http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaa-still-...ncaab.html

In part >>

ARLINGTON, Texas – Based on a steady, if slow, push of action, and backed again by words during Sunday's annual state of the NCAA address at the Final Four, it's clear that the leaders of college athletics are determined to make concessions toward their athletes.

Additional monetary stipends, a voice for the players, scholarship adjustments, stricter practice time limits are all on the table and some are inevitably going to be passed, at least at the biggest schools.

These are all small, common sense and almost impossible to oppose things that should've been done long ago, of course. The multipronged threat of union certifications, pending lawsuits, threatened lawsuits, public opinion and so on has sped up the timetable.

College sports appear to remain naïve, however, to the depth of the opposition. Once the battle is engaged, a few minor steps will appease no one on the players' side.

Moreover, they aren't ready to acknowledge how the endgame is likely not about colleges deciding whether or not to allow student-athletes to share in revenue, but football players deciding whether they should continue to allow gymnasts, swimmers, wrestlers and the like to share in their money.

College sports long ago created a system where cash brought in by essentially two sports (football and men's basketball) was pooled to fund up to two dozen other sports that, for the most part, generate little to no income or fan interest....

Higher stipends for everyone in D1.

However, there will be no stipend if the 'employee' status holds up. Then it'll be a salary or just academic scholarship for athletes.

SMU piloted higher stipends in the 80s and all we got was the death penalty that resulted in our demise as a major program. If higher stipends pass, the very least the NCAA should do is thank us for piloting the program to prove that it works.

As someone who has worked with student organizations and college students in general for almost 10 years I find it hard to believe students will consistently and successfully manage and sustain a union. Students matriculate entirely too fast and are, in most cases, too immature.

(04-07-2014 11:57 AM)MWC Tex Wrote:  Higher stipends for everyone in D1.

However, there will be no stipend if the 'employee' status holds up. Then it'll be a salary or just academic scholarship for athletes.

Emmert seems to think that money isn't there for most schools.

--"Most universities don't have the resources to move to that kind of model," Emmert said, "So they'll probably be playing Division III style."

Exactly. That's where this is heading one day.--

I didn't read the article as being directly about unions but about the likely responses by the moneyed schools to the existing pressures. That is, if done it will be actions taken by the schools themselves with or without unions.

(04-07-2014 11:58 AM)CalallenStang Wrote:  SMU piloted higher stipends in the 80s and all we got was the death penalty that resulted in our demise as a major program. If higher stipends pass, the very least the NCAA should do is thank us for piloting the program to prove that it works.

.

There's more of us than them its time we band together and shut the Texas of the world up.

(04-07-2014 12:46 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(04-07-2014 11:58 AM)CalallenStang Wrote:  SMU piloted higher stipends in the 80s and all we got was the death penalty that resulted in our demise as a major program. If higher stipends pass, the very least the NCAA should do is thank us for piloting the program to prove that it works.

.

You don't say

Just as a point of reference --- NCAA men's basketball made about 1 billion last year. NCAA football made more - with the top ten NCAA football schools (Texas, Alabama et al) making about 760 million. All other NCAA sports either made relatively little or lost money.

HERE >>
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/...s/6973767/


...Now, it's poised to top the eye-popping mark of $1 billion in annual revenue.

And it's no secret that one big event, the Division I men's basketball tournament, accounts for 80 percent to 90 percent of that success. What is less clear is how much longer the winning streak will last....

And HERE (football) >>

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/201...l-revenues

(04-07-2014 02:10 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  Just as a point of reference --- NCAA men's basketball made about 1 billion last year. NCAA football made more - with the top ten NCAA football schools (Texas, Alabama et al) making about 760 million. All other NCAA sports either made relatively little or lost money.

Right, it's not about what is fair to fans or other athletes, it's whether you believe "paying" the revenue athletes a tiny fraction of profits in order to subsidize others or keep other programs operating, fits with our core economic principles.

I don't necessarily like the effects, but these revenue athletes will get paid, sooner than many think.

Let's see, they work 40-60 hours on their craft. They generate millions in ticket/jersey sales and billions in TV revenue, yet people want to play this game that all they deserve is s scholarship, yet in very single way they are professionals.

(04-07-2014 02:14 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  

(04-07-2014 02:10 PM)TIGERCITY Wrote:  Just as a point of reference --- NCAA men's basketball made about 1 billion last year. NCAA football made more - with the top ten NCAA football schools (Texas, Alabama et al) making about 760 million. All other NCAA sports either made relatively little or lost money.

Right, it's not about what is fair to fans or other athletes, it's whether you believe "paying" the revenue athletes a tiny fraction of profits in order to subsidize others or keep other programs operating, fits with our core economic principles.

I don't necessarily like the effects, but these revenue athletes will get paid, sooner than many think.

Let's see, they work 40-60 hours on their craft. They generate millions in ticket/jersey sales and billions in TV revenue, yet people want to play this game that all they deserve is s scholarship, yet in very single way they are professionals.

Maybe they should simply be treated like the employees they are --- at least at the big football and basketball schools. If they're 'employees' - than pay them. If, instead, you want to claim they're 'students' - than allow them the freedom other students have regarding employment and their off-campus activities.

Just so people have an idea >>>

kyleveazey" Kyle Veazey ‏@kyleveazey 10m
Wow. CBS/Turner pay the NCAA ~$771 million annually for rights to the tournament. City of Memphis' annual operating budget is $613 million.