You're looking at this from the wrong direction though. People will (for the most part) make better decisions with more information. Making a blanket 'GMs will suck no matter how much information you give them' statement doesn't mean that giving them more is somehow a bad thing.

Grunching: the solution is to keep it illegal for schools to pay the players but let boosters/sponsors do whatever they want.

Problem with disbanding the NCAA is it's never going to happen due to all the money currently behind it. As great as minor leagues in football and basketball sound that would be equivalent of the NCAA, there would be so much less money involved in those sports than the current NCAA version for many reasons. First is the built in alumni base/fan base, the huge stadiums which I doubt the schools would share, third is the huge TV deals that i doubt all the networks would die to be poisoned overnight due to NCAA sports disbanding. Let's be honest, NCAAF and NCAAB are so much bigger than minor league baseball for instance especially when it comes to TV viewership, ticket sales, etc. It is a business.

Personally I think teams should start setting up trusts for their players if they think they can't have the money while they are playing and the players should be incentives to stay longer by the schools thus I would make the trusts some sort of vesting situation like many jobs have with stocks. Much of the lesser non revenue sports need to be disbanded or at least severely reduced in spending--does the field hockey team really need to travel across country to play 1 game? These sports are where most of the revenue generating money is wasted currently although coaches, etc. get some of the money as well.

To the OPs question, both the NFL and NBA truly benefit from the current situation and I don't see why they would want anything to change any time soon. Most players who are valuable are getting ****ed in every sport including the NFL and NBA (caps, non guaranteed contracts). Why are things going to change because college kids are getting f'ed?

I do agree that rules like the one they got Manziel, Pryor for etc. are f'ing archaic. Players should be able to make money on their likenesses. Amateur status stuff is so stupid. The rules should be much more flexible such that the big time athletes benefit and the small time athletes can still benefit but for much less. This is basically how things are now, but just make everything legal like clark as stated. The only reason they have made it illegal is truly stupid.

Ineligible because he played intramural sports!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...173055162.html

I think the solution is for the NFL and NBA to have a minor league system. That way the kids that want/need to play for money can do that and the kids that want to play for free tuition can do that, seems to work good for baseball great players come from both.

nba does have a minor league system, it blows.

again, the huge costs associated with setting a minor league system up prevent it from being setup.

glen rice jr not going in the first round hurts the NBDL. all you need is a bunch of top recruit saying they want to go play in the NBDL and i am sure you would see much more converage

problem is the money blows in the NBDL. if players made bank like what they make in Europe or the NBA, we'd have no issue. top level NBDL players make almost nothing, travel like cattle, etc. the nba has little interest at putting serious bank into the project, it's essentially a cost. in order to fix it would take a ton of cash and a ton of risk. why ruin what they currently have? a huge, free minor league that's fully established, has a built in fanbase, huge TV contracts and huge arenas. only if the top, top players like wiggins, etc. would really attract people. even so, i'd much rather watch the NBA.

Northwestern Football players are attempting to start a union to represent college football and basketball players called the "College Athletes Players Association."

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...96--ncaaf.html

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...in-labor-union


Thoughts? This will probably fail to ever be realized imo

NCAA quickly came out and said college athletics are voluntary, players arent employees and they are already compensated via tuition (lulz)

I like Clark's idea of just letting boosters and sponsors pay players. You figure that allowing players to do radio/TV ads for money, sign autographs, sell memorabilia, accept free meals/haircuts/loaner cars whatever plus cash boosters will pay for every TD or int would be more than enough.

People who argue against it because "how do we figure out how to fairly compensate the backup center???" are morons. Pay every player a base of like $2500 per year for football, 2000 basketball, 200 baseball or whatever and then add money for incentives. Maybe $50 per game started, 100 per TD/int, 25 per tackle or something. There's plenty of money and ways to divide it up, and even in a "worst case" where only big time football and basketball stars see money its still a lot better than everyone (officially) getting dick, even though today everyone 100% agrees that at least some players are getting paid.

"plenty of money" is being set on fire so lolwomen can also play sports

Don't know if this was already mentioned, but there's a pretty good documentary floating around, I think on Netflix, that covers this topic greatly. Called 'Schooled: The price of college sports'

Found it. Thanks. Now I have something to watch tonight.

I'm not 100% sure what Gottlieb and Bomani Jones have been bickering about for the past few hours or so but seems like they are touching on this topic on twitter

so...if college football and basketball players are deemed to be employed by the universities or colleges they attend, are they then liable for any taxes associated with the scholarships they were 'granted' by their 'employer'?

I am against them being paid for a multitude of reasons. However, I do think they should be able to have jobs, and earn money just like any other student as long as it does not interfere with their priorities. The colleges are offering them a stage to showcase their skills that they otherwise wouldn't have which is why kids will choose Alabama over Middle Tennessee State. The only thing I would pay the athletes for are sales of jerseys, or any other money made from their likeness.

You want a Texas A&M #2 jersey? $125. Oh, you want it to say Manziel on the back? That's $20 extra which goes to JFF. I wish they'd just do it that way. Plus find other ways to pay the kids.

It also allows the players to pick up a fanbase and thus makes the NBA more $$

The NBA, like the NFL, has a minor league that it doesn't have to pay for. They will do all they can to protect that and perpetuate the myth that universities make money off their athletic programs because publicly funded minor leagues (that's what Alabama's football program is) are a great thing if you own the Dallas Cowboys.

Is this the CFB offseason thread, or should we make it so?

NW Wildcats football players win bid to unionize

The NCAA will finally allow its student-athletes to..........eat a snack before bed.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/...es?division=d1

a huge victory since three free meals per day as part of their scholarship obviously wasnt enough. cant be expected to dine with and as sparingly as regular students do

Some of our players need to lay off the midnight snacks. Help us NCAA.

I think glen rice jr shot someone either outside the varsity or the cheetah, if he was eating at the dining hall that wouldn't have happened