Several rumors circulating

[tim]

Is it the student athletes' fault? Or these schools sucking on the teet of the sports media to get these billion dollar deals?

Seems like you anger is misdirected.

Both, they feel empowered and the Soy Boy Admin is nutless. I can be unhappy with both

 

[VolinMichigan]

Exactly. Somewhere along the lines football and all sports have gone from I'm fortunate to have this wonderful opportunity in college to I should be getting paid and let's form unions led by the likes of states like Calfornia. It is an extracurricular amateur activity.

That goes hand in hand with schools making millions off basketball and football that they weren’t before.

 

[onevol74]

Let's do a comparison..

My oldest goes to UT.. She is thankfully on academic scholarship.. Do you know what it doesn't pay for? Food.. Living.. Parking.. Medical.. Gym fees.. Books etc..

85 on a football scholarship.. Get tuition.. They eat like kings, they get a nice place to live, they get medical, clothes.. I honestly don't know of one thing they pay for, and if I'm not mistaken.. They get money to live on.. On top of educational support and a chance to go to play in the league.. Yes they are required to practice on top of earning a degree..

So maybe the college should cut them a check then turn around and charge them for the steak dinners, room and board, medical expenses, clothing, tuition and books, parking..

There is your problem. Equality does not apply to the privileged athletes. You left out tutors and unearned grades.

 

[windrider]

Who are you to decide what a coach is worth? Anyone’s worth in the free market is determined by whoever is willing to put a dollar value on that worth And pay them. You’re opinion of their worth doesn’t mean jack

Then your opinion of someone else's opinion doesn't mean jack.

 

[windrider]

And Fishing.
Wayyyy behind on both

Check out the mountain streams in upper East Tennessee. Watching those rainbows rise and take that fly relieves a lot of stress.

 

[The Original Fade]

Then your opinion of someone else's opinion doesn't mean jack.

yeah, well that’s just your opinion

 

[GBOx2]

Men's College football and basketball really are a 100% socialist enterprise, in that the money football players generate doesn't go directly to them; it goes to pay for the women's softball team that gens up very little revenue, swimming, soccer etc... You are playing for the good of the collective. For someone else to have an opportunity to play sports on a full ride scholarship at your university. It would be interesting to see a real detailed analysis on where all the revenue generated goes in the Athletic Department, and whether there is even enough there to pay players and keep all the bills paid for the other sports.

To be clear - most of the smaller sports don't offer full ride scholarships at all and especially not to every player on the team.

• You can read this article about The Myth of the College Golf Scholarship to understand how this works in the real world.
  
  
• There are also some good breakdowns here: Scholarship Stats.
  They get into the head count sports (football & basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, & tennis) vs equivalency sports (everyone else).

Speaking as a former scholarship student athlete (volleyball):

1. You are there to get an education...full stop.
2. You get the opportunity to play a sport you love. And trust me, you better love it at that level because it's not all sunshine & roses and it will take up a large portion of your college life.
3. We know that playing professionally isn't the end game, except for a very, very small percentage of the absolute best players throughout the country.

At that's what these players demanding to get paid have missed. They ARE getting paid already. No one forced them to accept the scholarships that they accepted. Their educations will last them a lifetime & open many doors. However, many of them don't care about being a "student" at all. This whole effort to "get paid" by the colleges is due to the fact that 95% of them will never go pro anyways. It will be to the detriment of collegiate sports as a whole if the NCAA/Conferences actually head down this path.

 

[tn4elvis]

To be clear - most of the smaller sports don't offer full ride scholarships at all and especially not to every player on the team.

• You can read this article about The Myth of the College Golf Scholarship to understand how this works in the real world.
  
  
• There are also some good breakdowns here: Scholarship Stats.
  They get into the head count sports (football & basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, & tennis) vs equivalency sports (everyone else).

Speaking as a former scholarship student athlete (volleyball):

1. You are there to get an education...full stop.
2. You get the opportunity to play a sport you love. And trust me, you better love it at that level because it's not all sunshine & roses and it will take up a large portion of your college life.
3. We know that playing professionally isn't the end game, except for a very, very small percentage of the absolute best players throughout the country.

At that's what these players demanding to get paid have missed. They ARE getting paid already. No one forced them to accept the scholarships that they accepted. Their educations will last them a lifetime & open many doors. However, many of them don't care about being a "student" at all. This whole effort to "get paid" by the colleges is due to the fact that 95% of them will never go pro anyways. It will be to the detriment of collegiate sports as a whole if the NCAA/Conferences actually head down this path.

Excellent post and I hope you are wrong in being the end to college sports as we know it. I tend to agree though.

 

[GBOx2]

Excellent post and I hope you are wrong in being the end to college sports as we know it. I tend to agree though.

I hope I'm wrong about it being the end too.

 

[PineyBluff Vol]

The pay issue is a drop in the bucket compared to this imo. Adding Covid to the mix just further highlights the elephant in the room - players receiving similar benefits to 30 years ago despite the revenue stream increasing exponentially. It was only a matter of time before they organized and asked for a piece of the pie.

And yet a sizable portion of this board are for players getting paid. I’m against it because of what we’re seeing now with these players groups, which would only get magnified when they start getting paid.

Fade, You don't see the Irony in that the Universities have been getting paid for all the years these athletes have been on the playing fields?

 

[IPleadInsanity]

I appreciate how you feel about this, I really do, because disrespect to the flag inherently bothers me, But the freedom to do these things is one of the reasons I served and retired as a Naval Aviator and officer. It is the protection of the most objectionable expressions of speech that protects the rights for us all. When you say it's ok to prohibit one form of political speech then you never know where that will stop.

The Navy has a program called Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape ("SERE") School. It's a multifaceted course that ends up with you spending several days in a POW camp complete with beatings and waterboarding. The idea is to teach a bunch of Type A's that it's really true that "there ain't a horse that can't be rode and a man that can't be throw'd" and that the way to survive captivity is to take the small victories and to know that you still have some control. The last day of the program the instructors would line you up and while verbally abusing you would drag an American flag around in the dirt and set it on fire. The POWs reacted negatively.

Yes that was disrespectful to the flag but it was about making a training point. The protestors are doing an extreme act to make you notice. I don't particularly care for it but I understand the reason. They are making an important societal point.

With all due respect, their point has been made. I think the country was united for the first time in many years after George was murdered. You protest to gain attention. That goal has been met. No need for further action against anthem and flag.

 

[IPleadInsanity]

Fans love seeing schools/teams/coaches bring in revenue but HATE when players get anything

I hated it when coaches were overpaid, that was not fair to the players. Fact remains, if you get paid to play its professional sports. My solution would be to drop the rule requiring 3 years of college before going to the NFL. If they are ready to get paid then go get paid. College coaches salaries should be within the school salary structure and not higher than the highest paid teacher. This is amateur athletics not a professional sports franchise. Any other structure call it was it is and separate it from the schools. Minor league football.

 

[The Original Fade]

Fade, You don't see the Irony in that the Universities have been getting paid for all the years these athletes have been on the playing fields?

No I don’t see irony at all. Universities are offering a free education and a chance for athletes to showcase their skills for the NFL by televising games. The Universities make millions off the TV rights and justifiably so since it takes millions to run a top notch athletic program, continue to recruit the best athletes you can, pay a high caliber coach to put a wining product on the field, and continue to financially support low revenue sports at the university. The athletes demanding revenue sharing are unreasonable in my opinion.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Let's do a comparison..

My oldest goes to UT.. She is thankfully on academic scholarship.. Do you know what it doesn't pay for? Food.. Living.. Parking.. Medical.. Gym fees.. Books etc..

85 on a football scholarship.. Get tuition.. They eat like kings, they get a nice place to live, they get medical, clothes.. I honestly don't know of one thing they pay for, and if I'm not mistaken.. They get money to live on.. On top of educational support and a chance to go to play in the league.. Yes they are required to practice on top of earning a degree..

So maybe the college should cut them a check then turn around and charge them for the steak dinners, room and board, medical expenses, clothing, tuition and books, parking..

This. I think of this when I hear the "free tuition" rant. Tuition is often only half the cost of attendance. The list of fees would make a car dealership finance person blush. In fact, one line item on my son's list of charges was "under-coating"!

 

[Doctrippin]

To be clear - most of the smaller sports don't offer full ride scholarships at all and especially not to every player on the team.

• You can read this article about The Myth of the College Golf Scholarship to understand how this works in the real world.
  
  
• There are also some good breakdowns here: Scholarship Stats.
  They get into the head count sports (football & basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, & tennis) vs equivalency sports (everyone else).

Speaking as a former scholarship student athlete (volleyball):

1. You are there to get an education...full stop.
2. You get the opportunity to play a sport you love. And trust me, you better love it at that level because it's not all sunshine & roses and it will take up a large portion of your college life.
3. We know that playing professionally isn't the end game, except for a very, very small percentage of the absolute best players throughout the country.

At that's what these players demanding to get paid have missed. They ARE getting paid already. No one forced them to accept the scholarships that they accepted. Their educations will last them a lifetime & open many doors. However, many of them don't care about being a "student" at all. This whole effort to "get paid" by the colleges is due to the fact that 95% of them will never go pro anyways. It will be to the detriment of collegiate sports as a whole if the NCAA/Conferences actually head down this path.

Very well said. I was on the rowing team at UT which was a totally voluntary sport, to include paying for our road trips ourselves and piling 8 guys into a double bed room. We had to be up at 6 AM and in the water by 6.30 every morning and then another practice at 4 PM. I look back on that now and would do it all again just for the brotherhood and the chance to compete. In those days there was a Mr. Gatti's Pizza right off campus that had an all you can eat buffet. They lost a lot of money when 8 very hungry crew team members walked in after an hour and a half practice. We did leave a good tip though.

 

[OrangeTsar]

I took an entire football season break about 3 years back and hiked every weekend one of my fave falls

Good timing, under Butch Jones’ final year, UT also took an entire season football break

 

[chrismc1000]

Exactly. Somewhere along the lines football and all sports have gone from I'm fortunate to have this wonderful opportunity in college to I should be getting paid and let's form unions led by the likes of states like Calfornia. It is an extracurricular amateur activity.

You can thank the NCAA for that

 

[OrangeTsar]

With all due respect, their point has been made. I think the country was united for the first time in many years after George was murdered. You protest to gain attention. That goal has been met. No need for further action against anthem and flag.

I really cannot speak to what the motivation and mindset of others may be so I cannot get inside the head of persons who chose to kneel and will not attempt to do so. All I know is that for me, the flag is a symbol of a commitment to a political union with every other citizen of this county, regardless of how different we may be or think. So for me to kneel, I would basically be saying (in my mind) that I was no longer willing to dwell in a state of “the union for which it stands”. That is, I would basically be declaring my intent to stop attempting to work toward a shared political community. It would be me divorcing myself from the principle of one nation.
Others may not view the flag the same way so I will not project my view onto them. But this hopefully explains why I personally would not kneel. I am still committed to union, even with Americans totally opposed to me on all issues (even Notre Dame fans)

 

[NashVol11]

Exactly. Somewhere along the lines football and all sports have gone from I'm fortunate to have this wonderful opportunity in college to I should be getting paid and let's form unions led by the likes of states like Calfornia. It is an extracurricular amateur activity.

College football developed from a club sport to a multi-billion dollar business. The "somewhere along the line" isn't exactly a mystery

 

[UTgrad2015]

From Shannon Terry, Founder of 247

 

[IPleadInsanity]

I really cannot speak to what the motivation and mindset of others may be so I cannot get inside the head of persons who chose to kneel and will not attempt to do so. All I know is that for me, the flag is a symbol of a commitment to a political union with every other citizen of this county, regardless of how different we may be or think. So for me to kneel, I would basically be saying (in my mind) that I was no longer willing to dwell in a state of “the union for which it stands”. That is, I would basically be declaring my intent to stop attempting to work toward a shared political community. It would be me divorcing myself from the principle of one nation.
Others may not view the flag the same way so I will not project my view onto them. But this hopefully explains why I personally would not kneel. I am still committed to union, even with Americans totally opposed to me on all issues (even Notre Dame fans)

I love it when they tell me what their protest means and they are not disrespecting the military. It means whatever we think it means, as you have stated above. They never understand this door swings both ways, they are free to protest and everyone who witnesses the protest is free to feel however they feel about it. Using this form of protest will never get them the solution they seek. I am on their side but they push me away. Maybe thats the plan.

 

[OrangeTsar]

I love it when they tell me what their protest means and they are not disrespecting the military. It means whatever we think it means, as you have stated above. They never understand this door swings both ways, they are free to protest and everyone who witnesses the protest is free to feel however they feel about it. Using this form of protest will never get them the solution they seek. I am on their side but they push me away. Maybe thats the plan.

My interpretation, which I hope everyone would appreciate is “whatever I think of you personally, even if we don’t see eye to eye on anything and hate each other’s guts, we are all Americans and if the King of England or any other enemy ever shows up, I will fight to the death by your side to protect you”. It is like family, we may despise each other sometimes but by golly if someone from outside the family wants to mess with you, they gotta come through me. I really don’t understand how anyone would not see that as a good thing. But if that is not what the flag means to you, it isn’t fair of me to except you to treat it the same way as I do. The United States is a very special “club” and if you are a “member” (citizen of any party, race, religion, etc) you get the benefits which include us looking out for one another. The flag to me is a symbol of that bond.

 

[jonnon111]

I just wish we would speak to how much they receiver for a 20 hour work week a few months a year. And at most 60 minutes of required activity in Saturday on 15 weekends a year.

The academics they take with them and that, unless they donate, is their gift from the university. That's called an exchange. That's busines.

Now to be honest, I'm for a few years of medical insurance for a few years after they leave if they played athletics. But, how mich is enough? The pac12 players wanted 50 freaking percent.

Anyone who has went to college or sent a kid to college knows that is no small payment. So let's stop acting like they are robbing these kids and realize out of state tuition at UT is over $30,000 a year for a part time job that you played for free until you went to college. So again, it's a pretty good work if you can get it.

 

[TNnative]

Teenagers having sex is inevitable too, but you don’t see parents lighting candles and putting on Barry White when their kids bring over their boy/girlfriends.

But you still see, if you look in the right places, dads cleaning their nails with a bowie knife or their rifles when the boyfriend shows up for the first date.

 

[TheRealUT98]

Football and the power it has gained needs a kick in the crotch. I’ll gladly skip a season or 3 to put the student back into student athlete. They need the university more than the university needs them.

Ok so I’m going to go at it respectfully but from the other side possibly just because of my age (under 30). I understand and agree that it’s a blessing to have your college paid for playing a sport is fantastic. However since 2000 the game had started making a ridiculous amount of revenue off the backs of players that get paid zero from it. I saw a statistic that the profits gained from a few weekends of marquee matchups in the SEC could cover every scholarship on every SEC team and start tapping into the lower paid position coaches around the conference. I’m not going to waste a ton of time because I do not know if many will even read my opinion but to make it as short as possible, I don’t feel the NCAA or colleges should make so much money they can upgrade there stadiums every 5 years but these kids (look at inky Johnson) give there lives for a sport and some of there parents go home to no power or anything. Time to stop being ok with millionaires continuing to make millions, pretty much every one else involved gets paid very well, but the athletes must get nothing? No I don’t agree with that