march madness...

[limon]

ive been saying this http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl..._65230205/pg_1 forever. along w/ the barbaric treatment of gays, illegality of drugs/prostitution, new internet gaming laws and tax free status of churches in this country its one of the few things i cannot defend to my euro-friends ...does anyone disagree?

"establish a comprehensive athletes' bill of rights to ensure a nonexploitive context. At a minimum, it should include:

* The right to transfer schools. Athletes who do should be eligible to play the next school year, not be governed by the current stipulation that they must wait a year with no athletic scholarship aid.

* The right to a four-year scholarship, not the one-year renewable scholarship at the option of the coach, as is the current NCAA policy. Those athletes who compete for three years should be given an open-ended scholarship guaranteeing that they will receive aid as long as it takes to graduate.

* The rights that other college athletes have, such as freedom of speech, protections from the physical and mental abuse of authorities, privacy rights, and the fair redress of grievances. There should be an impartial committee on each college campus, separate from the athletic department, that monitors the behavior of coaches and the rules imposed by them on athletes to ensure that individual rights are guaranteed.

* The right to consult with agents concerning sports career choices.

* The right to make money from endorsements, speeches, etc. Walter Byers, former executive director of the NCAA, under whose reign many of these abuses abounded, has stated that athletes should have the same financial opportunities as other students, arguing that "The athlete may access the marketplace just as other students exploit their own special talents, whether they are musicians playing on weekends, journalism students working piecemeal for newspapers, or announcers for the college radio station filing reports for CNN radio."

[FoxwoodsFiend]

I think about the only people who would disagree with this (and the general idea that amateurism in college sports is a joke) are the people who benefit financially from exploiting college athletics. The rest of us just stomach it because not watching college sports is hardly an option.

[Ken_AA]

I disagree. College students who get free education because they can dunk a ball and then be quoted in the paper( as Nichols a guard for SU was today) saying things like "there is not nothing we can do about it" is all they need.

I'm paying my loans, they will never half to. Go Play in Europe if you don't like the rules.

With that said I just paid 500 bucks to a scalper for Duke tickets (2 on the floor) for tomorrow's game.

Ken

[cobrakai111]

Free education... who cares compared to billion dollar tv and merchandise contracts? That's like saying your job will offer you free lunch every single day as long as you don't accept a salary.

[Tron]

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Free education... who cares compared to billion dollar tv and merchandise contracts?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a legitimate comparison for what percentage of college athletes? I'm not really sure how it affects the arguments, but the fact is that the number of college athletes who have a realistic chance of landing million dollar endorsements is extraordinarily small.

[EMc]

Regarding benefits for the athletes,

There was an article in I think maxim last year where a reporter followed several Syracuse Basketball players. To summerize quickly the athletes were pretty much treated like royality around the campus. They didnt pay for anything, did what they please, when they pleased, and pretty much had the majority of the undergrad female population throwing themselves at them. While I do agree they should be paid, its not as if being an athlete comes without benefits.

[SonOfWestwood]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Free education... who cares compared to billion dollar tv and merchandise contracts?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a legitimate comparison for what percentage of college athletes? I'm not really sure how it affects the arguments, but the fact is that the number of college athletes who have a realistic chance of landing million dollar endorsements is extraordinarily small.

[/ QUOTE ]

I certainly agree that college athletes are exploited and that those landing the big time contracts is a super small percentage. But, don't you think that the ones that are the "most exploited", in terms of money generated for the NCAA, universities, etc., tend to be the best players, and subsequently, have a much more significant chance of landing those big time contracts? In other words, the ones that do contribute the most to the money generated have a pretty decent chance of ultimately landing some big time contracts in the pros.

[The Ocho]

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I'm paying my loans, they will never half to.


[/ QUOTE ]

money well spent.

[El Diablo]

limon,

I'll write something longer soon, but yeah, it's hard for any informed person to argue against the fact that big money college athletes are incredibly exploited. I have yet to hear an argument against this that isn't a total joke.

[MusashiStyle]

I think bball players should either have like 2.0 min GPA's or just not have them attend classes and get a degree at all. It seems like a sham to pass them off as "students" when in reality alot of them are only there as athletes.