MemTigerFan
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RE: STR: Why the NCAA Killing Lawsuit Might Finally Be Here
(03-19-2014 03:31 PM)jgardne Wrote: (03-19-2014 02:47 PM)MemTigerFan Wrote: (03-19-2014 02:36 PM)jgardne Wrote: (03-19-2014 11:07 AM)MemTigerFan Wrote: (03-19-2014 10:57 AM)HappyTiger Wrote: I'm in 100% agreement with the lawsuit. The NCAA and the power conferences ARE a cartel, there's no way around it. Tuition and room and board are but a pittance to these schools. No tears for the NCAA, they brought this all on themselves...
proof? Not trying to be difficult, but people always use this as an excuse and it's almost always wrong. Only a handful of schools actually finish in the black. Now the networks and merchandisers make PLENTY off the game, but the lawsuits have nothing to do with that and honestly can't do much to stop it. But the schools, not really.
I definitely have no tears for the NCAA either. They are greedy and immoral. I'm all for them being taken down. I just don't really fault the schools for much of the issues (Big 5 are a cartel, but that's a different matter than paying the kids, IMO). Plus I don't think they should get paid, so that affects my thoughts too.
You have to understand that for pretty much all division 1 schools, the marginal cost of "tuition + room and board" is next to nothing. Sure, they don't charge the students, but they already own the dorms the students live in, they already employ the professors that teach their classes and heat buildings the classes are in, provide electricity to the dorms, etc. etc." And it's not like space in a large university is terribly limited. You are talking about, what, 400 students total on scholarship at the biggest of institutions?
So the university takes on minimal extra expense for the student athletes. You can argue that they lose income potential on the 400 spots those athletes took from other students without scholarship, but this assumes that enrollment is hard-capped at a certain number, which I'm not sure of. Does Memphis have a waiting list? Does UTK? Will they not exceed a certain threshold, or do they accept a large number knowing there will be annual fluctations in attendance? If they don't hard cap admissions, then the cost of the student athletes scholarship and board is relatively modest
Tuition + room/board is very expensive since a good majority are for out of state students, which means the rates must be at out of state tuition rates.
Plus that's only a fraction of the actual costs of running an athletic department. There are salaries (staff, not main coaches), facilities, travel, marketing, logistics, training, equipment, food, maintenance, sundries, consumables, printing, networks, data, phones, per diems, compliance costs, etc. etc.
The costs are MASSIVE! Is it worth it? Definitely, as there have been direct ties to university enrollment and donation increases tied to success on the field/court. But do they make extra money off it? Mostly, no.
Sure, the costs of the athletic department are large, but that's a school decision to divert tons of money into making athletics good and not directly related to the cost of providing for the athletes themselves.
it's 100% directly related. If that stuff wasn't there, there'd be no programs no teams and thus no athletes.
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