You Could See This Coming ..... Colleges Going Pro

[Taj79]

Green Bay has filed a waiver requesting the opportunity to play in The Basketball Tournament: Green Bay files waiver to play in The Basketball Tournament - ESPN

Given the overwhelming farce that is Pay-For-Play (NIL, to the uneducated) why not let college teams play for the $1 million winner-take-all summer free-for-all.  I expect college players to also shortly file to continue to play after their eligibility is over (under the old 5-in-4 rule).  How dare anyone restrict their ability to earn a living.  

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

10 hours ago, Taj79 said:

How dare anyone restrict their ability to earn a living. 

There's earning a living and then there's brewing resentment and draining resources lol. This has to stop somewhere.

[Lord Elrond]

That’s not the only example of colleges starting to be treated like Pro Teams. Another example comes from FIBA, who is pushing for NCAA schools to be treated like professional clubs in terms of transfers from foreign programs per BasketNews.  This includes the payment of a transfer fee by the NCAA team.  While some may say it won’t hold up in US courts, I would point out that foreign courts will now have a say, and the existing international system does this all the time between clubs in different countries.  To quote from the article:

There must be clearance from the exiting club and national federation, and there needs to be some safeguards of where the player is going: what the conditions there will be, what will be the availability for the national team, and what is the recompense for the FIBA ecosystem, including our clubs, our leagues, our federations and their members that have invested for someone who started playing at the age of 9, 10, or 11 and now ends up with a 7-figure check in the hands at the age of 18."

[slu72]

The only pro element missing is trading players. Now it may be said the portal serves as a traders market but not really. The portal is more like the stock market; highest bid wins. Why not give trades a try? Your team needs a 5 and another needs a PG. Let’s trade. Or even do a straight cash deal between schools. Hey, SLU, UK wants Avila here’s a million. The whole college sports world is a mess so why not go all the way with it. I’m not sure Congress could pass a law that would pass the constitution test and turn back the pages to college sports original premise. 

[Lord Elrond]

5 minutes ago, slu72 said:

The only pro element missing is trading players. Now it may be said the portal serves as a traders market but not really. The portal is more like the stock market; highest bid wins. Why not give trades a try? Your team needs a 5 and another needs a PG. Let’s trade. Or even do a straight cash deal between schools. Hey, SLU, UK wants Avila here’s a million. The whole college sports world is a mess so why not go all the way with it. I’m not sure Congress could pass a law that would pass the constitution test and turn back the pages to college sports original premise. 

The international model is transfer fees paid by the gaining team from the team losing a player. That’s what FIBA is pushing for in the case of international players, if a NCAA team wants a player from a Dutch academy say, they pay the Dutch Academy a transfer fee. 
 

Here’s a suggestion, make the commitment to a player signed out of high school a 4 year guaranteed scholarship instead of the current 1 year renewed every year thing it is now, with guaranteed 4 year NIL payment.  Some team wants a player and the player wants to go, pay a transfer fee from the team gaining the player to the team losing a player. 
 

[Taj79]

I don't think the four-year guarantee will work especially with NIL offers in a competitive market.  If money is the driving force, and a lot of these kids don 't seem to care much about college degrees, then the free schooling offer pales when compared to money.  (What does a degree in African-American Studies or Phys Ed get you anyway?)   I think most of these kids see school as just a bothersome hindrance to what they really want to do right now.  It's required still to stay eligible but with old rules dropping left and right, how long until this rule gets passed by?

[brianstl]

College football and basketball are professional sports now.  Minor league sports, but professional none the less.

[slu72]

1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

I don't think the four-year guarantee will work especially with NIL offers in a competitive market.  If money is the driving force, and a lot of these kids don 't seem to care much about college degrees, then the free schooling offer pales when compared to money.  (What does a degree in African-American Studies or Phys Ed get you anyway?)   I think most of these kids see school as just a bothersome hindrance to what they really want to do right now.  It's required still to stay eligible but with old rules dropping left and right, how long until this rule gets passed by?

I forget the program’s name that was supposed to measure a college teams academic standing. I guess that it’s no longer practiced or been scrapped entirely in light of all the $’s being spread around. Some of these kids are getting life securing money if they don’t go crazy with it. Why do they need an education beyond their sport? 

[billiken_roy]

It's my opinion, true academic integrity and progress towards REAL degrees is the answer to recovering of college athletics for what we love.   Throw 100% of the NCAA monitoring into academics stopping the fraud insuring they are true students.   Who cares what they are getting paid and by who, but I suspect those only interested in the money will not have the patience and will to follow through.   

[TheChosenOne]

I think the problem with that is that college athletics at the highest level is by nature a farce. We are supposed to believe that the most talented basketball players are capable of sitting in the same classroom with the brightest students in the world at institutions few of us would ever get into (but they met the NCAA eligibility requirements…..)? It’s not reality. So instead, these prestigious academic institutions that decide they also want to compete in athletics, had to find ways to keep their top athletes eligible and clearly the NCAA understood and accepted this. We seldom hear about football or basketball players at high major programs being ineligible or having to sit out a game for academic reasons. Sure, there are athletes who are also good students and we hear all about those ones, but that’s not common. And honestly, why should they be expected to be? They are pursuing their career of being a professional athlete and we’ve decided for a number of sports that college athletics is the next step to get there. I’ve long said they should eliminate any academic requirements for college basketball and football players. Let them pursue their sport to the max without silly academic requirements that top schools were ignoring anyways. And like I said, it is silly to believe they are even capable of doing so anyways at some of these institutions. None of this is meant as a shot at the athhletes (the nerds cheering them on have no business on the basketball court either), but one issue we seem to run into is refusing to acknowledge the obvious when it comes to a lot of things. The farce of the student athlete when talking about athletes at Duke or Notre Dame has always frustrated me (the same kid who signs at Houston or Miami instead is a cocky thug).

And while we are at it, stop with the bullsh!t majors. Although maybe we won’t need some of them if we just eliminate forcing athletes to pretend to be students.

[Taj79]

@slu72: I believe you are referring to the old APR ----Academic Progress Rate --- which was to account for eligibility and retention of student-athletes for each academic term.  There was also the GSR --- Graduation Success Rate --- which was supposed to measure the percentage of student-athletes graduating within a specific time frame.  

I can't believe either is still alive or useful in today's atmosphere.  The professional one-and-doners had to blow the overall GSR out of the water a long time ago.  And I can't believe the APR is doable in today's migratory transfer portal.  There is no way anyone could regulate those requirements in today's college basketball world.

 

[cheeseman]

20 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

It's my opinion, true academic integrity and progress towards REAL degrees is the answer to recovering of college athletics for what we love.   Throw 100% of the NCAA monitoring into academics stopping the fraud insuring they are true students.   Who cares what they are getting paid and by who, but I suspect those only interested in the money will not have the patience and will to follow through.   

I applaud you trying to offer a solution but how did the work when UNC got caught with bogus classes? - nothing happened because they fought it.

[slu72]

I agree with Chosen. Academics for a lot of these guys is a joke. Fine if you get guys like Jimmerson, Thatch, and others who see the value in getting a degree that you actually worked for. Not all college athletes are in it just for the chance to play a sport they love. I’d guess the majority are in it to actually earn a marketable degree. That said, there’s also a fair number of athletes in it solely to play the games. For those players the school should remove the requirement  of working towards a degree. The schools should, however, require they complete some basic life skill courses, basic math, reading, communication et al. We’ve all read and heard stories about grads that couldn’t read or multiply 2*2. They wouldn’t be courses geared toward a degree, but how to keep a checkbook and read a job application. Give them a certificate and let them concentrate on their athletic endeavors. This is especially true for BB players who have numerous opportunities to play overseas. Those players can earn a pretty good paycheck playing for the Helsinki Icebergs  or the Sao Palo Speedos. In today’s environment it’s time for schools and the NCAA to stop kidding themselves with the student first athlete second nonsense. Fans know it’s a myth. It’s time the schools realized it as well. 

[dlarry]

There are other options for guys who have no desire to go to class. Let those guys go to the G league or overseas. 
 

Although I do like SLU72’s idea of basic life skills classes. Everything thing from math to how to answer interview questions. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

3 hours ago, dlarry said:

There are other options for guys who have no desire to go to class. Let those guys go to the G league or overseas. 

Straight to pro should be an option again. Some of them will be yearning to go to college after they learn they're not good enough for some pro leagues.

[Lord Elrond]

2 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Straight to pro should be an option again. Some of them will be yearning to go to college after they learn they're not good enough for some pro leagues.

Straight to pro should have been an option all along, with colleges not caring if someone played a few years pro, couldn’t make it, and came back. Do that, while enforcing rules about degrees. The pro leagues in this country really need to support their own development system.

[billiken_roy]

20 hours ago, cheeseman said:

I applaud you trying to offer a solution but how did the work when UNC got caught with bogus classes? - nothing happened because they fought it.

The difference would be academics would become the main and really the only focus.   Assuming the NCAA would realize their problem they would gladly remove the players not focused on academics.  

You see the great players are nice, but the real attraction for NCAA sports is the name on the front of the jersey not the back.  The team, the growing of a roster that would again grow together over four years.

The games themselves wouldn't be about the individual play but the beauty of good team offenses and defenses 

And when the greedy prima donnas leave all programs because the won't put in the required academic work, we would have our college teams back instead of the NBA and NFL Minor league teams it has currently turned into 

Academic cheating would be the sole focus.   Players would seek colleges out and recruiting would become less and less important.

Sure it sounds far fetched, but something has to be done.   This dogshite Division 1 basketball and football has turned into will eat itself.  The whales will not be able to keep up nationwide.   Sure you might have a couple of dozen programs that could afford it but staying status quo would definitely lead to a breakup of Division 1.   I say one that happens the academic version will win the hearts of true college basketball fans

[slu72]

As time rolls on today’s college sports fans, except for us senior fans, will come to accept the current state of affairs. Back in the early 70s fans worried that pro sports would die because of Free Agency. They believed fans were more tied to their favorite players than the uniforms. Eventually we came to accept the inevitable, ie FA was here to stay. The same will happen in college sports. The big change will come when the major power conferences drive out the mids from competing for national championships. See FB and the BCS for proof. I don’t know the exact number but I think only around 100 schools are eligible to compete for the national title in FB. The only way for SLU to be one of those is for the very top mid major hoops schools get together and form a 16-20 team national conference. I think Zaga sees this change coming and is the reason they jumped to the PAC 12. Granted acceptance into the Beast might save the day, but I’m skeptical they’re ever going to expand. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/with-college-sports-in-limbo-and-key-issues-coming-to-a-head-the-spotlight-is-on-the-sec-its-going-to-get-heated-130018106.html

[HoosierPal]

23 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/article/with-college-sports-in-limbo-and-key-issues-coming-to-a-head-the-spotlight-is-on-the-sec-its-going-to-get-heated-130018106.html

I was going to give this a bad post reaction, as the article made me sad. But then you would assume it was meant for you BAB.  So a good post, in this instance, means bad scenario.

Lots of moving parts right now, including the House Settlement, but the direction college sports are spiraling is downward, significantly downward.  This article made me think that the SEC and Big Ten just might leave the Big 12 and ACC behind and go off on their own, particularly if the 4-4-2-2-1 CFP format is rejected by the Big12 and ACC.

The $20M annual athlete payout threshold will become a joke.  There are several Big Ten and SEC schools already exceeding $20M for this upcoming athletic year.  You think they will pull back to $20M the following season?  I don't. 

[brianstl]

The only real solution if you want true student athletes is go D3 or form a new organization with like minded schools.  Everything else is just going to be minor league sports and will eventually collapse when people start viewing it as minor league sports. I love college sports, but it is already losing some luster in my eyes.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

32 minutes ago, brianstl said:

The only real solution if you want true student athletes is go D3 or form a new organization with like minded schools.  Everything else is just going to be minor league sports and will eventually collapse when people start viewing it as minor league sports. I love college sports, but it is already losing some luster in my eyes.

Right I watch/have watched college sports because it's distinct from pro sports and now the gap is smaller and smaller every year. If I want to watch pro basketball, I can watch the NBA and I hate watching the NBA. If that's the case, I'll just watch the NHL, I love hockey. 

[Lord Elrond]

I question how long rich alumni will just keep pumping money into NIL deals for athletes for no return on investment other than their team winning.  Sports team owners may lose money in a year, but make up for it with the appreciation in the value of the franchise. In the college world, there’s nothing like that.

[Taj79]

Just read where Texas Tech gave NiJaree Canady over one million dollars. She is being heralded as the "first woman's million dollar player."   A one-year contract worth $1,050,024.  A million to the player, $50k for one year of 'living expenses,' and $24 bucks for her "jersey number."  (Can't wait to see all the "Texas Tech #24" jerseys flood the market!)   This was the incentive for her to leave the Stanford environment and transfer to Lubbock, Texas.  If, not so much when, her college career is over, I am sure she can mov eon to professional woman's (wherever the hell that is) and continue to reap riches.  Sure, Texas Tech made the college woman's softball playoffs but yippee-cay-ay who really cares?  The death of college sports as we knew them is on the doorstep.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

10 hours ago, Taj79 said:

Just read where Texas Tech gave NiJaree Canady over one million dollars. She is being heralded as the "first woman's million dollar player."   A one-year contract worth $1,050,024.  A million to the player, $50k for one year of 'living expenses,' and $24 bucks for her "jersey number."  (Can't wait to see all the "Texas Tech #24" jerseys flood the market!)   This was the incentive for her to leave the Stanford environment and transfer to Lubbock, Texas.  If, not so much when, her college career is over, I am sure she can mov eon to professional woman's (wherever the hell that is) and continue to reap riches.  Sure, Texas Tech made the college woman's softball playoffs but yippee-cay-ay who really cares?  The death of college sports as we knew them is on the doorstep.

This just proves everything's bigger in Texas that and they take non-professional sports way too seriously.