Game changer for collegiate athletics?
- Thread starter Pope
- Start date
90% of media and fan focus has been on realignment and movement toward Big 2 dominance.
But all the outstanding lawsuits against schools, conferences and the NCAA could be what changes P5 athletics.
One explanation, in the media, for OU, UT, USC and UCLA jumping to richer conferences is in preparation for the day when college athletes are employees.
About a year ago ND's Athletic Director speculated the divide might not be Big10/SEC vs ACC/Big12/Pac12 schools. But universities that are willing to make student athletes employees vs. universities that don't. Jack Swarbrick speculated Notre Dame could very well be in the later group
But all the outstanding lawsuits against schools, conferences and the NCAA could be what changes P5 athletics.
One explanation, in the media, for OU, UT, USC and UCLA jumping to richer conferences is in preparation for the day when college athletes are employees.
About a year ago ND's Athletic Director speculated the divide might not be Big10/SEC vs ACC/Big12/Pac12 schools. But universities that are willing to make student athletes employees vs. universities that don't. Jack Swarbrick speculated Notre Dame could very well be in the later group
If you want to **** up the entire sports world, let these people get their way. It will be worse for everyone involved.
People are bound and determined to ruin college athletics it will be interesting to see where my breaking point is and I drop my tickets and just watch whatever championship is on like I do for the NFL, MLB, and NBA. Maybe catch a regular season game if it's not on some damn streaming channel they want to charge $50/month for.
I hope it doesn't happen for a while I still enjoy ISU athletics.
I had a lot of fun cheering for the women's tennis team last night and I had never seen a ISU tennis match in my life.
I hope it doesn't happen for a while I still enjoy ISU athletics.
I had a lot of fun cheering for the women's tennis team last night and I had never seen a ISU tennis match in my life.
Who are you implicating here? Not trying to be combative, just looking for clarification.
If there is some kind of legal ruling that these kids are employees and not student athletes, how does a school go about not paying them?
- Mar 27, 2006
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If you don't like the unpredictability of the current landscape, and would prefer more restriction over player movement, this is how you get it. If players are employees, you open the door to multi year player agreements and/or non compete language.
The thought is revenue sports like FB, MBB, etc. would be spun off from the university and be private entities. There would still be a Cyclones, but a private entity would own. I haven't seen a deep explanation. I tried to find the Jack Swarbrick interview. I believe it was with SI in spring/summer 2022.
But here is info from another SI article that discussed.
Mit Winter, a sports attorney based in Kansas City and himself a former college basketball player at William & Mary, believes the future of college sports could possibly be separate from their own schools.
“I don’t know if universities and conferences and the NCAA want to participate in a system where they are collectively bargaining with the athletes. It remains to be seen,” he says. “There are different models that have been kicked around where athletic teams are spun off from the school and are their own standalone entities.”
Deeming college athletes as employees would have wide ranging impacts on both the athletes themselves and their universities. Athletes would be rudely welcomed to the world of federal taxation. And they may even be at risk of termination by their new employer, the school.
Schools could lose their Section 501(3)c designation, which impacts taxation on bond financing and charitable gifts. Student fees and public support? Those might disappear too, experts say.
It is a complex issue. Like a freight train, says one athletic director, it is bearing down on college sports, grouped with other changes that are quickly altering the landscape of the industry—for better, some say; for worse, say others.
Full SI Article
- Mar 27, 2006
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I love vague scare tactics like this. Oh no, athletes will have to pay taxes!?! We have to protect them from this horrible thing...that literally everyone person with a job already deals with.
Fear of uncertainty is a powerful propaganda tool.
You can’t, you also would have to cover their health insurance (and possibly the long term fallout) and that would be the reason most schools drop sports.
I've found myself into pro sports more than ever this past year and I don't think it's coincidental....
That being said, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube either.
That being said, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube either.
In this scenario, how are non-revenue sports to be funded? Or, would the non-P2 be the only home for non-revenue sports?
They may have to pay tuition and room/board too. Then you will know how badly they want to play COLLEGE athletics
Literally millions of 18 year olds pay taxes as they enter the workforce after high school without going to college. Somehow, they survive and don't all end up in jail.
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It's possible that some schools would charge athletes to go to school, but it's certainly not a requirement. Plenty of colleges offer free or discounted tuition to their employees as a benefit. I suspect most power conference schools would find a way to extend a similar benefit to athletes.
Thinking about some of the possible implications gets pretty wild.
- Will college athletes be able to unionize? Could we see a college football team go on strike and demand better wages, better housing facilities, better benefits, etc.? Could a women's basketball team walk out and demand the same pay as the men's basketball team?
- Would the wage scale be higher for certain positions (highest scale for QB's, lowest scale for long snappers)?
- Since Ankeny High School generates revenue by charging admission to their volleyball games, selling refreshments at the concession stands, and selling volleyball t-shirts, would the girls on the volleyball team have to become paid employees of the Ankeny School District?
Yeah they would probably have to charge for tuition, room & board, and then pay them a salary back to cover it. Thus paying taxes in both directions.
Athletes have to pay taxes in each state they compete. So it's not just filing income taxes in one state. But they would adjust.
The issue is the schools, do they want to deal with implications of athletes being employees. Operating what is a highly competitive minor league professional sport organization might be beyond what some Presidents view as the core mission of their university.
If Athletic Departments were money sources for major Universities the legal/liability issue would universally be overlooked. But how much profit do P5 athletic departments contribute back to university general funds?
Sure people like to speak about athletics being the front door to universities and way to keep alumni and donors engaged with universities. And there is truth to that, but there is also a tipping point.
The University of Chicago has done just fine as an academic institution dropping Big10 athletics. Ivy League and other outstanding universities in this country thrive as a community and engaging their alumni bases with a different perspective of college sport.
Athletes as employees is really about collective bargaining and athletes in FB and MBB receiving a 50/50, 60/40, etc share of revenue related to that sport. Good for those athletes. But my concern is for the availability of athletic scholarships for the other 300+ student athletes on campus.
