Players Making Money

Dickinson (and others) is taking heat for seeking NIL money as part of his transfer.

I don’t like where college sports is going, but I understand it.

Most arguments are “the players are there to get an education, and should be happy with that”. I just don’t buy that.

If they’re just students, then shouldn’t it hold true that the coach, AD and college be focused mostly on producing students and graduates? And not on getting paid millions and taking billions in revenue from those sports and those athletes?

The athletes produce the product and create the revenue. How can anyone argue that the grownups should be highly compensated but the kids should scrape by financially but be satisfied with a diploma.

The current scheme is a mess, but my opinion is it’s the right end result with the pathway to get there that needs planning and structure.

I simply don’t get why fans get mad at the players for taking advantage of a financial benefit similar to every single college president, AD, coach and development or foundation director.

Not putting a cap on the NIL is basically giving the rich schools more of an advantage. KU benefits, but I don't like it. As for the "free education", there aren't that many athletes that truly take advantage of that. African American Studies? Seriously? What career does that set you up for?. Back in my day there was a placekicker that was in the Civil Engineering program, but is indeed rare.

Back in my day..

Geez, USAF, please DON'T say that. None of us are getting any younger, but if you want to sound like the cranky old guy sitting on his front porch yelling at kids to get off his lawn, just keep it up.

Agreed that the current situation is a total dumpster fire. The extra COVID year(s?) of eligibility, combined with the ability to transfer seemingly at will, and driven by outsiders who are willing to pump money into the system seemingly without any limits has resulted in what we're seeing at KU this year. After a fantastic season with a great group, all but 2 kids are gone and we've essentially gone out an picked up free agents to build what might be a juggernaut.

As a guy who likes to see KU win, I like the fact that we're positioned to do that again next year.

As a sports fan who believes in fair competition, I find it pretty disgusting. We're absolutely seeing a situation where the divide between rich and poor programs will widen. Middle-class programs (i.e. mid-majors who occasionally have break out seasons) will become a rarity. If you're a mid-level school, you either need to jump on the money bandwagon, or settle on the idea that you're just a developmental program for whichever blue blood will eventually take your top players.

Previously, the model was to scout high school talent, bring them in, develop them for a year or two, and watch them become stars as upper classmen. If you were a program like ours, you'd get a snowball effect where new guys would exercise some patience, learn a ton, and take over the team when it was their turn. Now you have to worry that you'll be supplanted by a more talented/experience 'free agent' before have time to grow as a player.

Makes me wonder if guys like Mitch Lightfoot or Perry Ellis would have been able to stick around and make such special marks in the program's history under the "new reality". Personally, I think that ship has sailed.

On the other side of the coin, there are 300+ teams in D1 and every year, maybe 50 of them are really competitive at the top level. There are 200+ teams that will inevitably get poorer talent-wise in this new reality. Maybe with realignment, D1 will split into "major" and "minor" leagues as the conferences continue to realign. Maybe the solution is to get rid of the current conferences and make them sport specific. So maybe KU would be in a conference with Michigan State, Texas, Baylor, Kentucky and Indiana. And there'd be an "east" pro hoop conference of Duke, UNC, Villanova, UConn and St. Johns. West would be Gonzaga, USC, UCLA and whoever else that moron Bill Walton says. Then the REST of D1 could be competitive against each other, knowing that the "pro" leagues would inevitably poach some of their players, but at least they'd have an interesting tournament where a Cinderella has a chance.

I think we're past a clean solution at this point. I do think they're going to tighten the transfer rules up a bit, which will help. Who wants to see a kid playing for 6 teams on 4 years? Give them 1 transfer period. For the NIL money, I don't think that's easy to fix. I initially hoped that they'd pool it all and give kids a share based on their popularity, but also limit the top end of it. That way, everyone benefits a little. As a staunch capitalist, that's really hard for me to say. Nevertheless, the salary cap in the NFL has seemed to worked out pretty well to keep parity within the NFL, so I hope they go down that road somehow.

But between all of this and conference realignments, we've destroyed the essence of what a lot of us like about college sports. You root for your TEAM...the players change every year, and you watch kids come in, develop, and depart....you have traditional rivalries that go back generations....teams have fan favorite guys who will never go pro, but live and die for the TEAM that they're so honored to be part of.

That's the part I used to enjoy, back in my day. DOH! Sorry USAF. Wound up in the same place you did. Now get the hell offa my lawn you dang kids!