Tennessee preparing for the future with salaries for athletes.

[butchna]

I've said from the start, the slower this all goes south, the better. I wish the NCAA would sit in the corner and die quietly but they can't seem to do that. They keep poking at schools and trying to regulate things they can't and suggesting craziness like "let's let the schools pay NIL" which invites further legal challenges leading to employee status.

In this thread, word comes that UT might be gearing up to pay players directly. Again, let's just invite the "players are employees" lawsuits to the table.

My hope: slow down the changes from what we have, learn to cope with NIL, smack the NCAA until it keeps quiet and stops harassing schools, and squeeze a few more seasons out before the courts declare players employees.

I'll bet we mostly agree.

Maybe. If you’d get off the idea that the NCAA is the same entity as the universities it’s supposed to benefit. They operate outside the wishes of way to many parties. NCAA dies and the conferences can institute basic, easily followed rules that don’t require a librarian to catalogue. That’s sanity in a profitable academic partnership.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Maybe. If you’d get off the idea that the NCAA is the same entity as the universities it’s supposed to benefit. They operate outside the wishes of way to many parties. NCAA dies and the conferences can institute basic, easily followed rules that don’t require a librarian to catalogue. That’s sanity in a profitable academic partnership.

I wish it were that simple but I truly don't believe it is. It's a billion dollar athletics endeavor and I can't think of a single billion dollar business which isn't run by "rules that don't require a librarian to catalogue."

I'm on record confessing my guilt as a fan in wanting lots of TV meaning lots of money coming into college athletics. I wanted us to pay great coaches. I wanted us to "recruit by any means necessary" to be competitive. I asked for all this money to get involved.

I was wrong. It was bad for the sports and bad for athletes in the long run.

 

[butchna]

I wish it were that simple but I truly don't believe it is. It's a billion dollar athletics endeavor and I can't think of a single billion dollar business which isn't run by "rules that don't require a librarian to catalogue."

I'm on record confessing my guilt as a fan in wanting lots of TV meaning lots of money coming into college athletics. I wanted us to pay great coaches. I wanted us to "recruit by any means necessary" to be competitive. I asked for all this money to get involved.

I was wrong. It was bad for the sports and bad for athletes in the long run.

That’s where we’re at…not a single take altered.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

Show me the language that does anything but rule they cannot make the establishment of NIL deal illegal between players and payers before or after entry at a school and participate at an NCAA institution.

I see no protections for schools to coordinate such activities.

So you want the schools to individually lose the same kind of lawsuits that the NCAA is losing? That's beyond silly.

 

[VolForLife83]

That is not true, only about 20% are "banking on going pro and only about 10% make it.

I'm not talking about the small percent that makes it. I'm saying the mindset for most is NFL or bust. Academics are the least of their worries.

 

[Delmar]

They run a university that has a highly profitable football program. THAT is what they fought to preserve. They’re not going into the football business. Unless you’re suggesting they’re shutting down the school, we’ll have to roll with the hypocrisy.

It’s a business decision. Simple as that.

 

[butchna]

It’s a business decision. Simple as that.

Business with an academic institution backdrop.

 

[kcvols1]

Does this seem more than a little slapdash to anyone else?

WTF is an “NIL salary?” Is this is the university trying to consolidate all athletes’ NIL rights into a collective pool for redistribution as “salary?”

There’s a difference between getting paid a fair wage for your labor and keeping the complete rights to your likeness.

I’m reminded of the title of a book I just read about Clearview AI - “Your Face Belongs to Us.”

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It https://a.co/d/iusoarm

 

[kcvols1]

Maybe. If you’d get off the idea that the NCAA is the same entity as the universities it’s supposed to benefit. They operate outside the wishes of way to many parties. NCAA dies and the conferences can institute basic, easily followed rules that don’t require a librarian to catalogue. That’s sanity in a profitable academic partnership.

If you think this is going to get simpler with more money involved, I got a nice bridge you should have a look at.

 

[kcvols1]

Why are people still conflating NIL with salaries?

I think someone may be doing so on purpose to be able to wave as much cash as possible at athletes in as short a time frame as possible.

Not quite sure who’s who yet! If only they still printed proper programs…

 

[butchna]

If you think this is going to get simpler with more money involved, I got a nice bridge you should have a look at.

Sell it to someone who thinks the NCAA is the same entity as the universities…or is going to quit academia and manage sports franchises.

 

[Pappy]

I can hear SNL's Emily Litella now: "Celery? Why would a student want to play a sport in college for celery. That sounds pretty lame"

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

Sell it to someone who thinks the NCAA is the same entity as the universities…or is going to quit academia and manage sports franchises.

Take a Logic 101 class before you keep trying to sell that Strawman argument again. Duh.

 

[Volfan76]

NCAA sure picked the wrong hill to stand on...pun intended.

 

[butchna]

Take a Logic 101 class before you keep trying to sell that Strawman argument again. Duh.

You teaching that one…when you’re not delivering Uber Eats?

 

[Snapper58]

??????

https://www.sportskeeda.com/college...layers-2023-feat-bo-nix-matt-ganyard-and-more

And if you look, if he didn't play those years he would have been loosing a year of eligebility each of those years. I you start loosing a year at age 24, then you can't play after you are 29 unless in the military.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

You teaching that one…when you’re not delivering Uber Eats?

Your response to being called out for your chronic use of logical fallacies is ANOTHER logical fallacy. Bwahahahahaha!!! YCMTSU.

 

[butchna]

Your response to being called out for your chronic use of logical falls ies is ANOTHER logical fallacy. Bwahahahahaha!!! YCMTSU.

Having a stroke? There are people who care…not me of course. But people.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

Having a stroke? There are people who care…not me of course. But people.

Your addiction to logical fallacies pegs your credibility meter on zero. Here you go...

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

Having a stroke? There are people who care…not me of course. But people.

What kind of illiterate doesn't understand typographical errors? Feel free to keep embarrassing yourself, tho....

 

[butchna]

What kind of illiterate doesn't understand typographical errors? Feel free to keep embarrassing yourself, tho....

You and those misplaced commas! Going to be the death of you!

 

[butchna]

Your addiction to logical fallacies pegs your credibility meter on zero. Here you go...

We’re going to work this out. There’s too much at stake!

 

[Delmar]

Sell it to someone who thinks the NCAA is the same entity as the universities…or is going to quit academia and manage sports franchises.

Just my opinion but I have a feeling the schools are going to have to do both. Manage academia AND sports franchises. One clue is UT already planning a separate fund as a backup to pay players. Sounds like they are planning on being involved to me. And again, the university wouldn’t be spending all this money on lawyers if they didn’t plan on being involved. They are and will continue to be up to their neck in the business of sports. I don’t really care for it but I’m resigned to the end result.

Of course universities are in the business of academia. Duh. But college football (which drives the bus sportswise)and basketball (to a lesser extent) are already big money operations and for the top 50 or so schools the business is going to get bigger. And it’s not going to be the NCAA that manages it. IMO, the top schools will form their own governing body. And those top schools will in effect be franchises and I believe the players will be paid with a yet to be determined mechanism like employees. One thing is for certain. It ain’t going to look like it does now.

 

[Voltopia]

Just my opinion but I have a feeling the schools are going to have to do both. Manage academia AND sports franchises. One clue is UT already planning a separate fund as a backup to pay players. Sounds like they are planning on being involved to me. And again, the university wouldn’t be spending all this money on lawyers if they didn’t plan on being involved. They are and will continue to be up to their neck in the business of sports. I don’t really care for it but I’m resigned to the end result.

Of course universities are in the business of academia. Duh. But college football (which drives the bus sportswise)and basketball (to a lesser extent) are already big money operations and for the top 50 or so schools the business is going to get bigger. And it’s not going to be the NCAA that manages it. IMO, the top schools will form their own governing body. And those top schools will in effect be franchises and I believe the players will be paid with a yet to be determined mechanism like employees. One thing is for certain. It ain’t going to look like it does now.

Yeah, but again, this comes back to a very good question - why should a publicly funded university be involved in operating a for-profit professional sports franchise? Because I definitely don't think a single taxpayer dollar should EVER go to funding or supporting such a thing. Not their equipment, not their stadiums, not their marketing, not their merchandise, nothing. Was the stadium built with taxpayer money? Then it's for the school, not the pro sports team that happens to play in it. If it's not a scholastic endeavor, if it has nothing to do with providing opportunities to get an education for kids who play a sport, then it has no business getting a dime from the people or their taxes. They want to be in the business of pro sports, then put on their big boy pants and be pro sports teams. On their own.

Now, I know, here it comes, the usual litany of "they've alwaaaays been professional sports franchises." No, no they haven't. They were not always operated as such. That's reductive for the sake of convenience. Only in the past 20 years have these things mutated into these mini-pro sports teams, once the TV money really set its hooks into things, and the conferences (and schools) really sold out.

 

[CAVPUT]

I'd rather my "donations" for football tickets go towards the players as opposed to paying the university and then having to join a collective in order to support the players. Seems like a positive move to me.

If you think it's expensive to attend games now, just wait until players become "employees" of the university and all that entails. Even better, you'll love it when they unionize. Yeah baby....good times ahead. The cherry on top is when games folks are really interested in are made PPV.