College Football players are trying unionize

[Vidor]

The NFL and NBA have minor-league systems that they don't pay a dime for. They certainly have no incentive to change the status quo.

As far as the "student-athlete", anyone who believes in that, or amateurism in general, should read "The Shame of College Sports" by Taylor Branch.

[pioneer98]

Does someone here think that the major universities are looking to divest themselves of big time athletics?

Think they want minor league football and basketball to replace college sports?

That's what I want yes, but I know it will never happen.

There might be a chance for a "hybrid" solution where the teams could keep their names and have some kind of looser affiliation with a university. No one is saying giving these kids scholarships is a bad thing. Its just that they probably should get more than that, too.

[pioneer98]

Does someone here think that the major universities are looking to divest themselves of big time athletics?

Think they want minor league football and basketball to replace college sports?

They most certainly do not. But it's not major universities' fault that college sports is pretty much the only option for football and basketball players whose only real interest is going to the pros. I suspect that group of players isn't as large as popular narrative suggests, but they do exist. And the pro leagues made the rules making college sports the only avenue for those kids, not the colleges.

Yes, you are spot on. It is the pro leagues that forced this situation to arise. They don't want to have to pay 18 year old prospects a lot of money that might bust, like MLB does.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Does anyone really think a minor league system would have 1/5 the support/revenue that NCAAF has? People aren't fans of players, they're fans of universities...most of the times it is universities they have grown up supporting or went to school at/graduated from. The support exists regardless of the players, sometimes in spite of the actual players.

A minor league system wouldn't have that. For players to actually profit from this, it'd have to stay at colleges with the support and they'd either have to be paid by boosters directly or the entire principle behind Title IX as I understand it would have to be blown up.

[pioneer98]

Does anyone really think a minor league system would have 1/5 the support/revenue that NCAAF has? People aren't fans of players, they're fans of universities...most of the times it is universities they have grown up supporting or went to school at/graduated from. The support exists regardless of the players, sometimes in spite of the actual players.

A minor league system wouldn't have that. For players to actually profit from this, it'd have to stay at colleges with the support and they'd either have to be paid by boosters directly or the entire principle behind Title IX as I understand it would have to be blown up.

That's why I'm saying some kind of hybrid might work. The team would still have some kind of association with the college and the college could even offer scholarships still. But why not let the players be pros?

Normal students often get to do internships usually where they get paid while they are still in college. The internships are in their field of study, even (yes, some are unpaid which is a crock, too, but a lot of internships are paid jobs). They don't get expelled for getting a paid internship in their field. It is actually something that is encouraged. Why can't athletes get paid? They are basically interning to be pros someday. Why is this such a radical concept?

[Jocephus]

vote taken place

http://espn.go.com/chicago/college-foot ... e-athletes

[ntexascardfan]

Does anyone really think a minor league system would have 1/5 the support/revenue that NCAAF has? People aren't fans of players, they're fans of universities...most of the times it is universities they have grown up supporting or went to school at/graduated from. The support exists regardless of the players, sometimes in spite of the actual players.

A minor league system wouldn't have that. For players to actually profit from this, it'd have to stay at colleges with the support and they'd either have to be paid by boosters directly or the entire principle behind Title IX as I understand it would have to be blown up.

That's true up to a point, however, there is also a quality element that is involved.

The vast majority of college football fans are the people that tune in on a Saturday and don't have a personal investment in the team. They didn't graduate from the school nor do they have a close family member who attends. For those fans, the quality of play is significantly more important that it is to a diehard whose a 4th generation alumni. I'm just speculating, but I imagine those fans who do not have personal ties are not as "sticky" as the fans with a personal investment in the team. I'd also imagine those fans would have an interest in a minor league football team that developed talent for their favorite NFL team.

For as popular as college football is, the NFL is still much more popular. It'd be hard for me to believe that a minor league NFL system would not draw fan interest. It'd at least give Browns fans something to look forward to.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

To a certain degree, yes, people just want to see football. But from where im standing, it's all about the name on the front of the jersey. Sure, people will watch other games if they're good, but its having a team, even a [expletive] one, in the conversation that draws em in.

[pioneer98]

I guess I'd like to see basketball and football go to development models like hockey, especially the Canadian form of it.

In hockey the very best players age 16-20 go to the top tier junior leagues. Those kids can get paid in juniors and the world keeps spinning. Those kids can also even get drafted by NHL teams and continue playing juniors. The NHL team can keep their rights for a while as they continue playing juniors before deciding whether to sign them to an NHL contract. Then when they get signed, they most likely go to an affiliated team in the AHL, or maybe the ECHL. Junior hockey is HUGELY popular in Canada and I don't see why the NCAA could not fill this same kind of role in the USA. The other thing is that Canada has way less strict standards about switching between pro and college. Those kids can switch back and forth between college and pro way more easily than in the USA.

So for basketball this would not change much. Already, the best players either skip college entirely or only go for a year or two. That's with our current system. Basically under the kind of system I'm talking about above there might just be another couple dozen players that maybe leave college early due to getting drafted and a contract by the NBA, and then they play in the D-League a year or two instead of college for a year or two.

In football it could be a more drastic change since there really is no minor league at all right now. Or maybe it wouldn't be that drastic either. Maybe the extra players that they could draft would generally be upper-classmen, and they just let them play out their last year before signing them. But injuries are so much more of a problem in football that kind of screws the kids, too. "Yeah we drafted him but then he got hurt so we're not going to sign him" could happen. But if college could pay kids then at least the kid made something before he got hurt (aside what he got from the bagmen). Oh, and you know what would be perfect for that kind of player (highly touted, but injured and now ineligible for college) to try to make a comeback? A minor league.

Honestly, as short as NFL careers already are and as often as injuries occur you'd think they'd have a minor league just to have a pool of players to draw from. I understand they keep guys on some kind of "practice roster" or something right now for this purpose. But will that always be the mindset? I don't know.