Mark Emmert suddenly cares about the integrity of college sports

Looks like our former chancellor will be inviting some college presidents/chancellors to a retreat to discuss various issues related to protecting and enforcing the amateur status of college sports:

[ame="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6657255"]Mark Emmert plans summit on future of Div. I sports - ESPN[/ame]

Taken on face value, he makes some good points. My realistic side, however, tells me this is just PR for an organization that has embarrassed itself immensely over the past year. After all, he could have publicly called BS on Cam's lightning fast, blink-and-you-missed-it, suspension and reinstatement, or the OSU "suspensions" that somehow didn't apply to bowl season.

 

His main argument is the "value of the education" they get.

To me it's valuable....but to them, it's like giving them some abstract modern art that someone arbitrarily values at $120,000.

Football is not like baseball....the athletes have NO option to go pro if they're good enough. They need to be compensated for the $millions they generate for their "employers".

 

LSU makes millions of $ in research grants on the backs of grad students. Point me to where I can pick up my piece of the action.

 

Yeah, there's alot of reasons like that. You think teams like Boise complain now about being at a disadvantage. Watch what happens if players get paid. They can't afford to pay players like the big schools can. You also have the issue of star player vs role player, revenue sports vs. non-revenue sports.

 

Good point...I wish I could help you there !! I was a grad student once also.

I'm sure the LSU attorneys would point out that at least you get a paltry grad student stipend as compensation....something the athletes don't get. And just think how you'd feel if LSU reaped $90 million for that Geology grad student beefcake calendar you posed for, Mr. November !! :bncry:

 

Well stated Steve.

 

Don't hate the player, Steve.

I think stipends are a reasonable option to put on the table for athletes. Even TOPS recipients get them. But it won't solve the problem of rogue boosters, car dealers, etc. That comes with the territory when that much money is involved.

 

There is a lot about this idea that I like. It changes the conversation from giving away money to paying for services. Do you think it could be used to mitigate the non revenue sports issue? In life some jobs pay more than others.

 

There are probably too many holes in my proposal (that I only started thinking about last week) but just to throw it out there:

Currently, boosters (individually like Knight with Oregon or collectively like LSU or other big programs) donate funds that give their universities huge advantages over the smaller schools. Since the bigger schools already have these inherent advantages, why not have it carry over to pay for players.

Develop a structured program that requires boosters to file a documented request with the university to pay recruits or current players a specified amount. Athletes are required to pay their share of taxes. Booster payments can be either split evenly between all players or given 100% to a particular player. Any athlete receiving undocumented funds would be dealt with harshly (ineligible). Universities are not allowed to give any special treatment (tickets, etc.) to any booster based on payments to players. High school recruits are allowed to accept funds from multiple boosters (i.e. from different schools) and have no obligation to choose a school based on payments. Maybe this would get boosters to reduce payments to high school players and trend towards primarily paying college players for their performance.

I don't think anything close to the above would ever get implemented. However, it's money exchanging hands from boosters to athletes with the university simply acting as the record keeper. Sure, it would give an advantage to bigger schools but a similar advantage already exists. The star college "student athletes" would get compensated the market value for their talents with no additional cost from the universities.