EDSBS: Broke (On paying players)
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2015/9/8/9249681/broke
Great read from "Orson", Spencer Hall over at EDSBS. At the risk of blockquoting the whole thing... just go read it
There is money someone earned over here, visibly earned through labor and special talent. There are people over here who have it. Something stands between them. To extend that point to its logical conclusion: Either what is going on is a vast confusion of what constitutes capital, or it is theft from every single football player that plays this stupid game to enrich a coach, athletic director, and the university. This is a system that willfully commits one of the greatest insults possible: making someone poorer, and then claiming that poverty as a necessary, virtuous and good thing. That's a lie, and anyone who's even been broke for a short time knows it. Pay them. Pay them what you owe them. Pay them because the worst American tradition is taking things that aren't yours and calling it destiny or virtue or principle. Pay them because there is no nobility in keeping someone a dollar poorer than they have to be in exchange for honest work. Pay them because any system that deliberately makes people poorer is one of designed cruelty, even at this relatively small scale. Pay them their goddamn money.
September 8th, 2015 at 5:20 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 10:58 PM ^
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September 9th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
This is somewhat true among some of the Big Power 5 schools - so I'd agree that the profit number for the twenty money makers is probably understated a bit.
For the money losers - there is no benefit to pushing your books into a loss. These are almost all real, and quite a few of them are worse than they appear - because they still lost money after getting subsidies from student fees.
Realistically there are probably ~30 schools that make money as an athletic department on a regular basis and are living in the "high dollar coach and crazy facilities" realm. Those schools can survive paying - although it will seriously dent their bottom lines paying every student athlete a pile.
The other 90 schools in FBS and the other ~1,000 schools in other divisions? No way they can afford to pay athletes.
September 8th, 2015 at 7:18 PM ^
No, the best 1.5% of high school future-math-majors attending UM do not get scholarships, and stipends, and can hold jobs in addition to school.
September 8th, 2015 at 4:51 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 7:33 PM ^
I don't see why starting out with an incredibly ambitious dream that didn't fully pan out apparently makes the entire endeavor of a college education meaningless to you. That's a rather depressing view of education, because that happened to almost everyone. Few of us didn't initially have our hopes set a bit higher than where we ended up, and frequently in an entirely different direction.
September 8th, 2015 at 7:47 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^
It's a decision and a choice- what is the alternative?
1) Play in the CFL. No college requirement.
2) Play in numerous semi-pro leagues. No college requirement.
3) Attend college as a normal student and pay for it out of pocket/with loans.
September 8th, 2015 at 7:41 PM ^