There's a market for a developmental league - it's called "the NCAA". Changing its wage structure so that the workers aren't screwed over as badly shouldn't affect the market for the NFLDL/NCAA
Their wages are the scholarships (according to this ruling). If they demand things that the school won't give, either because they aren't willing to share the "wealth" or they think it will result in NCAA penalties, and the players strike, why wouldn't they lose their scholarships? For a 5 star athlete at LSU or Bama, maybe there are tons of other opportunities. For a 2-3 star athlete at Northwestern, it's a pretty cummy outcome.
In a service and information-based economy, college has become a necessity for middle-class kids to retain the lifestyle and income they grew up with. And as kids have clustered into three or four lucrative fields, courtesy of two recessions, grades and prestige have become that much more valuable. Schools in general shouldn't need college athletics to retain or attract applicants, a deservedly pedigreed campus like Northwestern even less so. Though it was probably more due to the terrifying impact of organized crime at the time, Chicago removed this distraction and didn't lose a step in terms of prestige or demand.
Minor league football needs to be sponsored by industrial firms, police and the military, where there's money and an actual job to pay them, and the types of students who play can actually get training and skills that aren't statistically above their intellectual or vocational profile. The PhDs and Masters graduates subsidizing and recruiting black kids from southern and urban schools know they don't have a chance competing with 1200 - 1500 SAT kids and getting through a bachelor's program in four years doing two-a-days year round. The student body senses that as well which makes it that much more insidious.
Heh, you're presuming that Northwestern is the only school where NCAA football players are treated like employees. heh heh heh.
Not in the least. I'm presuming this won't take hold nationwide for a while. And it won't take hold in right to work states ever. It's a domino in the dismantling of the NCAA, but it's going to take a while for all those dominos to fall.
You miss the point entirely. No one is questioning Northwestern's ability to survive or even thrive. I started at NU before there was athletic success, and most of my classmates were incredibly smart and most were well-rounded enough to be fun. NU's prestige wasn't at risk because the sports programs were garbage. But after the Rose Bowl / Citrus Bowl years, there was a buzz on campus. It was more fun to follow the football team and there is a sense of school unity that is inspired by a good football or basketball team. It's an added bonus, and one that would be a shame to give up.
I don't think you truly understand the ramifications of whats going down. The consequences that flow from legal bodies calling a spade a spade are massive. Right to work or unions are the absolute least of the NCAA'S problems - the massive price fixing cartel, the ripping off of workers likenesses - the whole system is done and dusted once they become employees and the cartel is required to compete for their services with wages. The OP I was responding to seems to be just parroting herp-a-derp fox news style kneejerk logic: "derp unions bad break them derp" What's being broken here is the massively corrupt and exploitative NCAA cartel. Good riddance.
Nobody's asking you to give up anything; rather you're being asked to recognize the contributions of those who literally risk their lives for your enjoyment rather than the remora that otherwise siphon it off under the NCAA fictitious system.
If this unionization happens, as a Georgia native, I could sincerely say that this would temporarily or long term push the SEC away from its mild dominance...because they'd actually have to pay players to stay competitive...which rings in another big pink elephant...the states in the South VEHEMENTLY ANTI-Union.
I'm actually not disagreeing with you. This is the first step in calling athletes in revenue sports employees, and compensating them accordingly. That's the right thing. But there should be Unintended consequences. I'm not sure if those consequences will be: - marginal football programs get disbanded because they aren't worth the trouble and cost to the school, thereby preventing guys like Kain Colter and a lot of other unheralded HSers from getting a shot - negative implications for Title IX programs and other non revenue generating sports programs because there is less money sloshing around (and yes, it is going to this who deserve it) - something else all together Whatever it is, it will be messy along the way. With this much money at stake, the NCAA has every incentive to make this a disaster. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, though
If NCAA football becomes a bidding war for the best athletes, Northwestern won't be a part of it in the long run. That's fine, but it would take away something from the environment. The school will be fine, and the students don't deserve to get a free ride of the athlete's backs for a few hours of entertainment.
It already is a bidding war for athletes - it just gets put into fancy locker rooms and suchn now - this change merely redirects the surplus that currently goes to atheltic department functionaries and bowl officials and NCAA investigators a coaches to athletes who people are actually paying to see. Northwestern already invests tens of millions of dollars into athletics on an annual basis in the revenue sports - if they choose to continue to do so there's no reason to think things would change drastically. Frankly I'd think this would make schools (if they were being honest) actually feel better about participating in athletics rather than engage in the self-delusion/fig leaf of the student-athlete lie.
