John Oliver: March Madness and the Student Athlete

This limey git, as you called him, is married to an American women who is a veteran (joined Army immediately after 9/11) combat medic who served in Iraq for almost 2 years. She was awarded the Combat Medic Badge for her medical service while her unit was under fire. She now works for Vets For Freedom.

Also the limey git himself has done stand-up for American troops in Afghanistan.

That is some serious American hate if I ever saw it.

 

Who is taking offense? How is pointing out crumbling infrastructure or student-athlete pay 'trashing America'?

 

The NCAA is right up there with FIFA and the IOC in terms of business practices.

 

Oh you don't know. He's a right winger which entails believing that criticism of certain aspects of the state of the nation equals "trashing" the country unless if that criticism is directed at the Black part of the nation, then it isn't trashing the country, it's legitimate criticism.

 

His entire schtick is nothing but scolding us about what's bad about America (with no counterpoint). No thanks

The NCAA has competition (minor leagues, training academies, overseas play), and yet the best players still choose it (for now).

Why do athletes participate in NCAA if it's so awful? Oliver never squares that circle.

 

I would say that Fox News is more dedicated to their 'criticism' of the executive branch of the United States for the past 6 years but I don't see you b****ing about their shtick of 'trashing America'.

Oh... but that's legitimate criticism.

 

A lot of his show is making fun of global politics but yeah, it's an American show so he makes fun of America. Most comedy is making fun of things. I'm not sure how much political comedy you can do while complimenting the situation.

 

Because it doesn't need squaring.

Millions of people "choose" Comcast. It doesn't mean they're a great company.

Anybody who thinks the NCAA is an example of a free market at work is deliberately fooling themselves at this point.

 

You just countered your own argument by putting 'choose' in quotes.

 

Good lord almighty, since when does the NCAA break people into red and blue states allegiance?

I thought we all agreed that the NCAA was a corrupt turd of an institution. Those from the far right and far left of the spectrum can smell the NCAA a mile away.

The top execs are sniffing blow from the butts of hookers, while "student athletes" fret over the change for taco bell, and we're ready to argue if the system warrants any criticism? LOL.

Y'all should start that up in D&D I guess. I appreciate the OP sharing this, and I especially enjoyed the "March Sadness" video game at the end of the clip. Cheers.

 

Ask good ol' Commodore why this turned into a left vs right debate.

 

Because the salaries in the D-League aren't above $25K on a D-League contract; the general consensus is that you go to Europe to make money, but you go to the D-League to get a shot at the NBA. If the NBA subsidized D-League salaries to $50-75K, and there were dedicated affiliate teams to each NBA franchise, then I believe we'd see more competition between the NBADL and NCAA basketball.

 

Always the hillibillies on the right spewing their nonsense after listening to their radio propaganda. Shish !

 

D-League salaries are $25k because that's what players are worth in the D-League. There's simply not much revenue or profit to be generated there and all the players are completely replaceable. Subsidizing the salaries would be the opposite of the supposed NCAA problem. Instead of paying players less than they are worth, you'd be paying more than they are worth.

At the end of the day, players currently have 3 distinct choices - NCAA, D-League, and Europe. They are overwhelmingly choosing the NCAA, which means they are seeing more value in that choice than outsiders are seeing.

 

It's not hat hard, make it so they only get their money after they graduate, therefore the 1 and dones have a decision to come back

 

You could even prorate it to the economic success of their given program (i.e. football versus cross country) and the given athlete's contribution to it (minutes played, say, versus the average).

There is a very fair and sensible way through this, since less than 2% of football and basketball players are ever going to go pro.

 

A few things to consider:

1) Injuries (scholarships need to be guaranteed anyway)

2) If you get a big payday after you graduate, it would give schools incentive to kick the kids out for behavior/academic problems near the end.

3) Most one and dones won't be influenced by this at all. An NBA paycheck would probably dwarf anything the college would pay out.

 

I'm about as 'MURICAN as one can get. I'm a freedom loving guy who loves my guns, hates paying 32% taxes and who generally votes republican (even though I'd consider myself a constitutionalist/libertarian).

With that said, I think most of the cases John Oliver makes are extremely well argued. Are all of his points perfect or valid? Well, considering he only has 30 minutes a week to take on extremely complex topics - no... but it doesn't take away from the fact that he is making a difference, and in a good way.

Athletes participate in the NCAA because it provides opportunities they don't have... but that doesn't mean that it provides them with the opportunities that they deserve. Most think that "something is better than nothing," but that doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of people getting rich off of them putting their bodies and way of life on the line.

The NCAA does a lot of good, but at the end of the day they are a business and like all businesses they care more about the bottom line (and I'm a capitalist by the way).

Agreed on pretty much all fronts, especially about scholarships being guaranteed. This is on the NCAA as much as the school. Schools are limited on the number of scholarships they can give, so of course they are going to snatch them away if a kid has career or season ending injuries.

My take on all of it is that college athletes should receive a small allowance or per diem and additional funds can be added to a trust for continued education (medical, school, law school, masters, PHD, etc).