I remember a whole bunch of bleeding hearts on this very message board whining that players were not being compensated beyond receiving a scholarship and a small stipend for living expenses.
For those of you who were in that camp, (I don't expect you to man-up and admit it), I hope you're happy with how this is turning out. What the heck, only $5,000 to get an 18 year old to take an official - no problem. College quarterbacks with a net worth of 2 to 3 million (Shedeur?) - nothing to see there.
I thought when Bear Bryant flew a plane over a Texas ranch and dropped a hay bale with $5,000 in it to incent a recruit to sign with A&M, that was pretty bad, but now I find out that that was small potatoes - just the price for an official. Nah, this isn't gonna hurt the game.
Maybe those hundred dollar handshakes weren't too bad after all.
What does
bleeding hearts have anything to do with it?
These players bring in billions - who not only pay for the ridiculous salaries that HCs get (that has splashed down to coordinators, with more and more making 7 figures, with the top paid coordinator being paid
$2.5 million), but all the scholarships for the non-revenue sports.
Aren't we a capitalistic society?
So why are these players being treated exactly the same as those for non-revenue sports?
If they were the same, their coaches wouldn't be getting 8-9 figure contracts (basically putting them on par with NFL coaches and a lot more than MLB managers) to coach so-called amateurs and Amonte-Hillar would, by far, be the highest paid coach on campus - if pay were correlated to accomplishment.
Furthermore, do you really expect football players to continue putting their bodies/health on the line for crumbs?
We're now talking about players potentially playing in as many as
17 games (same as an NFL schedule), which is more than double the 8-9 games they used to play.
Speaking of the postseason - coaches and even ADs get pretty hefty bonuses while the players get a gift basket.
The problem isn't players being compensated in some way, but rather that the NCAA has entirely dropped the ball after fighting what was inevitable for so long - where it's the wild, wild west with no structure or regulations with regard to NIL, etc.
Remember, without NIL (which needs to be regulated), there would be no Buie on this year's BB team, which would mean no chance at the Tourney.
As we've seen with Buie, NIL and other methods of compensation can actually keep athletes playing college sports longer instead of leaving to go pro.
It also makes possible Olympic medalists to return to or start their college careers, as they have a short window to capitalize on being a medalist.