queencitybuckeye;1487860 wrote:He's right of course on the latter, but people need to keep the discussion separate as to what the rules should be vs. did someone break the rules as they currently exist.
Right in what way specifically? Right that players should be able to sell their autographs?
If players are still amateur but not paid (besides scholarship) all the boosters of big schools that have money to throw away on sports will just have a bidding war on athletes under the guise of paying autographs.
If players become a true professional athlete and schools are allowed to pay, are there restrictions? Is it like the professional sports where there is a cap? How is that cap designed calculated as there are gross discrepancies in cash flow of NCAA FBS schools. There are very few schools that make enough $$ to keep their athletic department in the black.
Is there some kind of pay system which sets rates for certain positions, or is there a minimum and maximum amount regardless of position? I can guarantee you that while there might be a few kids on a team who do draw a lot of attention and have a shot at the NFL and are the cash cows, that's not the majority of NCAA athletes.
The real problems come in when you begin to think about other non football or men's basketball athletes. Those sports generally derive very little revenue and are supported by football/basketball. Do those kids get paid? Or do only the sports get paid that earn money? If money is then being funneled to only those players of football and basketball the scholarships (as little as they are sometimes) for other sports will certainly go away as most schools wouldn't be able to afford that.
Also, Once you're paying the athlete any chance of them being "students" is gone as the primary focus is on the play as they are being rewarded for that with cash instead of being rewarded with their play for a college education (you know the student aspect of student-athlete). Or does pay somehow also factor in GPA and graduation track to keep it student oriented as well? Or do the schools drop any idea of them being students and have these players associated with the University by name only as a different football and basketball league apart from the NFL and NBA.
How well do you think a second rate professional football league will be supported by the American public? A lot of what people say they love about college football is about tradition, loyalty (you pick a school and 90%+ of people stay their for their "career" as opposed to free agency, trades, etc.), playing for the love of the game instead of the all mighty $$ which would possibly be lost in a professional version of college football. And to note, other professional football leagues haven't worked in any other attempts previously.
There are a lot of questions ranging from viability of another professional league to what to do with the other non-revenue sports that would have to be answered or at least thought about before you can all of the sudden start chipping away at the current system.
People act like just letting players sell their autograph wouldn't be a big deal or exploited in any way besides a player earning some money. We've all seen what boosters have done at various institutes even when doing such things has always been against the rules.
People act like switching to a payment system for athletes would be an easy transition and not disrupt and possibly jeopardize the continuance of not only non-revenue college sports but the revenue sports as well.