Former Gopher MarQueis Gray on college athletes: I just think they should be paid

BleedGopher

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Former Gopher Kendal Shell chimes in:

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Go Gophers!!
 

At the very least the players need a player's union... or something like it.

There's nobody in the current system who is there to advocate for the player's best interests without a conflict of interest of their own.
 

At the very least the players need a player's union... or something like it.

There's nobody in the current system who is there to advocate for the player's best interests without a conflict of interest of their own.

I think that's a great start, I don't see it possible though to pay the players in any sport.. if you pay one sport you'd have to pay the rest including some of the smaller ones, but how would the money be portioned out? A lot of players spend their monthly check stupidly so I personally don't see why they would need to get paid, they get everything they need especially with the new athlete village cafeteria and per diem. I think they should go through more financial classes put on by the athletic department on how to manage their money and things like that.
 

I'd like to see how much NCAA football players would get paid in a free market.

The big time schools would pay a lot but how much money would a Minnesota have to pay if they weren't being subsidized by the bigger players in the Big Ten? In reality Q might not have made much.
 


Does Marquis think all college athletes should get paid? Title IX isn't gonna let you pay just the moneymakers. So what does that mean? It means many, man, many schools will just cut their athletic programs. So then back to...

@MarQueisG
Sports are the only hope for SOME if not most kids got to making out the situation they’ve grown up in. FACTS

A lot of kids will lose out on the chance at college, but a few in big programs will make a little more money. In the neighborhood of minor league baseball money.

@MarQueisG
Or how about without the athletes how much would the NCAA make?

The answer. The same amount as with no fans.
 

I'd like to see how much NCAA football players would get paid in a free market.

The big time schools would pay a lot but how much money would a Minnesota have to pay if they weren't being subsidized by the bigger players in the Big Ten? In reality Q might not have made much.

Start a minor league and pay them.
 

I'd like to see how much NCAA football players would get paid in a free market.

The big time schools would pay a lot but how much money would a Minnesota have to pay if they weren't being subsidized by the bigger players in the Big Ten? In reality Q might not have made much.

The truth is probably not much. Also if it is truly a free market will pay players all over the map. Most guys aren't worth a salary plus their tuition. It also begs the question of why would a free market system pay for a players tuition if they were not worth it football wise? The fact of the matter is that if you can't allow just the parts of the free market you like and not the parts you don't.
 

Start a minor league and pay them.


Yup.

The institutions and the institution that is college football brings fans more than the player talent does.
Honestly if you put Alabama and Clemson’s rosters in San Diego fleet jerseys to play against the San Antonio AAF team...the rating isn’t a third of the national championship game.


That doesn’t help the players argument in my mind.
 



The truth is probably not much. Also if it is truly a free market will pay players all over the map. Most guys aren't worth a salary plus their tuition. It also begs the question of why would a free market system pay for a players tuition if they were not worth it football wise? The fact of the matter is that if you can't allow just the parts of the free market you like and not the parts you don't.

Yup.

For 80-90% of athletes they are worth less in revenue to the university than the scholarship they are given.

Probably even less than that
 

Apparently I was wrong with my thinking. Due to the fact that players work out year round, I was thinking that the food was available for the players. Perhaps this would be a start.
 

Apparently I was wrong with my thinking. Due to the fact that players work out year round, I was thinking that the food was available for the players. Perhaps this would be a start.

They do get food year round, with the new cafeteria, or if that isn't open the team caters in meals
 

They do get food year round, with the new cafeteria, or if that isn't open the team caters in meals

So is this a new thing? Quote below from one of his tweets.

All I’m saying is the breakfast bagels and the training table meal (night time) had to be stretched and depended on like no other when i was at the U! Don’t let me get started on the what it was like on the weekends when no training table was offered when the season was as over

14
9:23 AM - Feb 21, 2019
 



So is this a new thing? Quote below from one of his tweets.

All I’m saying is the breakfast bagels and the training table meal (night time) had to be stretched and depended on like no other when i was at the U! Don’t let me get started on the what it was like on the weekends when no training table was offered when the season was as over

14
9:23 AM - Feb 21, 2019

Yeah it's a new thing, they also have the players lounge that is fully stocked with sandwhiches and whatnot... also don't get me started about the team outing dinners to Fogo de Chao, lol
 

Yeah it's a new thing, they also have the players lounge that is fully stocked with sandwhiches and whatnot... also don't get me started about the team outing dinners to Fogo de Chao, lol

If I remember right in season they get all meals B,L,D offseason(summer) they get at least 1 or 2. But with the scholarship check they get which is around 2,000 a month for living expenses they stupidly spend the money instead of food.. so it's kinda their own problem
 

They are paid, and quite nicely when you look at college debt. If you do any more than increase their stipend at little, it would destroy college athletics. If players insist on being paid, they can step aside. Kids would lineup to take their spot.
 

They are paid, and quite nicely when you look at college debt. If you do any more than increase their stipend at little, it would destroy college athletics. If players insist on being paid, they can step aside. Kids would lineup to take their spot.

It's like saying Lebron gets paid too much, I'd take his spot for 50k, problem is, no one is interested in watching someone who can't dunk and gets winded after running(walking) up the court a couple of times. Not taking a side on if they should get paid or not, but college sports needs future pro's aspect to continue it's popularity, otherwise you only get people watching their own teams, what reason would anyone watch blueblood outside of their fans if they don't have future pros on their team. I watch a lot of high school basketball but I only watch it to check out future college recruits, not because I care about said schools, that would be same case at college level.
 
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They make the schools a lot of money. There should be a tiered payment system of stipends. I know they get stipends, but it should be more when there likeness, and jerseys are marketed. Some of what the stipend should be should be put in escrow, like savings,so they have something when they leave or graduate. Seems with all the money involved from TV revenue to game tix it would be more fair if there was payment system.
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So is this a new thing? Quote below from one of his tweets.

All I’m saying is the breakfast bagels and the training table meal (night time) had to be stretched and depended on like no other when i was at the U! Don’t let me get started on the what it was like on the weekends when no training table was offered when the season was as over

14
9:23 AM - Feb 21, 2019

Yes it’s a new thing as of a few years ago.

It used to be that the NCAA was going to ridiculous levels to make sure improper benefits weren’t being given to players, and that went to food too. So schools were being very careful how much food they gifted to student-athletes.

Then some stories came out of players basically starving over the weekend, etc and it looked terrible. They changed the rule and now it essentially allows schools to gift unlimited amounts of food to student-athletes.

I don’t know exactly the situation at the U, or how the accounting works, but if it wanted to, the U could let every player on the team come to the athletes village dining hall 21 times a week, as well as walking off with to-go meals, snacks, shakes etc for literally zero out of pocket cost.

I doubt they go to that level of extreme, but guessing it’s a fair amount of expense that isn’t being accounted for in the players’ scholarships!
 

Here’s the sad thing about all of this: it’s 100% fake.

I’m talking about amateurism. The literal backbone that the NCAA is built on and prides itself on.

It’s fake. It was conjured our of thin air, in England, to discriminate against the working class. Factory workers were beating the wealthy kids in sports, like rowing. So the wealthy conjured up “amateurism”, meaning that if you were being paid (ie, a factory worker) then you weren’t noble enough to be allowed to compete against a “true” sportsman who wasn’t being paid (an “amateur”). Voila, problem solved.


So ... my vote is, even if student athletes were only paid exactly the value of their current scholarships, and had to turn around and pay most of that right back to the school for tuition etc, THAT would be an ethically and morally superior, more just system than what we have now.
 

They make the schools a lot of money. There should be a tiered payment system of stipends. I know they get stipends, but it should be more when there likeness, and jerseys are marketed. Some of what the stipend should be should be put in escrow, like savings,so they have something when they leave or graduate. Seems with all the money involved from TV revenue to game tix it would be more fair if there was payment system.
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Do colleges make a big profit on athletics? Do you have numbers? I thought most were basically breaking even after paying all their expenses (including funding all the non-revenue sports).
 

Do colleges make a big profit on athletics? Do you have numbers? I thought most were basically breaking even after paying all their expenses (including funding all the non-revenue sports).

Yes. Because donations to athletics are huge.

Do you think all these athletic programs would exist if they were breaking even? That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.

They pay coaches millions but break even? LOL
 

Per the tours I’ve been on the athletes village cafeteria is only open a few days per week. I can’t remember exactly but they aren’t having 21 meals per week there.

Not saying they are starving, just that they don’t eat every meal there.
 

Per the tours I’ve been on the athletes village cafeteria is only open a few days per week. I can’t remember exactly but they aren’t having 21 meals per week there.

Not saying they are starving, just that they don’t eat every meal there.

That does not surprise me. Also would not be surprised if the bean-counters made sure to essentially “charge” the athletes for the food they take at the AV dining hall, in some way, perhaps deducting its value from their scholarships, rather than straight up gifting it.
 

Yes. Because donations to athletics are huge.

Do you think all these athletic programs would exist if they were breaking even? That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.

They pay coaches millions but break even? LOL


Even if a donation is specifically for athletics, the school can account it as a donation to the school, so that it doesn’t appear as revenue to the athletics dept. Similar to how we’ve talked about that all the revenue for stadium parking goes to a different dept at the U than athletics, and so on.

Schools are very much incentivized to make it look like athletics is just breaking even, even if that isn’t the case.
 

They are paid, and quite nicely when you look at college debt. If you do any more than increase their stipend at little, it would destroy college athletics. If players insist on being paid, they can step aside. Kids would lineup to take their spot.

They aren't paid.

If they give you a free meal at a wedding, they aren't paying you to go to a wedding.
 


Do colleges make a big profit on athletics? Do you have numbers? I thought most were basically breaking even after paying all their expenses (including funding all the non-revenue sports).

I think that's about right.

Having said that, I'm not sure revenue players should have to play to subside non revenue sports.... while coach's and administration rake it in.
 

It sounds good to some but a free market system in college football would be the nail in the coffin for MN ever achieving relevance. There are too many unintended consequences of these types of proposals to even go into at this early hour.

Did we ever learn if the AAF or XFL will allow direct entry from high school?
 

It sounds good to some but a free market system in college football would be the nail in the coffin for MN ever achieving relevance.

Depends. I could argue that it might actually lead to MN winning a national title in football again. How? Because it might be that the elite of the elite, top 15-20 or something college football programs, that are willing to pay whatever it takes, would break off from the rest of the P5. So MN could be more nationally competitive in the schools left behind.


Did we ever learn if the AAF or XFL will allow direct entry from high school?

That's not the issue, and it's not an answer to the actual issue.

The actual issue is that schools are making a lot of money on the two main revenue sports, and paying coaches and some admin a lot of money, while paying the players nothing. Allowing a few blue-chipper, lottery players to go directly pro out of high school doesn't change that.
 




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