It says stupid. These goofs are all getting financial aid from Dartmouth--a very expensive Ivy League college--without which they probably
wouldn't be attending Dartmouth in the first place. They are only playing BB because the school offers it to its students
as an athletic service/benefit. The school doesn't have to have a basketball team--or any sport. And, indeed, the Dartmouth athletic department
has made clear that it loses money, which isn't surprising. In addition, nobody is clamoring to see these ungrateful twits play basketball. So the idea
that they think they should get financial aid and paid for playing as well is offensive and annoying.
Since those who voted to join the union want to become employees, the school should, for starters, revoke their financial aid. It could also reduce basketball from an NCAA sport to a club sport. That would be sweet payback--though I'm sure the school won't do it.
When did this idea develop that student-athletes are so, so put-upon---so harshly treated by having to play a sport that they should be paid and coddled like they were pro stars? It's all---all of it, NIL in recruiting, all of what we're seeing--total bull$hit. I think it all got started by black activists who've pushed this absurd narrative of (black) players being "exploited" by rich football programs--the same activists that are always looking for free cash in the pocket. And now everybody is seeking a piece of the action. And unfortunately, all the schools are acting like weenies and have bought into a lot of this nonsense--as have fans--partly because some judges have bought into it as well. We never heard a word about "anti-trust" for 100 years, or the players being denied the ability to market their skills, for 100 years. Now, it is supposedly oh so obvious. It's only obvious with respect to NIL because the crazy football programs were stupid enough to push NIL into recruiting: Once one program started doing it, offering it to prospects, they're all quick to follow like lemmings, scared their rivals will gain a competitive advantage. And it's no skin off the back of the programs--as the crazy fans are footing the bills--fans as eager to send money to NIL coops as they are to Sunday preachers dishing out their nonsense "prosperity gospel," which can be translated as "send me your hard-earned money, church-goers, so I can buy a more lavish beach house than the one my devout flock has already given me." Oh, my.
As one commentator said today, the fans/boosters who are ponying up all this money for NIL deals for prospects may start to reconsider when
it dawns on them that their team is not going to be in the playoff--again-- or win the national title--and the money they're sending to collectives to pass along to 18-year-olds is being wasted on some dude who's on the scout team (and laughing all the way to the bank).