks to laws working through state legislatures and Congress, and also to the unanimous Supreme Court decision on Monday that ruled against the NCAA in an antitrust case limiting the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s rights to bar college athletes from getting paid. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/sup...ion-how-college-athletes-plan-to-cash-in.html
You're right, Gipper but for a significant portion of these kids the scholarship is not the enticement. Its the exposure on the way to the NFL. This idea has been considered for years and now it appears it will take hold. Personally, I think it will ruin the game; money always does. As Kes said, the NCAA is now the minor leagues of pro football. School pride and allegiances will suffer; the mega powers will completely separate from the other 99.8% and ticket prices will soar as will your cable or streaming charge at home. I believe you will see the day of union representation, contract negotiations and even player agents ( legitimately ) early in their college career. Maybe holdouts and player strikes too. It is the natural consequence of injecting money officially into an amateur game.
I wonder if athletes will be taxed on the value of their scholarships as well as the income they generate from other sources?
I don't think so, Kyle. I'm neither a lawyer nor an accountant, but I'm aware of the traditionally favorable tax treatment of educational expenses, especially those paid directly. One example is that directly paid educational expenses in the form of gifts are non-taxable to the student/recipients. I can't imagine that the IRS or whatever taxing authority making those decisions would change that practice or the non-taxability of academic or athletic scholarships. Of course, I've been wrong before. Once, in 1971.
They don't get taxed on the value of their scholarships, nor to regular students who are on full or partial scholarship. But they will absolutely get taxed on any income from the Name, Image and Likeness deals that they make. They have been getting extra money for several years now for extra expenses related to academics. I think this is where that Court decision comes in, the NCAA has limited the compensation and now anything that is deemed related to academics can be paid for by the school. That also isn't likely to be taxable.
I think about Oklahoma as a candidate for a team that lost a couple of games early then Rattler figured it out and they ran through the rest of the season and their bowl game. Maybe in a 12 team playoff they make it to the title game, maybe not, but they were clearly a much better team at the end of the season than after September.
Re: taxation (for possible future reference re: NIL income). In 2020, the minimum threshold for filing a Federal income tax return was $12,400.
From reading about the NIL I get the impression that most of the high-profile kids are expecting to make much more than that. But I would also expect that many NCAA athletes won't make much and probably not meet that 12,400.