When I was a kid, school hadn’t been invented yet, but we walked there anyway. And we were barefoot.
Illinois 27, Maryland 24 Postgame
Could someone brilliant at Illinois invent an app so I could easily sync audio from my phone?
Seconded. I can’t tell you how often I want to rewind a play or pause to get a beer but I can’t because I’d have to spend 10 minutes perfectly re-synching the audio again.
MustangWally
- Mayfield
Sync My Game
LEARFIELD is the leader in college sports audio. Listen to the local radio broadcasts alongside televised games with Sync My Game.
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Methinks expectations, realities and resulting attitudes have changed over the years. The word "deserve" is used everywhere and often these days.
Expectations and attitudes have certainly changed but reality has not. There’s still a paradox at play. Focus too much on immediate compensation and compensation will suffer.
Retired now but I always counseled promising employees (and my son) to focus on becoming the first guy your boss turns to in a crisis, the most dependable problem-solver on the team. Do that and your career and earnings take care of themselves. Trusted high performers are scarce and very highly valued, so make yourself the object of bidding wars.
Or focus on your “deserved” salary and promotions and be prepared for disappointment. Whiners are abundant.
You magnificent son of a gun. Thank you.Sync My Game
LEARFIELD is the leader in college sports audio. Listen to the local radio broadcasts alongside televised games with Sync My Game.
College football players of the Future (?)... get a spanking new Benzo (each year)... free Chipotle for life (and for five of their best friends)... and a million dollars spending money (as requested). And College Coaches? Don’t even ask...
But seriously, people should always be compensated for the value they bring to the workplace/venue. Sports (the paying-customer kind) is a meritocracy where the best players should and do receive the best compensation.
College and pro sports continues to grow because it is perhaps the last true reality TV that is actually unscripted and unpredictable (and Live) that still draws lots of viewers. Advertisers are even more drawn to this with the collapse of scripted dramas and other forms of traditional network TV programming. They want to reach the greatest number of people the quickest way they can... and Live Viewing Sports is the way. That means paying huge media contracts for viewing rights (which goes into lots of pockets that are not ‘players’).
And why do The People tune in? To see The Players. So, Players provide the value that drives this whole engine. And they need their due.
This entire trend is likely to continue until the money/fee structure finally gets so high that it can no longer sustain itself that way. But -- for example -- with the four great new entries coming into the Big Ten... this will grow the Conference in many ways to levels never seen before... in future fan interest and overall revenue.
Doom and gloom, or a foretelling of the end of college football? NCAA President Speaks to Congress
"Baker said athlete representatives from all three NCAA divisions have stated they do not want to be employees of their schools. He also warned that without congressional action, Division II and III schools might abandon their athletic programs."
I would guess that Div. 1 would not be too far behind if that happened . . .
Correct. Massive media money funding an escalating talent auction creates “employee athletes” in a shrinking number of what effectively become minor league teams. The remaining programs, stuck with mere “student athletes”, must then die off as they can’t compete for talent with the pros.
I hate everything about the current NIL environment. Many years ago I felt the NCAA (whoever that is) was makinga huge mistake. Which is no revelation. Their sham attempts at controlling illegal maneauvers, that they would never be able to stop, only impacted the lesser of the participants in violatios. Instead of fixing the problem that even kids on full scholarship may not be able to afford to live likea colleg student. Not permitted to have part ime jobs, but required to give some number of hours each week to the team (IDK, 20-25 hours), which was proably violated as well. The NCAA and Universities should have recognized it was appropriate to compensate these sudent athletes that are helping to generate revenue. They should have been compensated on some short of ubiqitous guideline fair for all. Maybe using minimum wage, class payscale, whatever, to make it easier for these athletes to live in colleg without looking for the handouts. I also think the athletes freedom to change programs should have been easier. It did not need NIL money, just reasonable guidelines.
I am not naive enough to think that violations and payments would still occur, and I am also certain they still do. College athletics that I enjoyed with the loyalty to your team and interest in following the indvidual and team progress/regress is long gone. I don't even care any longer to watch recruiting, and certainly not the transfer portal. I don't know how it can be fixed, but maybe most people like this new environment. IDK?
I have been an Illini diehard fan since 1976. I recently told some family members in a dscussion about this topic that, "if the Illini had five transfer portal players in the same year, with one year of eleigibility, that went on to win a National Championship, I wouldn't give a !!!!".
College Sports has already served as a quasi-minor league or a farm team to the Pros for many generations. The Employee Athlete structure just makes it all above-board and official without the silly and disingenuous acting of programs like it isn't so.
Power League schools can evolve into the full-blown Farm Team model. Non-Power schools and lower College divisions can continue their sports programs as a lower and more true student-athlete level... with the much greater emphasis on Student and the much lesser emphasis on Athlete. They don't even have to try to compete with the Power Big boys to have a basic level sports program of other schools in the same boat.
Fans are also somewhat reponsible for this trend. Lots of people tune in to see the Big Ten and SEC and Notre Dame... and just yawn when someone else is on the tele. Not the true football or sports fans... but much of the general public. So fans in that regard are also feeding the Beast.
For me, I'm frankly sick of watching certain programs all the time. I find it enjoyable and refreshing to watch the Wyomings and the Fresnos and U of Texas at San Antonios and the like.
Good points RS, I'll offer the following. College sports functioned as an unofficial farm system for football and basketball not because of anything the NCAA or universities did, it was a direct result of market manipulation by the NFL and NBA who attempted to limit by corporate fiat against entry into the marketplace by college and high school athletes.
There's a reason that minor league football and basketball essentially don't exist, at least on a National scale - people don't want to watch them or attend games because the product isn't very good - everything from the quality of play to the fan experience. College football and basketball are successful because they tie alumni (mostly) to their alma mater. There was always this "belief" that the athletes had some form of affection towards the university they played for, even if at the time it wasn't true. If the athletes become employees, this belief in that affinity is lost, and then how long will it be before top level college football and basketball are a thing of the past? Most Div.1 (and some lower division) athletes in football and basketball (not all, but most) see college as their only route to the NFL and NBA, which is essentially correct. Take away the restrictions imposed on entrance into the NBA and NFL, and what would happen? An interesting scenario worthy of examination in light of NIL and the portal. . .
And for those who bemoan the scholarship athletes who couldn't enjoy a typical college lifestyle, I invite them to interview some of my classmates, one of which who carried a full engineering student workload while working two part time jobs to pay his expenses (one being a janitor/cook in a sorority house in exchange for housing). Or another who carried a full course load while working full time and being a single mom to two kids. they would have cut their arm off to receive a full ride, special housing, tutors, all meals and expenses paid, in return for only 20-25 hrs a week of outside effort. There was and is significant value to a college athletic scholarship, just ask the 43.5 million Americans who carry and average of $37,000 student load debt today ((Source). I was lucky, I only had to enlist and served my first seven years in the military in exchange for the GI Bill, which enabled me to be the first in my family to graduate from college (with no college debt on top of that).
My $0.02, but I think it what we know and love as college football and basketball is on a downward slope with only one conclusion. That's not saying they won't exist, but it won't be college athletics any more.
An incredible deal, back then and especially today.
Then consider they can get up to 5 years of it, paving a leisurely academic path for promising redshirt athletes. Imagine 12 credit hour semesters! A degree served up on a silver party platter, for only 20-25 hours per week? Sign me up!
For the vast majority, including many of those who make the NBA or NFL, the degree will generates most of their lifetime earning power. It’s an especially great deal for the majority who will never make the pros.
There are two things at play here.
Number One is the method of how players relate to their institutions and the overall structure of league play and various levels of competition.
Number Two is the GAME itself... the court skills of the players and style of play and how the sport is being competed in general.
For me, I am most concerned with second thing. The Number One Stuff will sort itself out over time. But the Number Two stuff is what matters to me as a ball ‘purist’. I want to see guys who respect the Game and give it their all. I want to see energetic defense and crisp, well-run offense. While I enjoy the Long Ball, I do not want to see endless Threes going up like in today’s NBA. And I most certainly do not want to see guys posing and prancing around like peacocks when they make a simple good play.
Just play the game with energy and respect and good fundamentals. All the other off-court issues will resolve themselves fine as long as the soundness of how the Game is being played is well maintained.
And as far as affection for their institution... regular alums are mostly going to have most of the affection there. Players at the top level just want a shot at the Big Time and pretty much don't care which route they take to get there,
It all depends on the 'affection' factor. For those who prioritize the affection thing, yes the Game in the future will lose its innocense and some of its charm.
But I think a lot of that 'charm' was just wishful thinking on the part of many alums. As I said above, I think in most cases the best athletes have looked at the college experience in one way and goal... and alums always look it another way. There will always be some percentage of athletes who do have honest affection for where they played ball. But if it comes down to getting your shot at the Big Time vs. Love for School... probably the BIg Time wins.
Non-athletes who go to an institution and live in their given State will always have a connection and loyalty to those places. That will always generate interest for them in that institution regardless of anything else going on.... or where they might move to and live (as seen by Illini Nation around the World).
For you Italy (and all others), I hope you can continue to find joy in watching the games and following your Beloved.