California Votes to End NCAA Amateurism

[bisonp]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/s...alifornia.html

Essentially clearing the way for college athletes to be paid for endorsements. Can't imagine what could go wrong with that.

This is what the beginning of the end of collegiate athletics looks like.

[bisonaudit]

Yes, it will be a terrible day when people are paid what they’re worth.

[bisonp]

Yes, it will be a terrible day when people are paid what they’re worth.

And once they destroy college athletics, they will be. In minor leagues nobody cares about.

But I get it. Nobody in America can see the forest through their social media trees anymore.

[Professor Chaos]

And once they destroy college athletics, they will be. In minor leagues nobody cares about.

But I get it. Nobody in America can see the forest through their social media trees anymore.

It already is the minor leagues for the sports people really care about: football and men's basketball. I'm all on board for ending the illusion that these guys are amateurs and let the market decide how they're compensated. If after they do this nobody cares about the new "minor leagues" there won't be any endorsement money to go around anyway.

I don't think a whole lot will change with football and men's basketball if this does happen. What will be hurt by this is non-revenue and Olympic sports and athletic department support staff because that's where the cuts will start in order to pay for all this stuff. The former is too bad since there's a lot of great student-athletes who live out their dreams in those sports but with the latter there's plenty of fat to trim that can be redistributed to the athletes.

[bisonp]

It already is the minor leagues for the sports people really care about: football and men's basketball. I'm all on board for ending the illusion that these guys are amateurs and let the market decide how they're compensated. If after they do this nobody cares about the new "minor leagues" there won't be any endorsement money to go around anyway.

I don't think a whole lot will change with football and men's basketball if this does happen. What will be hurt by this is non-revenue and Olympic sports and athletic department support staff because that's where the cuts will start in order to pay for all this stuff. The former is too bad since there's a lot of great student-athletes who live out their dreams in those sports but with the latter there's plenty of fat to trim that can be redistributed to the athletes.

That's just it. I don't believe schools will pay for it, and I don't believe the public will support public institutions paying for it.

To be clear, this law is only to allow endorsements, not pay direct from the schools. But it will allow schools to essentially buy their athletes through their corporate sponsors, which will create more disparity. More disparity means more noncompetitive schools which means less revenue for everybody else. And less donor revenue going back into other programs, since they would be paying athletes.

[Professor Chaos]

That's just it. I don't believe schools will pay for it, and I don't believe the public will support public institutions paying for it.

To be clear, this law is only to allow endorsements, not pay direct from the schools. But it will allow schools to essentially buy their athletes through their corporate sponsers, which will create more disparity. More disparity means more noncompetitive schools which means less revenue for everybody else.

Yeah, I would guess that donations will go down if this law is adopted so schools will have to reduce their athletic budgets. So, if it was here, Scheels would donate less to NDSU and just pay Jabril Cox to do commercials for them. There's still a finite amount of money to go around in the industry (even though it's a huge amount). The difference is instead of funneling the money through the university's athletic department it'll go directly to the athletes. That's not necessarily a bad thing though IMO. The big boys still provide the most value just like they do now. Top prospects choose Bama and Oklahoma since they know they have a better chance to get drafted higher and make more money and *wink-wink* there may be some "extra" for them while they're there. With this there just wouldn't be the *wink-wink* part anymore.

But whether these lawmakers know it or not they are cutting the legs out from under college swimmers, soccer players, volleyball players, softball players, etc with this legislation. That's the downside of it that I see but I'm still in favor of it since it would also make the fat cats at the NCAA and big time college athletic departments tighten their belts a bit.

[99Bison]

NCAA should start planning organized professional leagues, with tiers - something like how soccer is organized in Euro countries, eventually feeding into the NFL/NBA/etc being the top tier.

“Member Schools” have the stadiums, rights to pay for players/transfers/etc. Schools can offer the players schooling as a compensation option (eg. all non revenue sports), but not required.

Players get paid according to market value, and endorsement value just like anyone else, they may or may not attend the school as it’s entirely optional.

NCAA could generate significant amounts of revenue (like it does today) by organizing, facilitating the leagues, tourneys, sponsorships, etc at all levels.

Younger than college players are also entirely eligible for this as well. So perceived top players in what’s current AAU, HS and the likes can go into the profession early, similar to the hockey/etc leagues.

—-

Note:
This requires the ncaa to honestly admit what’s going on and find a real solution. So very likely this will not happen by the accord of the ncaa. Cue yote53s comment... the have/have not gap widens, and slowly people stop caring about their mediocre school athletics in the popular sports and maybe cheer remotely for another school/semi pro team, or find something else to do.

[Yote 53]

NCAA should start planning organized professional leagues, with tiers - something like how soccer is organized in Euro countries, eventually feeding into the NFL/NBA/etc being the top tier.

“Member Schools” have the stadiums, rights to pay for players/transfers/etc. Schools can offer the players schooling as a compensation option (eg. all non revenue sports), but not required.

Players get paid according to market value, and endorsement value just like anyone else, they may or may not attend the school as it’s entirely optional.

NCAA could generate significant amounts of revenue (like it does today) by organizing, facilitating the leagues, tourneys, sponsorships, etc at all levels.

Younger than college players are also entirely eligible for this as well. So perceived top players in what’s current AAU, HS and the likes can go into the profession early, similar to the hockey/etc leagues.

—-

Note:
This requires the ncaa to honestly admit what’s going on and find a real solution. So very likely this will not happen by the accord of the ncaa. Cue yote53s comment... the have/have not gap widens, and slowly people stop caring about their mediocre school athletics in the popular sports and maybe cheer remotely for another school/semi pro team, or find something else to do.

And this is where I stop following college athletics, or at least pay as much attention to it as I do minor league baseball teams, which is very little.

I've heard people talking about the NCAA setting up rules to regulate all this and "cap" how much the earnings can be, but truth be told, good luck with that. Once you go down the road of allowing compensation for student-athletes it will be impossible to set up barriers. I mean, what is "fair compensation" for image and likeness? $20,000? $100,000? $1 million? The dollar amount is all relative depending on where you sit and your POV, which means there can be no limits because that would be "unfair" in principle.

Go down this road and the genie is now out of the bottle. The slow descent and destruction of college sports is at hand. The market for college sports is people watching because of the name on the front of the jersey that represents your school or your city/state (or maybe your religion ala Notre Dame or BYU), not the name on the back. The thin veil of amateurism makes it okay to watch a sub-par product because of school pride. If I want to watch paid professionals I can watch the NFL or any of the other pro sports leagues where the BEST players play.

[bisonp]

And this is where I stop following college athletics, or at least pay as much attention to it as I do minor league baseball teams, which is very little.

I've heard people talking about the NCAA setting up rules to regulate all this and "cap" how much the earnings can be, but truth be told, good luck with that. Once you go down the road of allowing compensation for student-athletes it will be impossible to set up barriers. I mean, what is "fair compensation" for image and likeness? $20,000? $100,000? $1 million? The dollar amount is all relative depending on where you sit and your POV, which means there can be no limits because that would be "unfair" in principle.

Go down this road and the genie is now out of the bottle. The slow descent and destruction of college sports is at hand. The market for college sports is people watching because of the name on the front of the jersey that represents your school or your city/state (or maybe your religion ala Notre Dame or BYU), not the name on the back. The thin veil of amateurism makes it okay to watch a sub-par product because of school pride. If I want to watch paid professionals I can watch the NFL or any of the other pro sports leagues where the BEST players play.

You kind of imply this, but yeah, once amateurism ends there is no way schools are going to keep subsidizing them. Even without this, given the ridiculous costs for an increasingly unnecessary campus education these days, I think the whole thing is a house of cards.

[THEsocalledfan]

You kind of imply this, but yeah, once amateurism ends there is no way schools are going to keep subsidizing them. Even without this, given the ridiculous costs for an increasingly unnecessary campus education these days, I think the whole thing is a house of cards.

Had not thought of that......interesting to ponder.....