Kiffin on NIL and Portal

[Bogey]

It’s not even close to true

Well what is your number and the basis for your number?

 

[stinger78]

Dabo has been adamantly opposed to the whole NIL idea for a while, even before it became legal. He’s also been reluctant to use the transfer portal for the same reasons. He’s only gotten ridiculed for it. I think most coaches have already made the stance pretty clear about being opposed to what’s happening but it hasn’t made a difference

Yet we don't see any of them volunteering to cut their salaries to help alleviate the problem, do we? The problem leading to NIL was not that AA's are dripping with money - the vast majority aren't. It's not that schools are profiting wildly off their football programs - most are not. It seems to be that coaches are getting corporate CEO salaries off their players' work and the layers are getting relatively little - though most were getting 6-figure in-kind benefits over 4 years (but they don't seem to care about the largely phony degrees they're being handed).

 

[CEB]

Yet we don't see any of them volunteering to cut their salaries to help alleviate the problem, do we? The problem leading to NIL was not that AA's are dripping with money - the vast majority aren't. It's not that schools are profiting wildly off their football programs - most are not. It seems to be that coaches are getting corporate CEO salaries off their players' work and the layers are getting relatively little - though most were getting 6-figure in-kind benefits over 4 years (but they don't seem to care about the largely phony degrees they're being handed).

Boy oh boy, you said it! The place where we are is like a four car pile up because everyone ran the 4-way stop. No single issue or entity got us here…. Several parties just careening headlong through stop signs because they believed they were in the biggest hurry for the most important destination.

Start with the academic side, which certainly facilitated a lot of this… or at least presided over it. We have been told a feel good story about the increasing number of students going to college and how great that is for them and our education system and our nation. Reality is that many students are overextending financially to enter into expanded degree programs that are less and less valuable / applicable to lucrative career opportunities. Reality is that the colleges are the big winners…raking in money (from students and states). More students, more money.

AAs realized very quickly that they can exploit this “academic” push for expanded degree programs to admit more students…many new degrees provide a perfect place to stash marginal students while they “work” for the AA. The jokes about eligibility for some players have been around for decades, but it seems more and more are just majoring in athletic eligibility… aided by the expansion of academic offerings.

Can’t blame the student athletes for realizing very quickly, either of the following:
A. This “free education” is likely worthless garbage. They are getting more out of me than I am from them. If I don’t play this sport at the next level, this degree ain’t worth it.
B. I’m just here to play and get to the next level anyway. I don’t give a rip about a degree. Give me something worth my time (cars, money, job for mama, etc)
In both cases, the athlete arrives at the same spot… this scholarship isn’t worth it.
I know there are certainly students who take full advantage of the opportunity and pursue a real degree, but those kids are fewer and fewer. My biggest issue is with the schools who “embellished” the value of some of these degrees and hid behind “amateurism” requirements of the NCAA. Hard to argue with a lot of these athletes who feel they’ve been taken advantage of…

Finally, the coaches. On one hand you can’t fault them for cashing in. On the other, its mostly a farce. AAs run on donations / revenues and two things drive that… success and excitement. Obviously you have to pay to keep success, but the new coach contracts are interesting. The AAs realize that name brand coaches bring hope and excitement, which brings donations and revenue. Why else would retreads keep coming back? Petrino back to Arkansas? Only in college football is that a sound business decision! Want more donations? Hype the fan base by paying through the nose for the coach that won 11 last year (even if the past five years suggest its an aberration more than a trend).
The cynic in me says several of the coaches lamenting NIL are doing so out of self preservation. Money diverted to NIL is money that AAs don’t have for salaries. Not to mention, players with transfer freedom and monetary incentives to do so are increasingly harder to retain and coach. Coaching got a little harder as a result.

Ok… i was feeling crotchety this morning… now I feel better.

 

[stinger78]

Boy oh boy, you said it! The place where we are is like a four car pile up because everyone ran the 4-way stop. No single issue or entity got us here…. Several parties just careening headlong through stop signs because they believed they were in the biggest hurry for the most important destination.

Start with the academic side, which certainly facilitated a lot of this… or at least presided over it. We have been told a feel good story about the increasing number of students going to college and how great that is for them and our education system and our nation. Reality is that many students are overextending financially to enter into expanded degree programs that are less and less valuable / applicable to lucrative career opportunities. Reality is that the colleges are the big winners…raking in money (from students and states). More students, more money.

AAs realized very quickly that they can exploit this “academic” push for expanded degree programs to admit more students…many new degrees provide a perfect place to stash marginal students while they “work” for the AA. The jokes about eligibility for some players have been around for decades, but it seems more and more are just majoring in athletic eligibility… aided by the expansion of academic offerings.

Can’t blame the student athletes for realizing very quickly, either of the following:
A. This “free education” is likely worthless garbage. They are getting more out of me than I am from them. If I don’t play this sport at the next level, this degree ain’t worth it.
B. I’m just here to play and get to the next level anyway. I don’t give a rip about a degree. Give me something worth my time (cars, money, job for mama, etc)
In both cases, the athlete arrives at the same spot… this scholarship isn’t worth it.
I know there are certainly students who take full advantage of the opportunity and pursue a real degree, but those kids are fewer and fewer. My biggest issue is with the schools who “embellished” the value of some of these degrees and hid behind “amateurism” requirements of the NCAA. Hard to argue with a lot of these athletes who feel they’ve been taken advantage of…

Finally, the coaches. On one hand you can’t fault them for cashing in. On the other, its mostly a farce. AAs run on donations / revenues and two things drive that… success and excitement. Obviously you have to pay to keep success, but the new coach contracts are interesting. The AAs realize that name brand coaches bring hope and excitement, which brings donations and revenue. Why else would retreads keep coming back? Petrino back to Arkansas? Only in college football is that a sound business decision! Want more donations? Hype the fan base by paying through the nose for the coach that won 11 last year (even if the past five years suggest its an aberration more than a trend).
The cynic in me says several of the coaches lamenting NIL are doing so out of self preservation. Money diverted to NIL is money that AAs don’t have for salaries. Not to mention, players with transfer freedom and monetary incentives to do so are increasingly harder to retain and coach. Coaching got a little harder as a result.

Ok… i was feeling crotchety this morning… now I feel better.

Need to copyright that book.

 

[stinger78]

I think one big driver was the explosion in coaches' salaries (driven by overzealous boosters) while the NCAA cracked down hard on sales of game-worn items that made for a little cash for players (driven by overzealous bureaucrats). The other was the EA and other video game distributors that were, illegally, using the name and image of players to sell games... and make a ton of money. The players, led by Ed O'Bannon, stood up and said, "Deal us in!" NIL is what we got.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Boy oh boy, you said it! The place where we are is like a four car pile up because everyone ran the 4-way stop. No single issue or entity got us here…. Several parties just careening headlong through stop signs because they believed they were in the biggest hurry for the most important destination.

Start with the academic side, which certainly facilitated a lot of this… or at least presided over it. We have been told a feel good story about the increasing number of students going to college and how great that is for them and our education system and our nation. Reality is that many students are overextending financially to enter into expanded degree programs that are less and less valuable / applicable to lucrative career opportunities. Reality is that the colleges are the big winners…raking in money (from students and states). More students, more money.

AAs realized very quickly that they can exploit this “academic” push for expanded degree programs to admit more students…many new degrees provide a perfect place to stash marginal students while they “work” for the AA. The jokes about eligibility for some players have been around for decades, but it seems more and more are just majoring in athletic eligibility… aided by the expansion of academic offerings.

Can’t blame the student athletes for realizing very quickly, either of the following:
A. This “free education” is likely worthless garbage. They are getting more out of me than I am from them. If I don’t play this sport at the next level, this degree ain’t worth it.
B. I’m just here to play and get to the next level anyway. I don’t give a rip about a degree. Give me something worth my time (cars, money, job for mama, etc)
In both cases, the athlete arrives at the same spot… this scholarship isn’t worth it.
I know there are certainly students who take full advantage of the opportunity and pursue a real degree, but those kids are fewer and fewer. My biggest issue is with the schools who “embellished” the value of some of these degrees and hid behind “amateurism” requirements of the NCAA. Hard to argue with a lot of these athletes who feel they’ve been taken advantage of…

Finally, the coaches. On one hand you can’t fault them for cashing in. On the other, its mostly a farce. AAs run on donations / revenues and two things drive that… success and excitement. Obviously you have to pay to keep success, but the new coach contracts are interesting. The AAs realize that name brand coaches bring hope and excitement, which brings donations and revenue. Why else would retreads keep coming back? Petrino back to Arkansas? Only in college football is that a sound business decision! Want more donations? Hype the fan base by paying through the nose for the coach that won 11 last year (even if the past five years suggest its an aberration more than a trend).
The cynic in me says several of the coaches lamenting NIL are doing so out of self preservation. Money diverted to NIL is money that AAs don’t have for salaries. Not to mention, players with transfer freedom and monetary incentives to do so are increasingly harder to retain and coach. Coaching got a little harder as a result.

Ok… i was feeling crotchety this morning… now I feel better.

I think you are right about all the factors that came together to force NIL. Making football coaches some of the highest paid public positions in most states tells you what value various universities regarded their contribution to their institutions’ bottom lines.

This reduced players to field hands in a very lucrative system that set up people at the top for life long security.

 

[Bogey]

This reduced players to field hands in a very lucrative system that set up people at the top for life long security and a luxurious life style.

 

[takethepoints]

The NCAA needs to simply stop existing. It does nothing for anyone because it does everything unequally. I’d rather have no system than a corrupt system.

I hear you, but if there's no NCAA then there is one institution ready and waiting: Congress. If the schools won't try to administrer themselves, the government will oblige. Or, to be more exact, that's what I think would happen. It might move from the NLRB to Congress; no NCAA means that the playe3rs in all sports could get organized. So I'm guessing that the NCAA will stumble on.

 

[takethepoints]

I think you are right about all the factors that came together to force NIL. Making football coaches some of the highest paid public positions in most states tells you what value various universities regarded their contribution to their institutions’ bottom lines.

This reduced players to field hands in a very lucrative system that set up people at the top for life long security.

A BoR member once asked Clark Kerr, when he was chancellor of the UC system, "Clarke, what is college for?"

Without even batting an eye Kerr replied, " Sex for the students, sports for the alumni, and parking for the faculty." And from an administrator's perspective, that's a pretty good answer.