Jon Bol signs trading card deal with Topps

Good points @gatordavisl ... I know "student fees" have become a fast-rising mandatory surcharge on college costs. I wonder if your $10M nets out the money coming in the other direction from these fees.

 

Regardless of who it goes to....college sports is a 15+ billion dollar industry that is driven solely by the players. The players deserve to be paid for their likeness when they are the proverbial cash cow.
I have a friend who played offensive lineman for Penn State pre NIL deals. He started multiple years. Sure he got a free education and that isn't anything to sneeze at. He also got multiple concussions, toradol shots that led to seizures and an ER visit, and plenty of persistently achy joints. All for amateur athletics. I have no problem with the idea that a player in his position now can be in an advertisement for the local donut shop and get some extra cash or go to the local card shop and sign cards for a fat check.
At the end of the day football has turned into a very lucrative source of entertainment. It is a far cry from how intercollegiate athletics started pre-television days. I lament that it has forced players to the highest bidder but at the end of the day, I don't think my "right" to watch amateur sports trumps the players "right" to make a living from their talent.

 

The athletic department is part of the university. The athletic department’s revenue in the last year was approximately $200 million.

 

No college = no billion + industry and the college is getting a minuscule portion of the $ while providing an invaluable resource/product. Players getting paid for their likeness is an interesting conundrum. How valuable would their likeness be w/o the Gator/Bama/OSU logo? I propose that that the player's likeness value is nonexistent in lieu of the university. I'm not expressing any right to watch, so maybe you can clarify your meaning there. Please understand, too, that I'm not trying to be argumentative. I place a certain value on the education provided and feel very strongly about that, in addition to my disappointment about players signing and leaving before they even step on campus, not to mention the other weirdness.

 

Sure, but the athletic association operates as a separate fiscal entity. The university is only getting a small portion.

 

And if they spent $200M on athletics only their net contribution to the University as a whole would be bupkis.

 

If the players are now contractors for the NIL groups who pay them , is it time to start taxing their scholarship values?

 

Then you’d have to hit up every other kid on scholarship too. The whole reason is NIL stuff made it through the courts was to put athletes on the same playing field with all the other students. Start taxing the athletes for this kinda stuff, and all the other students are going to pay too.

 

The University of Chicago was a HUGE college football powerhouse way back when. They were the original Monsters of the Midway. Amos Alanzo Stagg was the head coach.

And then the university got rid of their football program because it was too much about money.

That was in 1939 way before TV contracts.

They left the Big Ten a few years later.

 

Your statement is patently false. I attended Binghamton University as an undergraduate. Binghamton is an exceptional academic university in an exceptional state university system. So, why doesn’t Binghamton have a widespread national reputation? The answer is pretty obvious. The sports programs at Binghamton suck So, the name, recognition that Michigan, Florida, UCLA, North Carolina, and many, many other big-time sports programs have, doesn’t exist at Binghamton. Does that make a difference for the universities? It absolutely does. I can assure you that Binghamton is at least as good an academic institution as is the university of Florida. however, because of the lack of a sports program, on a per-student basis, Binghamton is going to get less non-sports contributions, less students are going to apply for admission to the university, etc. The foregoing does not take into account the value to athletes to attend UF and the other major sports schools. Their experiences and financial assistance, including nil money) is going to change where their children live, the education their children are going to get, etc. Then, we get to the pleasure that students, staff, alumni and the families of alumni get out of rooting for their sports programs. For many people, school is a whole lot better when you have the opportunity to watch and root for your school’s sports teams.

 

My post was about direct, tangible benefits to the University rather than intangible or potentially tangible benefits of having a sports program.

 

If I'm not mistaken, they are still part of the "Academic Big 10" which pre-existed the sporting conference. I don't know if they are still HUGE, but they are an academic powerhouse.

https://www.usnews.com/best-college...sity+of+chicago&_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

 

I agree that $200 million-$200,000,000 equals zero. However, it does not equal bubkis. I got an MBA from UF ( Masters in Bupkis Administration), and I can tell you with absolute certainty that bupkis takes into account the intangible benefits of things.

 

Sorry for going Jean Paul Sartre, but nobody knows if a different choice would lead to a better or worse outcome. Happy for you that your outcome is one you are happy with

 

Binghamton was once a household name, watched by millions on TV. Way more than UF back in the day.

 

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