NFL team executive rips NCAA system: 'How in the world is this legal?'
Ironic that this is coming from the NFL, who save tens of millions by using the NCAA as a free minor league and make unquantifiable millions on the basis of the NCAA player hype machine. However, I agree with his point. Let's start with the NIL rights!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/nfl-team-executive-rips-ncaa-system-how-in-the-world-is-this-legal/ar-BBV4jus?ocid=spartanntp
(I tried to embed but it kept getting stuck)
From: Shalise Manza Young, Yahoo Sports
When it comes to the NCAA, everyone but the actual athletes makes money. To many, that’s absurd. To some, it’s as it should be. But at least one NFL team executive is with those who believe it’s absurd.
‘This whole thing stinks’
Robert Klemko, who covers the NFL for “Sports Illustrated,” tweeted a screenshot of a lengthy quote on Thursday afternoon. He said it was from a team executive that he was speaking to a different story, and the exec began ranting about college football and amateurism.
“This whole thing stinks,” the executive said. “There so much money at the college level, and if the good guys aren’t gonna pay you, then the bad guys are. The college coaches are always on us about their kids leaving early, and I tell them, until you start paying them, they’re leaving.
“You have these huge TV contracts and you can pay 10 coaches on the staff $1 million [each] but you can’t pay the players? It’s doesn’t make sense. It’s garbage. And everybody knows it’s garbage.”
‘The NCAA, they’re all crooks’
But he (we can pretty safely assume it’s a he given the demographics of NFL front offices) was just getting warmed up.
“The NCAA, they’re all crooks. It’s extortion of these players, because they’re all beat up. In April I see 350 physicals [of draft-eligible players] and listen to all the injuries and it’s just brutal. They’re 22-years-old and we can’t draft him or we knock ‘em down the draft board and the doctor says we might be able to get one contact out of him.
“They’re never more marketable than the four years they’re in college. Their stadiums are bigger than ours and everyone paid 100 bucks to get in and $50 to park and the conference has a TV contract and there’s national TV and the players don’t get a dime? How in the world is this legal?
“If you or I were real talented at singing or playing guitar or rap, we could just go make a bunch of money. It’s not like we have to go to some music school and let them reap millions off of us first. We can go off on our own.
“These kids don’t have that option. You throw in the fact that the average NFL career is three years, and it’s just a travesty.”
(In the interest of playing devil’s advocate, there are plenty of awful music industry contracts, ones that see the actual artists make pennies while the labels, producers, promoters and countless others get a bigger share. But the internet and digital music services have made it so artists can publish their music directly to the world without a middle-man.)
As the kids say, there are no lies detected in the executive’s words.
It's legal for the same reason it's legal for the NFL to require everybody who plays in their league be three years out of high school: because it's their organization and they make the rules. If you don't like it, play for somebody else.
This is an important point: it's the contract negotiated between the NFL and the NFLPA that prevents players from entering the NFL early. Maurice Clarett sued to play early and lost because that contract protected the NFL from an anti-trust violation.
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:55 AM ^
I don't think players should be paid, but I do think that they should be able to market their image. The NCAA rule that prevents them from doing so is incorrect.
Where exactly would the players go other than the NCAA?
This is the only solution that needs to be explored. Let the players earn money off their NIL and be done with it. Who exactly would be hurt by allowing that?
Truth. College athletes should be paid. At the very least they should be allowed the market their images. Their skills are worth millions--so the unethical actor pays them under the table anyway.
Even if you allow players to be paid, "unethical actor" will still differentiate themselves by still paying the players under the table, this will still continue.
Maybe / maybe not. How many people that are gainfully employed work a second job under the table? A few to be sure, but not many.
Why take the chance with your career (not to mention the IRS) if you can get paid above board?
What do you mean, maybe, maybe not? The only thing paying student athletes more than the tuition, room and board plus stipend does is raise the wage floor. There will still be bag men and pimps doing their thing to ensure the school they represent gets the best players possible.
Tuition doesn’t mean nearly as much as people think it does when you can only take 25% of classes
What nonsense. How can you have missed all the players who are graduating early and transferring with 2 years of eligibility left?
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:20 AM ^
If you can get commercials and endorsement deals - why take money from the bag man? If you get caught taking money under the table, you could end up with IRS trouble.
doesn't mean nobody will do it, but I can’t believe it would wipe out 90% of under the table payments.
I 100% agree that players should be able to make money from their own commercials/endorsements from their likeness/image. But to your other points I'm not so sure. I doubt many high school kids would consider IRS trouble from taking money under the table, especially when it's gone on for so long and 99% of cases seem to go unreported. I don't think that the under the table payments would cease to exist at all, though the NCAA could at least make progress to stopping those payments IF they let the kids profit off their image/likeness through endorsements/likeness (which they should be able to do already).
About $2 billion of our $20 billion economy is unreported income.
I'm far less concerned about unethical actors than I am about kids working for no pay.
Then maybe they should pay for their schooling, since they are only at the school for their athletic prowess. I mean, if schools are not allowed to use their high level athletic programs to gain revenue to build the colleges up, why have them? How is the school benefiting non-athletes? Everyone forgets that the sports programs do not get all the money their program brings in, nor do they think about how smaller schools (Hello MAC) would likely have to give up their football programs in a $$ race—thus guys like Khalil Mack, Antonio Brown, Ben Roethlisberger, and maybe even Carson Wentz, would miss chances to prove their NFL talent on schools with coaches who make peanuts in comparison to the few big salaries.
Michigan is one of the wealthiest programs. P5 conferences would have to form a new division for “paid amateurs.” And then how do you compensate a Heisman finalist versus a fourth stringer?
Instead of making a degree meaningless, push for revenue reform and really push for kids to earn degrees—since those are two big excuses that we should pay kids already getting free rides. Make sure the money is invested in the schools’ academics and make sure kids get degrees. The average NFL career is 3 years. A degree will help more than a few years of extra compensation.
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:25 AM ^
NIL rights cost schools nothing. Besides your are trying to tell other folks what to do and how much money they should make.
let the market sort it out
I understand your point and for a long time I 100% agreed with this logic that all student-athletes should be content with a full ride academic scholarship. But by allowing a student-athlete to profit off their name/likeness rather than just pay all student-athletes a pre-set amount, that sounds pretty fair to me. By allowing student athletes to be compensated for a commercial, endorsement, etc, this system could end up in paying the student-athletes that actually attract attention and drive revenue for the institution (i.e. the university, and wouldn't necessarily pay those that don't make as big of an impact on the field). It's a bit "capitalistic", but our society was built on capitalism.
This system wouldn't come without flaws. If two players work extremely hard and put in the same amount of effort, they're not guaranteed to benefit the same. An offensive lineman would never be rewarded the same as a skill position player. Having certain student-athletes earn some extra money compared to their teammates making nothing could undoubtedly create some turmoil and strife within a locker room. But while it may seem unfair, that is the reality of the entire sports industry. US Olympic athletes make morsels compared to NFL/NBA/MLB players. Less popular sports just don't drive the same revenue. And while those athletes from less popular sports may work just as hard or even harder to perfect their craft, that is the society we live in. Allowing popular athletes to prosper off their image and likeness is not evil or unfair, it's just the way that things are in our society.
Granted, to actually implement this and prevent under-the-table payments it would take a competent organization to carry it out, and the NCAA has far from proven they're capable of this. Completely shutting down under-the-table payments would realistically never happen which is a huge roadblock to this idea. But I still think allowing student-athletes the opportunity to make some money, while the they bring home millions in revenue for their institutions, is the most fair option for these individuals.
I don't think colleges should pay athletes. I think they should be able to go directly into the NFL/NBA right out of high school if they are good enough. (But that's not up to the the NCAA or the universities is it?) If they aren't quite good enough (and most won't be) and they want they FREE training, then they should go to college and stay there for 2-4 years.
March 21st, 2019 at 10:39 PM ^
One problem with that is even most of the top athletes aren't NFL-ready. It's a big jump from HS FB to college, and another jump to NFL. The speed of the game is much faster, and many of them still need to grow and develop size and strength.
So basically even the best athletes get taken advantage of for a year or more as cheap labor while they wait their turn.
There are a few LeBrons and Zions every year. The borderline ones have a decision to make but it should be THEIR decision. If they decide to go the collegiate route then they know they're in it for the free training and nothing more.
There are two simple possible solutions. Fans stop watching on TV or in the stands and the problem is fixed immediately. Or, the players don’t show up to play the game. Either one fixes everything fast, but I see no effort by anyone complaining to actually take action. Don’t blame the NCAA when you are also not taking action to force change.
Since neither of your solutions are remotely likely, don't forget about the power of the pen, Bob.
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:59 AM ^
Illegal payment of recruits/players won't go away by legally paying players any more than illegal drug trafficking went away by legalizing certain drugs.
I am all for athletes marketing their own image.
Do you remember when a variable of an equation was not the same as the sum of an equation? Do you remember when prohibition was repealed that criminalization for manufacturing & the sale of alcohol was impacted?
Yes, the fact that they can't legally market their own image is ridiculous.
I don’t believe that an NFL executive stated this...or its a loose interpretation of executive....most guys that get into those positions have learnt the ability to know the audience they are speaking to and developed Tact....I’d ask the reporters to show sources otherwise this seems contrived.
Not when they are speaking off the record.
Ok what would be the benefit of an NFL executive to divulge this viewpoint off the record...only to have a reporter then make it an actual record by publishing the conversation...this person Represents a company in the business of making money. I’m sorry I don’t see where these comments would be beneficial, I do see how they would be beneficial to a media person with an agenda though. Count me amongst the group of people that think the most reasonable explanation is likely the most factual. On a side note the players do get paid as seemingly unknown quantities they get an education which costs anywhere from 150k to 200k when you factor in cost of attendance. I get that money is made but no ones is forcing them to participate and if the stage in which they are playing is no longer financially viable then it would cease. Again I’m not trying to sound argumentative but I cringe when people say the players don’t get compensated. I am a bit intrigued by the recent proposals to allow players to get compensated off of use of their own likeness but fear that this opens the doors for rampant underhanded dealings. My viewpoint may not be “en Vogue” or matching the boards more “enlightened” minds and may be more pragmatic but hey feel free to change it.
March 21st, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Yes, off the record equates to hearsay
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
you need to keep your posts shorter, couldn’t get past the halfway point of your rambling.
and yes they are forced to play NCAA if they want to go the NFL, there is no other viable path. That is a really stupid argument
Sorry your brain hurts
" and yes they are forced to play NCAA if they want to go the NFL, there is no other viable path. "
Ray Seals
Eric Swann
Michael Lewis
Lawrence Okoye
Stephen Neal
Renaldo Nehemiah
Antonio Gates
Bob Hayes
Demetrius Harris
World of difference between students playing an extracurricular activity and full time professional employees.
NSIS. Have you looked at how many hours those students spend in the extracurriculars of training for and playing football and basketball?
If they are employees... you can fire them.
It’s way more of a very thin line than a world of difference. The hours a D1 athlete puts in makes it a full time job. It’s year round and not optional.
I agree it's a terrible system. Then again, how is it that all the major leagues maintain monopolies and have teams make agreements in restraint of trade? (Revenue sharing, anyone?)
Baseball's exemption is based on an antiquated Supreme Court decision that basically said, "Ty Cobb; Babe Ruth; America's pastime; nothing to see here." Basketball's requirement to play elsewhere is based on its own rules.
Plenty of graft and hypocrisy to go around here.
Actually, the pros get away with what they do because of the labor agreement exception to the antitrust laws, if I am remembering my long-ago antitrust course correctly. If there is a labor contract that regulates who can play and how old they have to be or how many years they have to be in school, it is exempt from the antitrust laws. So it is actually both the unions and the leagues that are complicit in restraining the rights of college kids to play in the pros. As far as the NCAA is concerned, agree that the way they screw the athletes is outrageous, while the administrators earn absurd salaries, and ought to be declared illegal.
I really wish Michigan would pay its players. Maybe it's not the legal thing to do, but it sure as hell is the ethical thing to do.
Good on Bama and Clemson for doing it their way, winning and taking care of their stars.
I agree 100% with this.
I mean, everything he said was true. But its also disingenuous because the NFL is an active party in enforcing the fact that high school kids can't earn football money until their out of HS for 3 years. Clarrett lost his lawsuit because the NFL participated against him, lest it lose thier into-trust status.
So fuck them all...
There are like 15 assistant coaches in the entire country that make a million bucks. So the “rant” is not entirely accurate.
Not trying to be a jerk but aside from completely missing the point, you googled the wrong article and didn’t look at the date. 15 coaches making over $1MM was the first search result but if you had looked at the date it was from 2017. In 2018 there were 21, which shows how quickly the $1MM mark is being passed and further makes the point of the article.
Lol you are so far off it's not even funny. The guy said each school is paying 10 coaches $1 million dollars per year. There are 130+ FBS schools thereby 21 out of 1300 is not "every" coach making a million bucks. OMG THE SYSTEM IS FALTERING BECAUSE 6 MORE COACHES MADE A MILLION. Who cares?
There are like 10 schools in the country that make money on athletics. If those schools want to pay players -- let them. I can tell you that at least 50 other schools will shutter their entire base of non-revenue sports if student athletes are paid.
The current system is a great deal for over 90% of the student athletes. I’m not sure why they would throw out the entire system because under 10% of the participants are undervalued.
Players out of high school should have options, whether that be the G League or Europe for hoops, or one of the new leagues (AAF or XFL) for football.
NCAA sports will be fine if some of the top players go elsewhere, and I would think that many would still find playing for a major college a better deal than making 100k/year and playing in front of half full stadiums.
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:33 AM ^
Please tell me what right you have to tell hundreds of people what they should make and what they should be happy with?
Do I get a say in how much you get paid?
Isn’t that kinda what you’re doing in the OP? Are we only allowed to offer an opinion on your topic if it agrees with you?
As a state of Michigan employee - you sure do if you're a Michigan resident.
As someone whose job is partially funded by defense contracts - you sure do if you're a US citizen.
It’s not wrong
There is only one logical endgame, though it will certainly take decades to arrive: Universities will eventually get out of the athletics business.
March 22nd, 2019 at 12:37 AM ^
Good luck with that. How much do you want to bet people were saying that 50 and 100 years ago?
Sports are the single best marketing tool that a university has - the correlation between major sports success and enrollment applications has been documented in numerous studies