Calipari Likens NCAA to Dwindling Soviet Union; Offers Suggestions for Player Compensation
Some remarkably poignant and common sense ideas from a man I've never respected re: player compensation. Ideas include:
• Players should receive stipends of $3,000 to $5,000;
• The NCAA should cover eligible players' insurance premiums;
• Athletes should be able to accept loans up to $50,000 against future earnings;
• If a coach leaves an institution, players should be able to transfer from that program without having to sit out a season;
• Athletes should be allowed one round-trip flight home every year.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10760355/kentucky…
Soviet Union metaphor seems fitting. Insurance premiums and flight-home ideas in particular indicate that he's thought about it and seems to have kids' interests in mind. Is there more to this man than ruining programs and one-and-dones?
fits that description.
as he claims, then Calipari=Trotsky
College ball is a much better situation than playing minor league football/basketball. You would get a salary and earn money but you would have to pay for an apartment, pay for food etc. Honestly I'd just stay in college.
That's a little bit extreme, isn't it?
• Athletes should be able to accept loans up to $50,000 against future earningsYou're going to get a lot of players who don't have much of a future in the pros taking out money they will have difficulty paying back...which would put them in the same boat as all their art major classmates I guess /rimshot
Make it regulated via the already in-place accrediated Agent structure. Since he's proposed a defined max amount then break down the payments into yearly increments (i.e. 1st year 30% payback, 2nd year 25% 3rd 20%, 4th-15%, 5th-10%).
Last of all, make sure that a loan is written off if a player is out of the leauge in 5 years. This will help to ensure that their is a risk to extending a player money and to not just throw it around to anyone/everyone.
I agree to a point, but a lender might also be judicious enough not to lend 50 large to a player with minimal professional prospects.
April 11th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
Based on recent history of home loans, I would not make that assumption.
I like the idea if it can only be repaid with a pro contract. If I lend money to someone who doesn't go pro, then I'm out of luck. If I lend to someone who does go pro, then I get a set amount of money back each of the first 4 years of their contract (and if ithe contract doesn't go that long, I'm partially out of luck). You might need the payback amount to be large given the opportunities to lose money, but for a player with a pro contract, even if they paid double it wouldn't be a big deal.
I also wouldn't cap it at $50,000, I'd cap it at a certain amount per year in school.
Another bonus of this is the money would generally go to the individual players who are likely to go pro, which is the same set that's probably making money for the university.
Then again, if I've got wads of cash, I'd probably just give a loan to all the Michigan players, and plan to lose most of it--so maybe it's not that different from paying them.
April 11th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
Well, home loans can be given out with a really broad range of interest rates, so if you give money to someone you know is a big risk, you have ways of getting it back. Student loans are capped at a set interest rate, and, I know these wouldn't be "student loans" per se, but I have to believe that the NCAA wouldn't just say, hey go ahead and usure the athletes at whetever interest rate is cool with you.
Your final paragraph is the real problem with that program. In fact it would probably come with all sorts of wink-nod stipulations in the contract about what you can do to have the loan forgiven (come sign autographs at my son's birthday party!) unless the loan contract had its language regulated by the NCAA....and if it did, the bagman money would keep on flowing so nobody would bother with the loan in the first place.
I like most of these besides the loans and round trip ticket. I do think players should be able to make money off endorsements and their likeness.
Calipari is still trash, but these aren't bad.
However, I would liken the NCAA more to Las Vegas as portrayed in Casino--there were rules, but it was really easy to avoid them if you had the inkling.
I mean, the guy is a recognized expert on player compensation above and beyond scholarships, so it's not a surprise really.
Cal isn't going anywhere and it said nothing about restrictions. I'm sure schools would restrict coaches from taking their players with them. I see no reason why kids should be held hostage when they committed to a coach, not a university. Lets be real.
• Athletes should be able to accept loans up to $50,000 against future earnings;
Great! So athletes can now be just like normal students and become unwitting debt slaves.
Think it sucks now "not getting paid" just wait til you're a washed up 25 year "basketall player" who's dealing with $700/month loan repayments (possibly nondischargeable) and virtually no job prospects. Fucking brillant!!!
If every other kid on campus can take a big loan...why shouldn't a D1 basketball player?
It says against future earnings if you read it. I take that as someone has to evaluate your worth. for someone like Nik Stauskas or Taylor Lewan...they're going to ge the full $50,000 and they'll be able to pay it back with ease.
For someone like Eso Akunne or Jack Miller, they're not going get approved for as big of a loan.
And why is that your problem? College debt is something the majority of kids in the country deal with...if a student-athlete wants to join them, so be it. It's not like you have to pay for it.
And why are they mutally exclusive...why can't you be 25 and washed up and have a degree from Michigan and a GREAT future in the "regular world?" Do you really think Stu Douglas and Zack Novak are going to play ball forever? No. What about a guy like Jordan Morgan...he may go play overseas for a few years, but when he's 25 and done...he's got a couple of degrees to slap you straight across the face with. He'll be A-ok.
STFU.
...Bernie Madoff has some suggestions on how to improve the regulatory effectiveness of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please...
How long before—at, for example, U of M—the kid from Detroit is bitching that the kid from California gets an expensive flight but he doesn't? Does U of M then charter a G350 to send a kid from Washtenaw County Airport to Coleman Young (aka Detroit City) Airport?
Where does this shit stop?
April 10th, 2014 at 10:43 PM ^
April 10th, 2014 at 11:58 PM ^
It's a good point. Where do you draw the line?
It is literally one of the top 5 dumbest things I have read on this blog. Why would the kid from Detroit need a plane to Detroit to see his family? Why would he be complaining about someone needing a plane ticket to California while he's not getting one to see his family who lives 45 minutes away? It's so patently ridiculous I can't believe I need to explain it.
Give him a Greyhound or Megabus ticket if he really can't get to Detroit. Jesus Christ is this real life?
You wouldn't even need to do that. The point is to allow them to go home to see their families. They're not getting a free trip to go to Disney World. It's where their parents/grandparents/whomever is based.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
What happens when a player takes out a $50k loan on his future earnings and then his future earnings are $0.00?
April 10th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
April 10th, 2014 at 10:40 PM ^
Such people like to conflate two separate issues
1. That college players should be paid. He may be right about this
2. That teams should follow the same rules. The fact that has left two programs in NCAA ruin raises serious doubts about whether he does this. And that is an equally serious issue.
Today, we have a situation analogous to playing penny ante poker every week with some people you know are cheating. To continue to play with them defeats the main purpose and enjoyment of the game. Indeed, to even call it a game is a farce.
Granted, we may not agree with rules. We may think players should be paid. Fine. But we do need to follow some agreed upon rules. So, change the rules. Make public the NCAA deliberations. If the NCAA is not thoroughly investigating teams and enforcing the rules, then use a common fund of team revenues to fund independent investigators. Make the penalties far more onerous. Do not reward coaches like Calipari by allowing them to continue--even to get promoted and prosper in their jobs Maybe we even need to expel the violating teams. In any case, we should not excuse the cheaters by conflating the two separate issues. That is what Calipari wants.
"The fact that has left two programs in NCAA ruin raises serious doubts about whether he does this."
That isn't even remotely accurate. First off, Memphis isn't anywhere near "ruin." They have made the tournament 4 of the 5 years that Calipari has been gone. The program is going to regress a little. They went from Calipari to Pastner...
UMASS? First lets not pretend that they are a program that was a world beater and he ruined them. He made them great. When he left, they didn't exactly go out and hire someone impressive. The team went to the tournament the next 2 years after he was gone and then dropped off.
Either you chose you words poorly, or you are just a Calipari hater.
A lot of people are Calipari haters, and justifiably so. Maybe "ruin" was a poor choice of words for the OP, but the fact remains that none of the teams he's coached before Kentucky have any official record of what he did there anymore.
April 10th, 2014 at 10:39 PM ^
April 10th, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
"Mr. Emmert, tear down this wall!"
April 10th, 2014 at 11:31 PM ^
Nobody follows minor league baseball. It's just something you do like going to the zoo or museum.
April 11th, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
He's one of the cowboy capitalists who came in and raped the country afterward, who continue to make a lot of noise about free markets when anyone complains about what is, instead, outright theft.
Then start a league.
The NBA can't stop you. The NCAA can't stop you. Go ahead and start signing elite high school players who would rather skip college. Nobody can make them go to school.
I don't understand people acting like there's some kind of legal constraint. Go ahead and do it, and see how many people show up to see Jabari Parker play for the Durham Bullocks.
of the *bagman*.
Michigan had $137.5 million fiscal 2013-14 athletics budget.
We have about 700 student athletes.
Assuming a $3000 stipend, a $1000 plane voucher, $3000 in health care coverage, that is $7000x700 = $4.9million.
That's a 3.6% budget increase.
April 11th, 2014 at 10:23 AM ^
Why is America against letting athlete pay levels be set by the good ol' free market? If Calipari wants to pay, say, Devin Booker $250,000 for one year, why should anyone be able to stop him?
April 11th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
Or is he leaving KY to become the President of the NCAA?
They can get a private loan right now and if it's against future earnings I'm sure Chase or whoever would be more than willing to give Lewan a 50k loan.
They no longer have a cap on how much they can make during the summer so that constraint isn't there. The only limit is how much they can make during the school year and that number is about as high as what a normal kid would get as part of a work-study program so I'm just really confused as to why this is such a big deal. Oh, and they already get a stipend beyond already having all the room and board paid for on top of all the free apparel. Do they even pay for the HC they get? I mean, is Devin paying for student health insurance or is that included in his scholarship. And if he is isn't it quite clear that football players are getting a hell of a lot better deal than an average student? How much $ was Ryan out because he tore his ACL? How much would that cost a "normal" student?
Maybe I'm in the minority on this one but if it goes the way of being a minor-league NFL with kids getting paid tons of money (and acting like it, let's just admit that most NFLers aren't exactly good role models...) I'm just not going to care nearly as much and eventually at all.
April 12th, 2014 at 10:50 AM ^
The NFL and NBA love the colleges because it is a free minor league system that gives the pro teams a better idea of who is going to be a real effective professional player. From draft bombs we know it is not perfect. The bigger question is who gets paid? Does a 2 star in football get the same stipend as a 5 star? What happens when it is obvious the 5 star is not panning out but the 2 star is a diamond in the rough? Which sports get a stipend? Can a school with a huge athletic budget buy championships in lesser sports?
If the thought is introducing money will remove the corruptionn, it will not be further from the truth. It will just be easier for the schools that do cheat to do so at a greater scale by hiding behind the legit stipend. Schools with money will just dominate those who do not.