Michigan football: One More Year Fund

[NUCat320]

Here, let’s give these kids money!

One More Year Fund

www.onemoreyearfund.com

Let’s cease with the NIL stuff. Just pay ‘em!

 

[Sheffielder]

This is all gross.

I'm certainly in favor of players getting paid - the old model was broken and the people responsible for fixing it failed in the most epic and catastrophic ways possible - but the complete and total de-regulation of this entire process and the very raw, very literal, "everyone get out your wallet or else this player might go to the NFL or enter the portal" is just disgusting, and possibly (probably?) even worse than the pro model, which I've never liked because it creates such an adversarial relationship between the fans, the players, and the administration.

I'm desperately hopeful that college football finds a way to rescue itself in the next 5-10 years, but on this trajectory I don't see myself staying a fan of the sport.

 

[Frabjous]

Let’s cut the hypocrisy and tawdriness and have minor league football for 18 year olds, just like baseball. And college/college football for 18 year olds who are serious about getting an education. Yeah, not holding my breath…

 

[gocatsgo2003]

Here, let’s give these kids money!

One More Year Fund

www.onemoreyearfund.com

Let’s cease with the NIL stuff. Just pay ‘em!

Welcome to modern college football. Get on board or get left in the dust.

 

[TheC]

Let’s cut the hypocrisy and tawdriness and have minor league football for 18 year olds, just like baseball. And college/college football for 18 year olds who are serious about getting an education. Yeah, not holding my breath…

I think it is in everyone's best interest to figure out a way to make big time college athletics work. A minor league system wouldn't be all that great for anyone. The universities certainly don't want to see things change. I'd argue it wouldn't be better for players to develop an actual minor league. Who the heck cares about their local minor league baseball team or even G League basketball team? Maybe a few teams have a cult following, but no where near the following that good ol' Home State U has. These players get much more acclaim playing college ball. Minor league players usually don't get paid all that well (except for the high draft picks who got a big signing bonus). And if a college player even accidentally learns something due to their time on a college campus, that is all the better.

But I agree the current situation is gross and hopefully it can be brought under control somehow.

 

[FeralFelidae]

This is all gross.

I'm certainly in favor of players getting paid - the old model was broken and the people responsible for fixing it failed in the most epic and catastrophic ways possible - but the complete and total de-regulation of this entire process and the very raw, very literal, "everyone get out your wallet or else this player might go to the NFL or enter the portal" is just disgusting, and possibly (probably?) even worse than the pro model, which I've never liked because it creates such an adversarial relationship between the fans, the players, and the administration.

I'm desperately hopeful that college football finds a way to rescue itself in the next 5-10 years, but on this trajectory I don't see myself staying a fan of the sport.

Every player, every single player on an FBS roster, gets paid an equal cut.

EA Sports and ESPN pay into a "pay the payers fund" for entertainment rights and every FBS player gets an equal cut.

But the people paying the players don't actually care about paying the players out of fairness. They care about luring players to their favorite team.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Let’s cut the hypocrisy and tawdriness and have minor league football for 18 year olds, just like baseball. And college/college football for 18 year olds who are serious about getting an education. Yeah, not holding my breath…

Why would the NFL pay for a minor league when it doesn't have to?

Why would universities give up the golden goose of revenue sports at alumni and TV sponsor expense?

 

[WaveJumper]

Where are all the bleeding hearts who thought it was SO unfair that players didn't share in the financial rewards that accrue from college football? You just got wacked by the law of unintended consequences.

Please stop bitching about what you got. After all, the unfairness you whined about has been addressed. Oh yeah, this is gonna be great!. Guess what, the rich will get richer, and the poor, well, they'll just have to shift for themselves. The day of the million dollar PLUS high school stud is here, and the day of big money boosters ruling the sport, or should I say ruining the sport, is here. Cheating is oficially legitimized, and in one man's opinion, will make the sport much worse. But hey, some schools will actually be able to pay their players market wages and that certainly, will make everything more FAIR. Isn't that what you wanted? It's a green field, in more ways than one for those who can afford to cheat big! It's gonna be just so fair, I can't believe it. Usually, I'm a glass half full guy, but not on this one. If the adults in the room don't step up to fix this (current) mess, a lot of less prestigous programs may go down the drain. But hey, let's just not worry about that. That's their problem.

I don't know whether the top administrators at our universities have a clue as to how to fix this, and because of the other requirements of their jobs, do they even care about it. It doesn't seem that the top administrators at Michigan care. They just seem to want MORE.

My family has several people involved with pro football, but none at the college level and I'm glad for that.

 

[TheC]

Where are all the bleeding hearts who thought it was SO unfair that players didn't share in the financial rewards that accrue from college football? You just got wacked by the law of unintended consequences.

Please stop bitching about what you got. After all, the unfairness you whined about has been addressed. Oh yeah, this is gonna be great!. Guess what, the rich will get richer, and the poor, well, they'll just have to shift for themselves. The day of the million dollar PLUS high school stud is here, and the day of big money boosters ruling the sport, or should I say ruining the sport, is here. Cheating is oficially legitimized, and in one man's opinion, will make the sport much worse. But hey, some schools will actually be able to pay their players market wages and that certainly, will make everything more FAIR. Isn't that what you wanted? It's a green field, in more ways than one for those who can afford to cheat big! It's gonna be just so fair, I can't believe it. Usually, I'm a glass half full guy, but not on this one. If the adults in the room don't step up to fix this (current) mess, a lot of less prestigous programs may go down the drain. But hey, let's just not worry about that. That's their problem.

I don't know whether the top administrators at our universities have a clue as to how to fix this, and because of the other requirements of their jobs, do they even care about it. It doesn't seem that the top administrators at Michigan care. They just seem to want MORE.

My family has several people involved with pro football, but none at the college level and I'm glad for that.

Introduce a little COLOR into your world, man!

 

[zeek55]

Where are all the bleeding hearts who thought it was SO unfair that players didn't share in the financial rewards that accrue from college football? You just got wacked by the law of unintended consequences.

Please stop bitching about what you got. After all, the unfairness you whined about has been addressed. Oh yeah, this is gonna be great!. Guess what, the rich will get richer, and the poor, well, they'll just have to shift for themselves. The day of the million dollar PLUS high school stud is here, and the day of big money boosters ruling the sport, or should I say ruining the sport, is here. Cheating is oficially legitimized, and in one man's opinion, will make the sport much worse. But hey, some schools will actually be able to pay their players market wages and that certainly, will make everything more FAIR. Isn't that what you wanted? It's a green field, in more ways than one for those who can afford to cheat big! It's gonna be just so fair, I can't believe it. Usually, I'm a glass half full guy, but not on this one. If the adults in the room don't step up to fix this (current) mess, a lot of less prestigous programs may go down the drain. But hey, let's just not worry about that. That's their problem.

I don't know whether the top administrators at our universities have a clue as to how to fix this, and because of the other requirements of their jobs, do they even care about it. It doesn't seem that the top administrators at Michigan care. They just seem to want MORE.

My family has several people involved with pro football, but none at the college level and I'm glad for that.

Here's the problem: what I wanted was the NCAA to get ahead of the issue instead of staying behind and made irrelevant by court judgments that we all could see coming from a mile away.

I wanted the NCAA to allow schools to create escrow accounts for athletes into which they could receive a financial benefit from the school directly.

Instead of the Wild West, you'd have a controlled system in place which would allow for a "salary cap" of sorts based on maximum distributions set by the NCAA or athletic conferences.

Let's say the NCAA or athletic conferences allowed each school to put an equivalent amount per year to the tuition of the school into the escrow account and give it to the athlete at their graduation. So for example a NU fb/mbb player could receive $350k in an escrow account upon graduation for staying here for 5 years. Maybe allow transfers to keep 50% of their earned escrow.

I've written about that as a possible solution to this coming problem for years around here.

The unintended consequences are because the NCAA failed to react to the reality that courts were going to rule against them when football/basketball are bringing tens of millions in revenue and the players are receiving only a single digit percentage back in the form of scholarships.

If university leaders had any foresight, we'd have a controlled situation on our hands instead of the unfolding debacle which is much worse than anything we had before in terms of illegal benefits.

 

[FeralFelidae]

Here's the problem: what I wanted was the NCAA to get ahead of the issue instead of staying behind and made irrelevant by court judgments that we all could see coming from a mile away.

I wanted the NCAA to allow schools to create escrow accounts for athletes into which they could receive a financial benefit from the school directly.

Instead of the Wild West, you'd have a controlled system in place which would allow for a "salary cap" of sorts based on maximum distributions set by the NCAA or athletic conferences.

Let's say the NCAA or athletic conferences allowed each school to put an equivalent amount per year to the tuition of the school into the escrow account and give it to the athlete at their graduation. So for example a NU fb/mbb player could receive $350k in an escrow account upon graduation for staying here for 5 years. Maybe allow transfers to keep 50% of their earned escrow.

I've written about that as a possible solution to this coming problem for years around here.

The unintended consequences are because the NCAA failed to react to the reality that courts were going to rule against them when football/basketball are bringing tens of millions in revenue and the players are receiving only a single digit percentage back in the form of scholarships.

If university leaders had any foresight, we'd have a controlled situation on our hands instead of the unfolding debacle which is much worse than anything we had before in terms of illegal benefits.

How much do the women's lacrosse players get?

 

[zeek55]

How much do the women's lacrosse players get?

I'd think the schools with the giant TV deals would probably be able to give at least a half scholarship worth per year to every athlete.

I just wish the schools had chosen to do it themselves (especially the Power 5 schools which have the revenue to do it).

Even at a school like Northwestern, 500 half scholarships worth of escrow would be <$20 million per year.

 

[FeralFelidae]

I'd think the schools with the giant TV deals would probably be able to give at least a half scholarship worth per year to every athlete.

I just wish the schools had chosen to do it themselves (especially the Power 5 schools which have the revenue to do it).

Even at a school like Northwestern, 500 half scholarships worth of escrow would be <$20 million per year.

Not exactly a level playing field for the G5 schools that are barely breaking even.

Why did you change it from a full scholarship to a half scholarship? Seems pretty arbitrary.

 

[Frabjous]

Why would the NFL pay for a minor league when it doesn't have to?

Why would universities give up the golden goose of revenue sports at alumni and TV sponsor expense?

-Control. An NFL team could sign an 18 year old for relative peanuts and discard him if he gets hurt or is a bust, just like baseball. Or keep him if he pans out.
-The ‘haves’ in B1G football are tOSU and Michigan. Everyone else is a have-not, most years. Pretty soon, with realignment, the ‘haves’ will insist on keeping most of the revenue for themselves and the ‘have-nots will get table scraps, because they will have no bargaining power. The ‘Golden Goose’ is pretty much cooked.

 

[Sheffielder]

I am cautiously optimistic some regulation will come sooner than later. I don't believe anyone, including CFB royalty that can afford a financial arms race for players want what we have now, *especially* since there are no guarantees that an 18 year old pans out (or stays after collecting a signing bonus).

Unfortunately I also think there are too many cooks in the kitchen to achieve the iron fist the NFL uses to rule its league - if the Big Ten wants to institute a cap on benefits and the SEC does not...you can guess how that will go.

...And any version of a communist model will not float in America...you'll have too many ideological zealots trying to break the system just out of principle (which I also think was already happening under the old rules).

So, unfortunately I do think it will always be a game of the robbers always outrunning the cops here, but that just means CFB "leaders" need to be agile and update regulations quickly.

 

[zeek55]

Not exactly a level playing field for the G5 schools that are barely breaking even.

Why did you change it from a full scholarship to a half scholarship? Seems pretty arbitrary.

Just basing on the scholarships available per sport as a proxy I suppose. A lot of sports don't have anywhere near as many scholarships as athletes in the program.

And reality is just that only football/men's basketball actually bring in more revenue than full scholarships per athlete would be worth. Rest of the sports don't.