3 major colleges to stop selling jersey numbers of star players
Normally I don't like doing more than one thread in a day, but this is some pretty big news.
Arizona, Northwestern and Texas A&M will not be selling the jersey numbers of star players this season. Instead, they will move to generic numbers.
Example: A&M sold thousands of #2 jerseys last year. This year, they will only sell #12. For the 12th man tradition they have.
A couple of posters on here were mentioning this topic on Twitter so I thought it'd be interesting.
Your premise is true, but in reality it doesn't matter much who the star is. Had Denard Robinson never come to Michigan, the number of jersey sales those years would have been pretty similar, I would bet. Because instead of people buying #16, they would have bought Tate's or Devin's jersey (since one of those guys would have been the QB) or Brandon Minor or Greg Mathews or something. Sure, fans want to buy the jersey of their favorite player, but if that guy wasn't on the team, they would just have a different guy as their favorite player.
It's amazing to me that more people don't agree with this. If I had a business, and people were LINING UP to work for me, would anyone think I was exploiting my employees? This isn't a migrant laborer situation where employees are tricked into working for me or trapped or something. They are very aware of what they are signing up for, yet kids are dying to sign up. And why wouldn't they? Free education, free room $ board, a bunch of free top of the line athletic gear, free elite-level training both in terms of S&C and coaching, opportunity to be on national television nearly (if not) every week, being idolized by thousands (many of whom are hot and willing females), and the opportunity to continue playing the sport you love at a high level for at least another 4 years.
Here's why A&M is giving up jersey sales for star players:
"...Texas A&M made just $59,690 on jersey sales for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013?"
There's no money in it, yet it is a very visible contradiction of the amatuerism hype the NCAA promotes.
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/80530/manziel-jerseys-hardl…
I'd like to see how much money was made with #16 jerseys here.
Considering it was the fiscal year during which Johnny Manziel won the Heisman, I would say less.
How does this affect Starter jackets?
3.14159265359
trust funds for these guys.