Pac-12 players announce demands with #WeAreUnited

Who cares about the side effect of blackmail, and extortion instead of serious and realistic goals and interactions with the appropriate people to achieve and represent the athletes concerns and requests. Who cares if many 3 star or less players are never given an opportunity to go pro or if the just out of high school athlete may risk serious injury and a far steeper climb to "make it" in the pros. High school athlete graduates, by and large, have not peaked and will be up against seasoned older tougher players wanting to keep their hopes alive as well.

If the athlete never makes the pros, what does he have left as a back up high paying career if all the athlete has is a High School Diploma, or a G.E.D.?

Be careful for what you wish...and remember the grass is not always greener on the other side.

 

For those who are not as talented it would be an honor to be able to play for USC.
I would have paid for the honor just to be on the bench.
I worked my way through USC and had some debt on graduation.
So those talented players should consider it an honor to get a scholarship from USC
and not abuse it.
I degree from USC will open doors closed to others.

 

32 NFL teams. 224 players being drafted. Not even all the 4*s would get drafted. No college degree to fall back on if you don't make it to the NFL. There's an old saying
"Don't bite the hand that feeds you". As a parent it is a huge concern of mine to have my children go to college and how am I'm going to be able to afford sending all of them to it. These players get into major Universities for free and get to play the sport they love with the opportunity to make millions as a professional or get a degree and be hired by Alumni. I guess that isn't enough for them.

 

I don't disagree but there aren't many businesses that pay for college like that.

For one the minor league would likely not be super profitable. So paying 100% college for every player would be unlikely. I work for one of the most profitable companies in the country and we get $5000.00 per semester. Then you aren't factoring in taxes and housing costs.

They have it made right now.

 

I don't see too many people pushing for colleges abolishing FB altogether. A system more like baseball would be ideal. If you prioritize getting your degree, go the college route. If you have no interest in college, go straight to minors.

For kids like Clay Matthews that need a couple years, you have college or even JC to develop.

It will get complicated for all to get together and lay down the foundation for how it all works (pay, age limit to move to NFL, age limit to stay in minor leagues (not unlimited like baseball obviously), etc.

HS players will have more options, not less. But at least we as a society will be honest about what a college is for, and which kids should be there...instead of lying to ourselves in order to be entertained.

 

If all the best HS players go to the minor league and the college's are left with a second rate product, why would they carry a Football program? To lose money? They would cut Football which in turn would result in losing other sport programs since Football revenues carry all other sports. Universities would become just what some here are saying we are headed towards. Only focused on academics and not on sports. Have students pay for admission rather than give free scholarships to athletes. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

College Baseball/Basketball continue to be popular and in the case of basketball, huge money makers for NCAA...even with having other options for HS players to go pro.

College baseball still has a world series and is popular on ESPN, even though there's a minor league option. If it wasn't profitable or at least break-even, schools wouldn't have baseball programs.

 

You can’t blame these players for the way they feel. I hope it works out for them

 

I'm curious what your definition of popular is? I'm a huge fan of baseball and even I will be willing to say that there's only a handful of college baseball teams that are even profitable. Or even have half-decent fan bases.

Heck, to even watch most games I feel like I have to use live streams because they're never on television unless it's something like the College World Series.

And using college basketball in this debate is really strange considering that basketball teams are significantly smaller and basketball is a much cheaper sport to play.

 

That's why those players that feel they should be paid really do need a market based alternative to "take their talents to." They will quickly find out that their value is not that great still while they are developing into players capable of not getting clocked at the NFL level.

There is no reason for colleges to cut football just because a minor league exists that is willing to pay the kids that are frankly not smart enough to realize the value of being at a top school while they are developing. There will still be plenty of talented players that get it and stick with the college route.

 

You may be underestimating the average football player's ability to understand the overall picture. All the best HS players are NOT going to go to the minors. The intelligent ones will realize it is not worth risking a career ending injury in order to get paid $50k or even $100k for a few years with no fall back position. They are much better off playing with other developing kids for a shot at a huge signing bonus at the end of three to four years and a college degree to boot.

 

How do you find a girlfriend like this? It's almost not fair to normal women.

Of course, not all guys are golfers I suppose.

 

And I don't disagree with you. But to a 18-yr old, "they have it made right now" feels very different from having $3k showing up in your bank account each month -- especially when the employer is paying for online classes towards an AA or BA.

 

Don’t assume that the NCAA will stick to the current deal if they were actually competing with another option. If they need to adjust the rules so players have a little walking around money rather than lose talent to a competitor the NCAA will decide that adjusting the economics is a lot better than losing the ESPN deal.

If I’m the only game in town and you just have to accept whatever I say is fair the odds are that will be significantly less than what I think is fair if I have to worry about real competition.

 

I don't think a minor league football league would even have to be profitable to pay players a good salary. G League pays its best players a six figure salary for the year before they go into the NBA. Of course, the G League is subsidized by the NBA to groom its next crop of great players. Given the uncertainty of football (injuries can happen anytime and end your career) if you are a 5* guy and can earn six figures for a couple of years and earn your AA degree from a JC while doing it, why wouldn't you? The top HS basketball talent is going to the G League and its only going to increase given the NCAA greed.

 

These are good points. I have no problem with letting the market work all this out. I'm not sure how easy it would be for a player in a minor league team to go to JC. It would require a lot of discipline and I have to believe any player that sees the value of the degree would just stick with the current college scholarship option.,

 

Why would the XFL pay for their education? It defeats the purpose of having a minor league system.

 

You are comparing apples and washing machines...
Football teams can only play so many games; they have 10 times more players than basketball teams, and the percentage of HS grads physically ready for the nfl compared to the nba is also probably about 10 to 1, if not more.
A football minor league would be an abject failure from day 1.

 

Well, it is certainly not a slam dunk or we would already see it. But candidly, if you are right, this just goes to prove the point that there really is not much of a "market" to pay players below the NFL level. All we have currently is a bunch of people trying to extort the colleges because they "feel" like they should be paid.

 

I think you make good points. What would likely happen, in reality, is that the XFL, if it were smart, would just recruit and pay the best college athletes from the universities. In other words, go to guys like Slovis, Trevor Lawrence, etc., after their sophomore season and tell them "guys, you aren't going to graduate anyway, instead of playing your junior year for free, we will pay you $250k, give you access to the best trainers and you can focus 100% on football. If you wanto to continue your education, we have a partnership with the university of phoneix or hell, with the money we are paying you, if you want to continue your education after the year in our league you have the money to do so." Why would a minor league football league be limited to recruiting high school players? Can you imagine college all star teams playing each other? To me, more football is better than less football.