If you haven't read this yet, it's a good read. I think he is 100% correct on every facet.
A lot of us have our opinions on what the current landscape has done / is doing to our experience of enjoying college football and MBB. At Tech we've been fortunate that alums like CC and DW can provide funding to help us take advantage of the current situation while it lasts.
But the heart of Cody's write-up is talking about the bigger picture and what *should* be the most important consideration -- the half a million student athletes that aren't a JT Toppin or Nico Iamaleava. So far all the legislative initiatives don't seem to give a damn about student athletes at all. As of right now all we really have to show for this new world of college athletics is a gutted Pac 12, reimagined Big Ten and Big 12 conferences with teams flying cross country for games, and an SEC that seems to only be concerned with lining it's coffers with more money than anyone ever imagined necessary for college sports at the expense of everyone else (it's ironic that Nico Iamaleava's issue with an SEC school is what led to the article, and that an SEC school is actually the first one to cry 'uncle' getting strong armed by a player over money).
We no longer hear about or even care about student athletes actually going to class, probably because there is now basically no value placed on the free ride scholarships provide (which is sad because a full ride has definite value for an awful lot of students who aren't privileged to be athletes). If the athletes become employees with collective bargaining then college sports aren't really college sports anymore anyway, but a marketing arm of the university with paid employees who have little or nothing to do with the school other than collecting a paycheck. Their non-employee status has got to be preserved if anyone truly gives a damn about them getting degrees or about the vast majority of student athletes who play Olympic and women's sports continuing to have an opportunity to play.
My concern is that the people who end up having the most input are going to be the Greg Sankeys of the world who's main focus is having the deck stacked so heavily in their favor that the vast majority can no longer compete, or the others who stand to make a ton of money representing player unions or as agents. These aren't the folks who have the best interests of college sports or the student athletes in mind; they're just the ones who will benefit so much in the short term that they won't really care a little farther down the road when college sports is so screwed up it can't be fixed.
thefederalist.com
A lot of us have our opinions on what the current landscape has done / is doing to our experience of enjoying college football and MBB. At Tech we've been fortunate that alums like CC and DW can provide funding to help us take advantage of the current situation while it lasts.
But the heart of Cody's write-up is talking about the bigger picture and what *should* be the most important consideration -- the half a million student athletes that aren't a JT Toppin or Nico Iamaleava. So far all the legislative initiatives don't seem to give a damn about student athletes at all. As of right now all we really have to show for this new world of college athletics is a gutted Pac 12, reimagined Big Ten and Big 12 conferences with teams flying cross country for games, and an SEC that seems to only be concerned with lining it's coffers with more money than anyone ever imagined necessary for college sports at the expense of everyone else (it's ironic that Nico Iamaleava's issue with an SEC school is what led to the article, and that an SEC school is actually the first one to cry 'uncle' getting strong armed by a player over money).
We no longer hear about or even care about student athletes actually going to class, probably because there is now basically no value placed on the free ride scholarships provide (which is sad because a full ride has definite value for an awful lot of students who aren't privileged to be athletes). If the athletes become employees with collective bargaining then college sports aren't really college sports anymore anyway, but a marketing arm of the university with paid employees who have little or nothing to do with the school other than collecting a paycheck. Their non-employee status has got to be preserved if anyone truly gives a damn about them getting degrees or about the vast majority of student athletes who play Olympic and women's sports continuing to have an opportunity to play.
My concern is that the people who end up having the most input are going to be the Greg Sankeys of the world who's main focus is having the deck stacked so heavily in their favor that the vast majority can no longer compete, or the others who stand to make a ton of money representing player unions or as agents. These aren't the folks who have the best interests of college sports or the student athletes in mind; they're just the ones who will benefit so much in the short term that they won't really care a little farther down the road when college sports is so screwed up it can't be fixed.
The Saga Of TN's QB Reveals Brokenness Of College Sports
The saga surrounding Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava reveals the fundamental brokenness of college sports in this country.
thefederalist.com
