(06-01-2014 05:32 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(06-01-2014 12:42 PM)LasVegasReb Wrote:  

(05-30-2014 08:14 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(05-30-2014 08:03 AM)EKUSteve Wrote:  

(05-30-2014 07:57 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Exactly.

All of this talk of "OMG! Semi-pro football! Time to hammer them with taxes!" is a gross misunderstanding of tax law.

The most clear evidence of them all: THE NFL HAS NON-PROFIT STATUS.

When a professional football league with the highest revenues of any pro sport in America that has actually been previously found to be in violation of antitrust laws can maintain non-profit status, it's not exactly going to be difficult for public universities to do the same.

Frank, isn't it more appropriate to say that the NFL as an organization is a non-taxable organization but the teams themselves are taxable entities?

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/201...pay-taxes/

Yes, that is true, yet the point is that the NFL is able to avoid millions of dollars of taxes (i.e. taxes on the NFL headquarters' share of the national TV contracts, licensing deals, etc.) by using the tax law despite being an outright professional sports league. The fact that the P5 would turn into "semipro football" is irrelevant with respect to its tax status. If the NFL can figure that out, *public* universities can (and have) figured that out, too.

Frank. Do yourself a favor, read this article. It will give you a little insight to your seemingly consistent lack of understanding how the federal government views college athletics and taxation.

http://law.psu.edu/_file/NCAA26.pdf

LVR, thank you for posting this excellent and thorough explanation of how tax law and tax policy relate to collegiate athletics and the NCAA. I note that it was written in 2008, when the words "giving up amateurism" weren't yet in the vocabulary of major university presidents. And yet the author already believed the IRS had a policy basis for reversing precedent and removing the UBIT exemption from Division I college football and basketball income. A future P5 move to break away from the NCAA and begin paying players, thereby explicitly shifting their football and basketball programs from the amateur to the commercial realm, would give the IRS a more tangible and practical basis for revoking the exemption and imposing the UBIT. I could certainly see it happening, absent Congressional intervention to prevent the IRS from responding.

I am a radical on the issue of taxes.

I think that all universities, all pro sports leagues and all churches should be taxed.

I think that most corporate tax breaks, incentives and exemptions should be removed.

I think that "capital gains" should be taxed at the same rate as wages and other income.

I think that only legitimate charities should be non-profits. There should be no other such entities unless they are involved in the public trust.

That would thin out that bloated tax code quite a bit.

So, while I won't hold my breath, I would love for all athletic departments to lose that status and be taxed on their revenue streams.

(05-29-2014 09:49 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  If there is going to be a split....then all sports.....all governance. Let them play only each other in every sport.

We reform the NCAA to our liking instead of theirs and focus it on advancing our programs, investing in us, and getting market share for us, rather than maintaining and protecting their status quo.

Very unpleasant for all. But at least we would be working for ourselves instead of signing up for indentured servitude.

Let'em drop amateurism, and attempt to compete with the NFL, the NFL will crush them.

If the "charitable mission" of intercollegiate athletics is educating players then it is one of the most rotten ill-run charities and worthy of being the focus of every scam buster TV journalist out there. The typical FBS school spends around 4% of its revenue educating athletes. Charities with 96% overhead aren't typically considered to be reputable.

The only other charitable exception intercollegiate athletics falls under is promoting amateur athletics, but that wouldn't apply if you start pushing compensation past cost of attendance.

(06-14-2014 12:29 AM)BIgCatonProwl Wrote:  Let'em drop amateurism, and attempt to compete with the NFL, the NFL will crush them.

Only way the NFL would do anything hostile would be if they used the departure from amateurism as justification to lobby Congress to change the AFL-NFL merger anti-trust legislation to get permission to move games to Saturday.

It would certainly be financially in the NFL's interest to move 3-5 games to Saturday and big foot college football.