Are they taking the Student out of "Student Athlete?"

The irony is that the phrase “student athlete” was an ncaa concoction so that the schools didn’t have to mpay players or give them insurance, abide by fair labor laws etc since they weren’t employees by that definition.
Had the ncaa been honest and fair from day 1 this likely would have been resolved decades ago.

And now for the last 15 years in particular, schools have become borderline parasitic on the billions they make off these kids, with no consideration along the way for the people actually generating the money. Coaches can make 8 million or more, athletic departments have operating budgets up over 100 million in many cases (UF is north of 140 million), lazy rivers (Baylor and UCF), space age locker rooms LSU), 500 million dollar stadium upgrades (A&M) etc, and players were supposed to be happy they got an education and a 5k stipend.

it’s messy and needs cleaning up, but the schools and ncaa are getting exactly what they deserve. Their greed put us here.

 

That's why many of these semi-pro players have tutors to take care of their classes for them. I don't think it was no coincidence that Joe Burrow admitted in the interview after the NC game that he never stepped foot on the LSU campus other than to go to practice.

 

They’re not trying to create a minor league, the schools fought this and lost. “They” didn’t put this “system” in place. This is what they got for fighting it instead of trying to get out in front of it. Kids sued, feds say they can make money, this is what we got. It will be almost impossible to regulate at this point. There is no “system”, it’s just a free for all, and that’s what it’s going to be until another league is formed.

 

Maybe instead of the USFL we need the USFSPL, just keep it out of colleges.

 

But wasn’t that because he only took online classes?

 

You say this like they see this as a problem.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

The student athlete is still there, even if amateur athletics is largely a D2 and D3 thing. The majority of the kids in our football program value the degree (probably not a supermajority, but a majority), and are thinking about careers after football. If it weren't the "Gator Made" program wouldn't be worth marketing to high school kids.

I don't like what NIL is doing to the sport, though the athletes should get a share of the revenue. We need some kind of parity enforcing mechanism, but I have no idea how to create that. The proleagues have a draft and salary caps, but neither seem workable for college (forcing a kid to FSU seems immoral, and NIL is divorced from program revenue). I don't have any ideas, but we need something.

 

It's not the failt of a kid to get paid like anyone else that works and goes to school. There's a big difference, however, because in the case or athletic schlorships, kids (to various degrees) attend class to play so a business can make money whereas normal people work (to some degree or another) so they can attend class and work elsewhere to hell a company money. The whole student athelete model is upside down.

 

That's my point. Anyone can sit at a computer somewhere and do the work. There's already plenty of stories about prewritten papers and tests floating around.

 

If that’s the case, it is more an indictment of online education than NCAA athletes. Anyone can cheat in that context, right?

But the athletes don’t necessarily do it to avoid work (anymore than I did as an undergrad, lol). It is more about schedule flexibility and avoiding the rabble.

The story behind online classes and why college athletes like Joe Burrow take them

 

It'll just lead to more and more 30 for 30 stories like former UA linebacker Keith McCants. Get a little money, spend it like there is an unlimited supply, and end up broke with no or little education to fall back on. The younger they are (and more naive), the more likely they will mismanage their money or be taken advantage of by others.

I have no idea whether a little taste of $$ in College would reduce the desire to get a degree, but based on how many athletes already don't, my guess is that it will.

 

Good article that goes into many different views of online learning. None of them go very deep but its a good intro to someone who hasn't spent much time wondering if learning really matters any more.

 

I remember being amazed by that story. At the time, people were posting that most of the athletes attended on line classes. The sad part is those kids never become part of the campus experience and they miss out on so much.

 

Makes me throw up when the NCAA basketball tournament and when interviewing players call them “student-athletes “ What a friggin joke . Even Cardozo does it when referring to the players . This ceased to be true many years ago . It’s a joke