Paying Players

[CrimsonProf]

I've got a minute of free time, so let's look at paying players.

I know they get an education, room and board, athletic swag, great medical care, bowl swag, etc. But I also understand the frustration that these men generate billions in revenue - a new lazy river at the athletic complex doesn't really seem to compensate.

But I've also not heard a single plan for paying them that doesn't either eliminate non-revenue sports or remove these men from the student population. Moreover, I don't know of any plan that doesn't account for athletes demanding more compensation based on their production.

Does anyone have any studies or articles that deal with this in detail? I think a lot of us concede that the players should get something, but I don't what that is, or do I know how to make it happen.

 

[The Ols]

I've got a minute of free time, so let's look at paying players.

I know they get an education, room and board, athletic swag, great medical care, bowl swag, etc. But I also understand the frustration that these men generate billions in revenue - a new lazy river at the athletic complex doesn't really seem to compensate.

But I've also not heard a single plan for paying them that doesn't either eliminate non-revenue sports or remove these men from the student population. Moreover, I don't know of any plan that doesn't account for athletes demanding more compensation based on their production.

Does anyone have any studies or articles that deal with this in detail? I think a lot of us concede that the players should get something, but I don't what that is, or do I know how to make it happen.

They do get a small stipend now too...NOT saying that changes things, it just wasn't included in your post.

 

[CrimsonProf]

They do get a small stipend now too...NOT saying that changes things, it just wasn't included in your post.

Good catch but the demands are for more.

 

[Im_on_dsp]

College athletics is an exercise in socialism/communism. From each according to their ability (men's football and basketball) to each according to their needs (all the other teams, both men's and women's). Once you start taking money that would otherwise go to athletic departments and start putting it in the pockets of football players then there is less to go around. Since you have to have the same number of female scholarships as male then the women's teams are protected. That would leave all the other men's teams on the chopping block. No more Men's Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Wrestling, Track & Field, etc. If they continue to exist they will only be club sports where the participants have to pay their own way, for everything, meaning they will only exist as a playground for upper middle-class kids.

 

[DogPatch]

I think a lot of us concede that the players should get something, but I don't what that is, or do I know how to make it happen.

They already get plenty.

 

[BamaNation]

Big difference in "revenue" and "profits".

I'm sure there are actual numbers available but I'm going to estimate yearly amounts based on an out-of-state student at Alabama:

• tuition & books : $30K
• room and board: $20K
• athletic swag : 3K
• great medical care (training / trainers, spa, shakes/food, etc): 5K
• bowl swag: 1K

So, a football player at UA would already have in the neighborhood of 50-60K of paid-for costs. This doesn't even include their stipend which probably puts them at about $75K total. So, for 4 years, $300K.

Sure, let's pay them but make sure to also eliminate schools paying for all of the above and let athletes pay for it from their income. Obviously, I'm not for this. Whatever happened to having an attitude of gratitude ? If a guy does his part on the team (even if he never plays), he'll have an education and a TON of connections off which he can live the rest of his life if he doesn't do stupid things to screw it up. If you want to be paid, go pro.

 

[DogPatch]

and a TON of connections off which he can live the rest of his life if he doesn't do stupid things to screw it up.

I think this part is often overlooked.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Big difference in "revenue" and "profits".

I'm sure there are actual numbers available but I'm going to estimate yearly amounts based on an out-of-state student at Alabama:

• tuition & books : $30K
• room and board: $20K
• athletic swag : 3K
• great medical care (training / trainers, spa, shakes/food, etc): 5K
• bowl swag: 1K

So, a football player at UA would already have in the neighborhood of 50-60K of paid-for costs. This doesn't even include their stipend which probably puts them at about $75K total. So, for 4 years, $300K.

Sure, let's pay them but make sure to also eliminate schools paying for all of the above and let atheletes pay for it from their income. Obviously, I'm not for this. Whatever happened to having an attitude of gratitude ? If a guy does his part on the team (even if he never plays), he'll have an education and a TON of connections off which he can live the rest of his life if he doesn't do stupid things to screw it up. If you want to be paid, go pro.

Also issue them a 1099 Misc and have them pay the self employment income tax. That would more than likely bring all the "paying players" to a screeching halt.

 

[CrimsonProf]

Agree with all of the above, though I think to frame it as "socialism/communism" is unhelpful.

I guess what I'm getting at - has anyone here run across any academic literature or solid journalism (I know, I know) that lays out how this is supposed to work. For those of you who support paying players - what would you change? How would it work?

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Also issue them a 1099 Misc and have them pay the self employment income tax. That would more than likely bring all the "paying players" to a screeching halt.

I believe they will have to anyways...

 

[B1GTide]

They already get all the food they could eat and a stipend. They can now market their name and likeness. Seems to me that they are already getting paid as much as they should be.

I feel like the only thing missing right now is healthcare coverage for players after football. I like the idea of the 6 year policy for players after they leave school, but am not sure who should pay for it. Kids transfer so much now that I have no idea.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I believe they will have to anyways...

No doubt they would have to. But I guarantee you the players have no idea about that or the consequences in having to file a schedule C tax return. Right now they are getting what equates to $75,000 worth of income tax free. When they start getting paid that tax shelter comes to an end.

 

[DogPatch]

feel like the only thing missing right now is healthcare coverage for players after football. I like the idea of the 6 year policy for players after they leave school,

What employer pays for heath care for former employees, as a whole, for six years after they are gone?

 

[CrimsonProf]

They already get all the food they could eat and a stipend. They can now market their name and likeness. Seems to me that they are already getting paid as much as they should be.

I feel like the only thing missing right now is healthcare coverage for players after football. I like the idea of the 6 year policy for players after they leave school, but am not sure who should pay for it. Kids transfer so much now that I have no idea.

Good stuff. I still hold that NIL won't pay nearly as well as people think, but we might as well let them try.

Beyond that, sports writers like Andy Staples talk as though there is a giant pot of revenue that should be going to players, but I'm not seeing it.

 

[B1GTide]

What employer pays for heath care for former employees, as a whole, for six years after they are gone?

The NFL

 

[CrimsonProf]

Good read here from Jane Coaston at Vox.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed the college football season. Here’s how we got here.

The pandemic has threatened a multibillion-dollar business. But the cracks in the sport’s foundation have been visible for decades.

www.vox.com

My only real objection is the increasingly common complaint that schools won't put the players in a "bubble" because that would mean they're not students. My response to that is "duh!" Of course not - they really are students. I don't get this argument that the student-athlete designation is a fraud.

 

[rgw]

I don’t have the answers to this but it feels like the value of a generic bachelor’s degree is much less than what it was a few decades ago. Unless you get a degree in specific fields, it doesn’t seem to have the legs it once had for kickstarting a career. Just so happens those specific fields are often not the ones athletes choose because of the time investment. You’ve essentially got to be working on two careers in parallel: STEM + NFL.

So is a bachelor’s degree a good trade in 2020 for the better players in FBS? Almost certainly not. It is likely still worth it from fringe P5 caliber and below though.

 

[RammerJammer15]

I'm kind of indifferent about College Athletes receiving a salary aka like the NFL or NBA, because for one I don't know how that would get done and I'm not gonna act like I know. At the same time, I've always wanted players to make money off of their likeness without consequences, no reason why a guy like Todd Gurley should've gotten suspended for making money off of his autograph.

 

[CrimsonProf]

I don’t have the answers to this but it feels like the value of a generic bachelor’s degree is much less than what it was a few decades ago. Unless you get a degree in specific fields, it doesn’t seem to have the legs it once had for kickstarting a career. Just so happens those specific fields are often not the ones athletes choose because of the time investment. You’ve essentially got to be working on two careers in parallel: STEM + NFL.

So is a bachelor’s degree a good trade in 2020 for the better players in FBS? Almost certainly not. It is likely still worth it from fringe P5 caliber and below though.

I think that's a fair point, and we're left to discuss the value of the degree in terms of costs to obtain vs. the value of the degree out on the open market. But I still don't know how you measure the value of a player in terms of paying him, especially given the degree to which we support the team moreso than the players.

 

[DogPatch]

given the degree to which we support the team moreso than the players.

Hello . . . Pandora's Box.