31–40 of 46 posts
One of the necessary things that needs to happen if we are to begin paying players is that there would need to be some serious contraction in the number of Division I Football teams. A team like Boise State is just not going to be able to keep up with players at the University of Southern California for example. Since a lot of those would be in small, rural towns, there is A LOT of resistance to this outside the trad…
The counter to paying college players is that it can be a gateway to the NFL, so college players play for "free" in exchange for access to a potentially very lucrative career. So why not a venture capital model? Pay players, with the condition that the university receives a % of their pro pay.
I'm not sure what it is today, but "roster fillers" in the NFL were only making $50k/year not all that long ago. The average career length is 6 years according to the NFL, and 3.3 years according to the players' union. Decent players will make over 100k, but it's still a pretty short career.
The counter to paying college players is that it can be a gateway to the NFL, so college players play for "free" in exchange for access to a potentially very lucrative career. So why not a venture capital model? Pay players, with the condition that the university receives a % of their pro pay.
Apart from the few star players, professional football doesn't pay that well. Certainly not enough to make up for it being a pretty short career. I'm not sure what it is today, but "roster fillers" in the NFL were only making $50k/year not all that long ago. The average career length is 6 years according to the NFL, and 3.3 years according to the players' union. Decent players will make over 100k, but it's still a pr…
The average salary is about $2 million/year. The median salary is about $1 million/year. The minimum salary for a first year player is over $400,000.
Here's an article with lots of details for 5 years ago: http://work.chron.com/much-money-nfl-player-make-year-2377.h...
And here are links to team-by-team numbers: http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/
I'll never understand why people reject the most sensible answer: allow high school students to be drafted into the NFL. Even if they're not playing in the NFL for 2,3 or 4 years, pu them into a developmental league where they can earn $30K a year for a shot to make the league. Then college is reserved for people who want to go to college , not for people who have to go because that's the collusion that's been design…
A receiver who is 5'9" has a fighting chance to be successful in many college conferences where there aren't monstrous cornerbacks but absolutely no shot in the NFL where size is a requirement. Undersized and underdeveloped players also risk significant injury by going pro too soon. College players need at least a year or two to build up the physical condition to compete at the next level.
This is the reason why the worst NFL team would easily crush the best college team. The college team just wouldn't be able to handle the size of your average NFL squad.
I agree with pretty much every criticism in this article. Where I differ in opinion is the solution. First, there's the "me too" effect. If colleges pay football players, other athletes will want to be paid. They'll ask, "What makes football special?" and they'll have a point. Then we'll run into some unhappy truths regarding sports. For example: If colleges base compensation on revenue, the wage gap between male and…
> If football came into being today, people would riot in the streets. Who would pay money to watch mostly lower-class, mostly black[1] players permanently damage each other's brains and bodies? Mixed Martial Arts is a very popular sport which is exactly this (maybe not the 'mostly black' part), and as a spectator sport in the US has only really risen recently. No rioting in the streets against it yet. Also, given yo…
It's hard to say whether I find boxing more repugnant than football. If I could wave a magic wand and eliminate one, I'd pick football due to its popularity. The number of people put through that meat grinder is much higher than the number of boxers. That said, I do find boxing abhorrent. Watching a boxing match, I get the same emotions as watching a disaster. Horrifying, yet fascinating. Some part of me is compelled to keep watching. I think most people are similarly affected.
The athletes I knew (two large division 1 schools) got considerable housing and food stipends. They were quite a bit more than what most students were paying for rent in the area and these athletes had much more disposable income than most of the regular students I knew.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't solve the problem. Even if football athletes could go straight from high school to college as in basketball and baseball, college football will still be a huge moneymaker, and the athletes will remain broke. Secondly, your premise is incorrect. It's the NFL that has a rule against drafting players out of high school, not society. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/sports/football-citing-ant...
> Secondly, your premise is incorrect. It's the NFL that has a rule against drafting players out of high school, not society. I'm not sure how you could have interpreted my post any other way. When I refer to "collusion" I'm speaking of that between the NFL and the NCAA. I'm aware it's the NFL's rule (in collaboration with the NCAA). > That doesn't solve the problem. Even if football athletes could go straight from h…
More importantly, even if players could be recruited out of high school as in basketball, it doesn't solve the problem, and we know this because it hasn't solved the problem for basketball. (College baseball and college soccer were never moneymakers and never will be, so not even the coaches and administrators make money, and we can ignore them for now.) The second tier players will still play in college, where all the non-athletes involved with the NCAA will still make bank, and the athletes will still stay broke.
I'll never understand why people reject the most sensible answer: allow high school students to be drafted into the NFL. Even if they're not playing in the NFL for 2,3 or 4 years, pu them into a developmental league where they can earn $30K a year for a shot to make the league. Then college is reserved for people who want to go to college , not for people who have to go because that's the collusion that's been design…
Football is a different case from other college sports for one main reason: physical development. Your average NFL squad has players that are much bigger and stronger at every position. A receiver who is 5'9" has a fighting chance to be successful in many college conferences where there aren't monstrous cornerbacks but absolutely no shot in the NFL where size is a requirement. Undersized and underdeveloped players al…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apart from the few star players, professional football doesn't pay that well. Certainly not enough to make up for it being a pretty short career. I'm not sure what it is today, but "roster fillers" in the NFL were only making $50k/year not all that long ago. The average career length is 6 years according to the NFL, and 3.3 years according to the players' union. Decent players will make over 100k, but it's still a pr…
How long ago were you thinking? I think your suggested salary numbers are off by about a factor of 10. The average salary is about $2 million/year. The median salary is about $1 million/year. The minimum salary for a first year player is over $400,000. Here's an article with lots of details for 5 years ago: http://work.chron.com/much-money-nfl-player-make-year-2377.h... And here are links to team-by-team numbers: htt…
$400k for a 3-year career is a lot better than the picture I was painting, thanks for the correction.
edit: link fix
The Australian(/European? I'm not sure) model of having schools only passingly involved with athletics, and then having the athletics clubs and associations as separate entities just makes much more sense to me.
First, it allows for amateur sports to continue well past high school/college, allowing those who compete for fun and fitness to do so. Sports, after all, shouldn't just something you watch on TV once you're out of school.
Second, apart from providing a fun diversion to students in much the same way as a video gaming club might do, why should any teaching institution be involved in sports? Surely that's outside the core mission.