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Braun’s future

My impression was that BYU spent a lot of money in the portal this year.

As some people know, LDS (Mormon) church members are admitted to BYU at 50% of the tuition charged to non-LDS students.
Tuition is HEAVILY discounted for everybody - $13k per academic year for non-LDS. $6500 for LDS students.

There are very deep pockets at BYU and it is primarily church money.
Of course most Mormon families pay 10% of their income(?) to the church annually - by church law.
(At least thats my understanding)

Ryan Smith
 
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Now, if we end up with a Siemien-like player who outperforms his expectations, we can take advantage of that until he’s an upperclassman and he is bought out by a big boy.

Or we become a big boy and pay him. I have no doubt that is the Vanderbilt, Duke and Stanford plan. It should be ours too.
 
Or we become a big boy and pay him. I have no doubt that is the Vanderbilt, Duke and Stanford plan. It should be ours too.

Why? Explain to me. Why should a university pay a student to play sports?
I can understand the work/study job argument. (Other students are paid to work for the school, why not athletes)
I can understand the free tuition.
Beyond that, there is no logic to support the idea.
So, please, spell it out.

"Everybody else is doing it" is not an argument, as any parent knows.
 
Why? Explain to me. Why should a university pay a student to play sports?
I can understand the work/study job argument. (Other students are paid to work for the school, why not athletes)
I can understand the free tuition.
Beyond that, there is no logic to support the idea.
So, please, spell it out.

"Everybody else is doing it" is not an argument, as any parent knows.

Because the university probably still comes out ahead on publicity, revenue, etc. Especially if the payment is from third-party NIL.
 
Yes they do. Billionaire alum who owns the Jazz and Utah Hockey Club is bankrolling BYU football and basketball.
Well, then they are terribly under performing. With all the money in the world, you would expect the holy grail of coaching and routine top ten presence from day 1 of nil. How bizarre. Guess money doesn’t move the needle as much as expected.
 
Yes, Ramsey's year with us was his worst statistical season, but he wasn't all that great in 2017 or 2018 either. 2019, though, was legitimately good.

Ultimately, I don't share your cynicism about the future. Yes, NU is small, but we have truly impressive facilities across the board, we are in the conference that gets by far the most TV money, and we have a billionaire donor who loves to throw money at us. And if you're worried about NU getting thrown out of the conference, even apart from the fact that charter members can't be thrown out, we are the school that gives BTN open access to the Chicago TV market.

Now as you suggest, if the entire sport falls apart and restructures itself into a 35 team league or something, we'll be on the cut line for sure. But there's way too much money flying around for that to be realistic, and the pending B1G-SEC scheduling agreement suggests that both conferences are locking themselves into place for the long haul. So why make yourself miserable expecting the absolute worst?
NU has little to do with BTN’s access to Chicago. There are more alums of other schools here than NU alums.

I am not miserable. NU Football fundamentally changed during the summer of 2023.

Hey, I was a devoted NU Football fan for 38 years. Nothing lasts forever. Including college football. I accept that.
 
Well, then they are terribly under performing. With all the money in the world, you would expect the holy grail of coaching and routine top ten presence from day 1 of nil. How bizarre. Guess money doesn’t move the needle as much as expected.

The current basketball HC (who’s a SLC native and LDS) moved from the Suns to BYU in April 2024. Then the checkbook really opened.

You can just admit you don’t know what you’re talking about. I promise, it will be fine.
 
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Well, then they are terribly under performing. With all the money in the world, you would expect the holy grail of coaching and routine top ten presence from day 1 of nil. How bizarre. Guess money doesn’t move the needle as much as expected.
???

BYU is undefeated and top 10 right now in football and looking like a near lock to make the playoffs if they win out in the regular season (which they're favored to do).

And they're about to toss millions at a top basketball prospect...
 
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Why? Explain to me. Why should a university pay a student to play sports?
I can understand the work/study job argument. (Other students are paid to work for the school, why not athletes)
I can understand the free tuition.
Beyond that, there is no logic to support the idea.
So, please, spell it out.

"Everybody else is doing it" is not an argument, as any parent knows.
Because the players, by and large, are the value creators. We're talking billions of dollars and the players get a pittance for their efforts
 
“Why should we pay all that money?”

“Because it’s a good return on investment.”

Seems… like that’s the whole point.

Look, NU can open a pot dispensary on campus an make money from that too.

No one has presented anything resembling an argument as to why NU should pay some students to play football and basketball while charging all the other students $80,000 a year to get the same education as those paid athletes.
Look at the money flow... The parents of the "real students" are paying tuition. The university takes that tuition and pays other students to play football and basketball.
It is asinine on its face.

I'm hoping you guys are confusing NIL with "athletes paid by the university" because at least there's a case to be made for NIL.

If NU wants to pay athletes, that money HAS to come from alumni/benefactor contributions and a separate fund specifically for that purpose.
 
Look, NU can open a pot dispensary on campus an make money from that too.

No one has presented anything resembling an argument as to why NU should pay some students to play football and basketball while charging all the other students $80,000 a year to get the same education as those paid athletes.
Look at the money flow... The parents of the "real students" are paying tuition. The university takes that tuition and pays other students to play football and basketball.
It is asinine on its face.

I'm hoping you guys are confusing NIL with "athletes paid by the university" because at least there's a case to be made for NIL.

If NU wants to pay athletes, that money HAS to come from alumni/benefactor contributions and a separate fund specifically for that purpose.

NU isn’t paying a single dime of the NIL money, then when revenue sharing kicks in it comes out of the Department of Athletics.

Revenue sharing is exactly what it sounds like, athletes getting a cut of revenue generated by athletics (i.e. TV contracts, etc.). NU gets all of the upside and none of the downside.

It’s not like paying a football player has an impact on tuition costs for non-athletes.
 
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Because the players, by and large, are the value creators. We're talking billions of dollars and the players get a pittance for their efforts
The most passionate free market capitalists in the world lose their mind over this issue— which is that labor should be compensated a fair-market wage.

The NCAA is perhaps the most draconian and irrational — and in many ways, except the important one, ineffective — market-distorter that we’ve ever seen.

“But why don’t these players create their own league below the NFL?! Because nobody would watch them!”
“Because the NCAA and member schools spent a century building market-distorting switching costs.”
 
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NU isn’t paying a single dime of the NIL money, then when revenue sharing kicks in it comes out of the Department of Athletics.

Revenue sharing is exactly what it sounds like, athletes getting a cut of revenue generated by athletics (i.e. TV contracts, etc.). NU gets all of the upside and none of the downside.

It’s not like paying a football player has an impact on tuition costs for non-athletes.
No no no no no, remember, they used to share those charts that show how athletics brings the university down. Amusingly, those charts always assumed that full-pay students were bring displaced.

College sticker prices are also, notably, a huge lie.
 
College sticker prices are also, notably, a huge lie.

That is somewhat misstated, though I understand your point.

Full tuition is exactly what the sticker says. Tuition alone is $67,000.
Total costs estimated at $90,000 - 95,000 per year. (NU says room and board $20,000+)
At Northwestern some form of NU scholarship is given to 45% of students.
Northwestern says 22% of students qualify for a Pell Grant, which is based on financial resources.
That maxes out at $7500 a year or so.
Student loans are counted as financial aid.
I have seen estimates that 42% are paying the full sticker price.

However, as you indicated, most incoming students receive some form of financial aid.

Northwestern says that "most" students who come from a family earning less than $60,000 a year attends NU at zero cost.
Northwestern says that "most" students who come from a family earning less than $150,000 a year pay no tuition.

 
This thread has obviously wandered off topic (Braun's future).
I'll start a new thread tomorrow to focus on direct payments to (some) athletes.
 
Look, NU can open a pot dispensary on campus an make money from that too.

No one has presented anything resembling an argument as to why NU should pay some students to play football and basketball while charging all the other students $80,000 a year to get the same education as those paid athletes.
Look at the money flow... The parents of the "real students" are paying tuition. The university takes that tuition and pays other students to play football and basketball.
It is asinine on its face.

I'm hoping you guys are confusing NIL with "athletes paid by the university" because at least there's a case to be made for NIL.

If NU wants to pay athletes, that money HAS to come from alumni/benefactor contributions and a separate fund specifically for that purpose.
How to say “I don’t know the first thing about college sport economics” without saying it
 
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