Let's Enjoy College Sports While We Still Can . . .

Well maybe the tennis players should get some $$ for Pong.

 

You said it, I said it... and millions of other people said it.

 

So, back pay when there never was pay is a thing? I'll be this goes all the way to the SCOTUS and these plaintiffs end up with some gaming rights deal... Lol. If there was no pay back then then how can you demand compensation for money that was never even negotiated in the first place. This sound more like reparations then back pay.

And we all wonder why we despise lawyers... Maybe we can blame the SCOTUS for not letting these kids get NIL money way back when. Lol... they opened up that Pandora's Box just recently, with their short sided ruling on NIL

Also, how can the schools and conferences be responsible for NIL money that is NOT tied to these conferences nor the schools?

No kid is legally getting profits from TV contracts, and that's where the school's and conferences revenue comes from, mostly. No money to the NIL is supposed to come from TV contracts. Nor can kids make any sort of percentage of that said revenue stream.

Back NIL pay before it was "invented?" Yeah, that even sounds like a scam...

 

I won't go back to describe what "amateurism" was mainly about. But anyways, it built a brand (I HATE that word!) and therefore loyalty. What it did not do was keep the finances - income and outflow - from getting out of hand. I am reminded of "the old days" in universities of some renown (I am talking about OLD days) when there was a conflict between two male persons, they took their grievances to the boxing ring (and I presume the wrestling circle in Native American tribes) and fought nobly and when a combatant won the contest, it was over and everyone knew who won and who lost. Really no different than a typical dog fight, and I mean a fight between two dogs on their own and not ones who have been programmed/abused by humans. I bring this up because it is pretty much how competitive sports manifested: who is superior to the other.

The problem is/was that while it is a sort of "watch the train wreck" kind of connotation to spectating, it is also a way of "supporting the superior talent", also known as deifying an entity. And so, on to the concept of profitable sports. And so, here we are today. Obviously, unless you are a Bama, UGa, Clemson, Oklahoma, OSU, and others fan, what we have today is not "noble fighting" but rather "might makes right" and even more, "the end justifies the means". This isn't to say it is patently immoral, just that it is natural.

Now we have the utter mess. The universities have hoarded the money based on a totally incompetent system because us fans have allowed it for our own self interests (mainly living vicariously). Let's not worry about what is the NCAA, just that it was at the right place at the right time and they are receiving too much credit (or blame) for what we had and now have. What I believe they are doing today is plainly an attempt to keep things "in their control" by causing WAY more chaos than necessary. Think about Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You have given up control of your corporation/business to a judge with the idea that it is the only viable way to go from the creditor rights and business resource maintenance mess to something akin to "workable" and everyone gets something but not everything. The alternative is to just close up shop in haste, lay everyone off, slip out of the country with ill gotten gains, and let the rest fight for the scraps like junkyard dogs. THAT is what the NCAA is basically doing. Not completely, they want everyone to see what COULD happen unless we "stay the course".

It isn't very pretty but it is real. And we WILL have change, we just don't know when and how violent. Just like the economy.