quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by LSUsupaFan Bear was a great coach, and he knew his ball. The fact is he bought players. I have no respect for him. Cholly Mac was also a great coach, who ran a clean program, and was screwed by his own people. But he never spoke poorly of LSU. Cholly Mac is the epitome of what a college coach should be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Kenny Stabler was at Bama he drove a Corvette. Is anybody stupid enough to think that Bryant handed him the keys? I knew players who played for Mac who drove cars and had money above and beyond what their folks were able to pay for. At every big time Division 1A program there are rich boosters who give players stuff like that under the table. It went on then and it goes on now. If it were possible to do a survey just of what kind of automobiles are driven by current star players at Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Miami, Florida State, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, USC, UCLA and yes, even LSU I would be very interested to see if the results match up with each player's parents ability to pay for them. Also the apartments they live in and the amount of pocket money they have to spend. The amount of financial aid that the NCAA allows is incredibly limited. While I'm not condoning cheating college athletes are not allowed to work at a job during the school year. A large percentage of them come from underpriviledged backgrounds. To put it in perspective, the athletes are the entertainers of the multi million dollar college sports entertainment business. In addition to the academic classload that any other student has to do the athletes put in long hours of training, practice, weightlifting and conditioning. To expect them to do all that and then not even have enough money to go to a movie or buy a new pair of jeans or a CD unless their family is able to provide them with a few bucks is hypocritical of the NCAA. I love college football but I hate the NCAA. Without the players the is no Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl Orange Bowl, or March Madness bringing in mega millions to the coffers of all the participants and members of the participants conferences. Without the players there are no million dollar a year salaries for coaches. Every TV announcer from Keith Jackson to Dick Vitale would be lucky to be doing some local talk radio show. END THE NCAA HYPOCRACY! If some booster with more money than brains wants to give a kid a Lincoln Navigator or a Hummer let the kid take it legally. If the kid know he is going to get a Hummer whether he signs with LSU, Texas or Miami he is still going to choose the school where he thinks he will get the best opportunity to play. No unfair advantage gained by any college there. Let the star players take advantage of their status and earn money by doing endorsements and commercials but put the money into a pool and distribute it to all the players. There are enough opportunities out there so there could be a system that would pay for the basic needs of all players without even dipping into the schools TV money or ticket sales money.
This is a very thought-provoking post, becauses he IS RIGHT, DAMMIT! I just don't know whether his proposed solution is the best one. Not his fault, because I can't think of a good solution, either. How about stipends for the Athlete-Students? There would be a base stipend for every athlete. If your sport generates tons of money (football), you get a bonus to your stipend. Go get 'em, Bengal B. :geaux: :geaux: :lsug:
The main problem with paying players is most Colleges and Universities simply do not have the money. Before you go saying that College Football generates $$MILLIONS$$ it really doesn't. Over half of the programs are operating in the red and the ones that do make money often have to share with the other programs. The University of Miami finished in the red when they won the MNC. When you pay the football player the baseball player will want his money too. So will the basketball player and finally the womens swim team player. When the scholarship atheletes finish getting their salaries then the scholarship music major will start asking to be paid to play at concerts and games. It goes on and on or their will be suit after suit. Pell Grant money is available to athletes and the NCAA has no ruling against grant money. It is over $3000 per semester and can be used for anything. One can't live like a NBA superstar on it but it is good spending money. Some UT players have said that is the money they make their car payments with.
I wasn't suggesting that the money to give athletes a livable income come from the schools. If college players were allowed to do product endorsments and TV, newspaper and magazine ads a lot of money could be generated for the purpose of raising them above the poverty level. If Nike is willing to give $90 million to LeBron James who has never played against anybody above the high school level surely companies like Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Gatoraide and sports apparrel companies would love to be able to feature college football and basketball players like Michael Clayton, Roy Williams, Chris Simms, Carmelo Anthony, or Carson Palmer in TV, newspaper and magazine ads. It might not bring in millions of dollars but the way it would work is that they would target the ads toward the local markets where the players are well known. For example Michael Clayton and Matt Mauck might not be all that well known on the national level they certainly have a lot of appeal within the regional marketing area where most LSU fans live. Lets say that Nike would be willing to pay $50,000 to LSU for the rights to an ad campaign to be shown on the stations within the LSU fanbase marketing area. Maybe a local automobile dealer like Price LeBlanc Toyota or Brian Harris would be willing to pay for endorsments and TV commercials by Matt Mauck. All the money generated by this kind of thing would be paid directly to the LSU athletic department and put into a fund that would be distributed to all of the players in an equitable manner. I'm not saying that this would work for all collegiate sports. Football, Basketball and at LSU and some other schools that have big time baseball programs baseball would generate income. At LSU it would be likely that somebody like Semione Augustas would be attractive enough to a few local advertisers to generate at least a few extra dollars for the players on the womens basketball team. Of course most of the money would go to the players in the revenue producing sports. Tennis players, golfers, gymnastics, swimmers and divers and volleyball players would get nothing unless they somehow made themselves well known enough to attract some kind of interest in featuring them in ads. Like in the unlikely event that an LSU golfer were to make a splash in the Masters or U.S. Open by contending in the first or second round. I admit that athletes in the lesser sports would be basically left out under this plan but the greatest need to provide a livable income is in football and basketball. In different areas of the country some of the minor sports would generate at least something for the players. At LSU track would have a few athletes that local advertisers would want to use due to the success of the program. At places like Minnesota or Michigan Tech or North Dakota State where they have dominant college hockey programs the hockey players would make something. In California it might even provide a few bucks for volleyball or water polo players.
McClendon or Bryant.... Both were good coaches. Bryant was more successful. Not just illustrated by a better W-L, better players, more all- americans.... But at better assistant coaches. Charlie Mac was a very Nice guy. I believe his assistants were mediocre. Some were from LSU's previous teams. My god, the worst of the bunch was Charlie Pevey. Yes, I know he had some successes, but NEVER against 'bama. Hell, I even knew back then that 'bama was a better team. Pevey once had a system that if it was 3rd & 7 & you were on the opposing 25 you would use this play or whatever. No brains, no guts, no improvisation. I believe Charlie Mac would have benfited from better assistant coaches that could coach better & recruit better. Just my opinion.
BengalB, the endorsements is a novel idea, now to get the NCAA to go along with it. I have also seen some thoughts on having sponsors logo put on team jerseys such as McDonalds golden arches on the sleeves and maybe Ford and GE on the shoulders. Billboards on the gridiron. The NCAA needs a lot of rules changes and the rules they have need to be etched in stone and not interpreted differently for each member.
I don't know if I would go so far as to make the uniforms look like what NASCAR drivers wear. In that case it could be something like this: The Alabama Crimson Tide Budweiser opening kickoff is taken on the Valvoline 6 yard line by LSU's #23 Taco Bell kick returner. He takes the ball across the Coca Cola 20 yard line, breaks a tackle by Alabama's #34 Bank One Special Teamer and is finally brought down at the Time Warner AOL 30 yard line by the Tide's # 55 Goodyear Tires linebacker. That was one hell of a tackle, Brent. It just might qualify for the Nestle's Crunch Hit of the Day.
I can see your tiger mascot busting through a box of Kellogs Frosted Flakes as the team takes the field now. It will be a sad thing but it may happen. I would much rather see things like outside vendors at stadiums who pay a set up fee. Pappa John's Pizza, Dreamland Ribs, something like that. Better food always interests me. Almost every program has a booster or two who is willing to chip in a buck or two. What I have a problem with is it would become a bidding war. Alabama, for those who believe it, spent our allotment all on Albert Means. We are fresh out of bucks.
"Bank One presents the LSU Fighting Tigers" Hey, it will happen this year with the Chicago Bears. We've had some sponsorships for years now. Golden Flake has been "the official chip of the SEC" since back in the Bear's days. Who can forget those fantastic commericals with Hudson Hallman eating Golden Flake potato chips? Good times.
