lhslep134;605976 wrote:A. I think it would involve whatever uniform supplier the school has a contract with.
B. But they are selling the player's image, regardless of their stance. That's the whole point of Whitlock's articles, that the NCAA and their rules are a sham and I agree with him. You shouldn't be able to exploit players and then turn around and yell at them for accepting money.
A. Not sure how that would go over the first time a kid challenged a school's contract. Once you say, "you can make money off your jerseys", you pretty much have to make it a free market.
B. Kind of agree, kind of don't. The players get quite a bit out of the college experience, including money - I know, people want to argue that scholarships don't mean shit. Well, they do. They are taking that money that someone else can't have and for the vast majority of players who do not go pro, it means a lot in the long run.
Also, it is pretty difficult to quantify or even prove that a certain player is worth a certain amount of money. I know we've been talking about jersey sales, but I don't think you can just say, "this guy sold this many jerseys so he is worth X amount." And how do you determine who gets a jersey to sell? I'm mixed on whether the school is really selling an individual's likeness by simply selling a jersey with a number on it. I know we associate the number to the person, kind of by default, but the brand is the school's, not the individual's.
All in all, I don't think kids are being exploited - they are given a tremendous opportunity and a free ride that a lot of people would like to have. I don't think it is the responsibility of the school or the NCAA to pay them for participating in an extracurricular activity otherwise. I do, however, feel like whatever they do outside of that on their own should not interfere with their eligibility. The problem is, I guess, even allowing that to go on starts down that slope where the big money schools are going to gain huge advantages simply because they can pay more under the table, etc.