<p>Well, well. Only about two weeks ago NCAA president Mark Emmert said that changes of the type envisioned by the Northwestern athletes would “blow up” the system.</p>
<p>Now the NCAA proposal announced today would be a complete change in the way big-time college sports works. Is the idea to create a new tier out of 5 “super conferences” a good idea? By the way, what makes the ACC a football super conference? The athletic budgets of the ACC schools don’t come close to that of the Big Ten and the SEC.</p>
<p>Scholarship guarantees will stop schools from recruiting students, only to take away the scholarship a year or two later. Insurance will ensure students that are hurt, will have some type of safety net. All such items the 5 big conferences can afford and should do (IMHO).</p>
<p>The question is around how the other 27 conferences (there’s 27?!) will handle this proposal. They are against these proposals, because they can’t afford them, and hence will be at a recruting disadvantage to the big 5. That’s what been holding up these changes…</p>
<p>Haven’t the 27 always been at a recruiting disadvantage? ;)</p>
<p>I dont believe The over signing by coaches will change. Coaches can still push the player to a non counting scholarship via medical.
Insurance premiums should be paid by school too. Especially, If you need contacts to see /to fulfill team role; shouldn’t this be paid as equipment. </p>
<p>I do like players getting campus parking pass for parking by stadiums, weight rooms, etc… paid, parents getting free parking for games would seem like the right thing to do, and letting the family have hotel travel at team group rates.
Then again if a big U can give ipads, like northwestern just did, why not scooters too? </p>
<p>Hey, I was a Seminoles fan for many years. FSU and Clemson are really the only two ACC members that I would call superior and favorably compare to B10, B12 and SEC football programs. VaTech may come close. Miami, Syracuse and BC are further down the line. The rest really can’t compare financially. FSU would have left the ACC in recent years had there been a decent substitute and an invitation. You can judge the tension/uncertainly in the ACC football universe by the fact that the league couldn’t get Notre Dame to join as a full member. And Maryland can’t wait to leave the ACC.</p>
<p>My sister graduates from FSU next week and I’ll be at her graduation ceremony. Former FSU head football coach Bobby Bowden is giving the keynote commencement speech at the Saturday morning graduation ceremony. Only problem for me though is that my sister’s graduation ceremony is the one Friday night with a different speaker…not Coach Bowden! I would have liked to hear Bowden because he is such a dynamic speaker with his folksy manner…he always speaks what’s on his mind and is liable to say just about anything without worrying too much about whom he might upset, or whom he might please.</p>
<p>That’s why I became an FSU fan back in the day; Coach Bowden. Early on at FSU, most of the better known schools wouldn’t come to Tallahassee to play, even when FSU began to post winning seasons and made into the top 20. Bowden just bided his time. He played anyone anywhere. I’ve never forgotten FSU’s first nationally televised game in the modern era. The Seminoles traveled to the pit at LSU and put on quite a show. That same year they got their first major Bowl invitation (grudgingly by the way) and played top-ranked Oklahoma. They led Oklahoma early but the Sooners ran away with it in the second half. But the die was cast. FSU and Bowden were on their way to elite status. After that season FSU and GaTech asked about joining the SEC. The Gators and Georgia put a stop to that (probably a mistake that the SEC regrets today).</p>
<p>I admire Bowden’s football accomplishments. For example, I don’t think he ever cheated or took short cuts to gain a competitive advantage. And unlike Paterno, Bowden was no hypocrite. I’d sure like to hear Bowden’s take on this new NCAA proposal.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the exact changes but agree that some adjustment need to be made.
oversigning is a dirty deal in general
part of the problem is that the NFL has more stringent limits on how many years out of HS a player needs to be so any kid who wants to play pro football is a captive audience for college sports programs - the kid has no power in the relationship.
If a kid gets injured or cut and can’t afford to continue at the university on his own he is SOL
I have heard many interviews with more affluent white guys (like Andrew Luck) talking about how the system is pretty good and he had a good experience. Well Mr. Luck was a top drawer player at a top drawer school who never had to worry about how to get back and forth to campus or pay for incidentals over the summer or any of the other things that a poor kid who has a family to worry about has to think about. If you come from a family with no money and you aren’t allowed to have a job how to you cover all the other stuff? </p>
<p>However . . . people who talk of “blowing up the system” often don’t seem to remember that football pays for most other sports programs. If you blow it up you blow up everything.</p>
<p>There’s more to it than that GMT. I was briefly involved in the budget process for the athletic department at a high school years ago. My participation was brief and very peripheral. Yet I got to see the details and every line of the budget. At that particular high school, football revenue was critical because it paid for everything else, including girls sports, which were not popular or well attended in those days.</p>
<p>The school wasn’t “a superpower,” and didn’t have a rabid fan base for football like some high schools in California, Ohio and Texas, and it wasn’t particularly large high school. </p>
<p>Northwestern has an $8 billion endowment. If my kids’ prep school can afford girls field hockey on an endowment that is a tiny fraction of $8 billion and no football revenue, then so can Northwestern.</p>
<p>Collegiate club sports pay their own way in my experience - they raise their own money for travel, to pay referees, buy uniforms etc. (kind of like men’s crew still does which isn’t an official NCAA varsity sport) Men’s crew survives and thrives in places with a long tradition of rowing and deep pocketed alumni who organize golf tournaments etc. for scholarship funds. Unfortunately in a club sport system women’s teams historically got the short end of the stick and ran through bake sales while men’s teams got easier funding.</p>
<p>Most school districts in our area have gone to a pay to play system. They have various $$$ amounts per season or year or family depending on the district. There is an additional transportation fee per activity (including band) High school coaches are paid around 4k per season by the district (I’m sure some are paid more or less). I know it’s cliche but it is not unusual for kids to be saddled with a crappy teacher (why does it always seem to be math?) who just happens to coach gymnastics or wrestling or something. I think it’s gotten out of hand the other way for football coaches but at least their not expecting Steve Sarkesian to teach math on the side ;)</p>
<p>Football and basketball are the cash cows for university athletic depts. Only maybe 15-20 big-time colleges programs operate in black though…much of the money to operate athletic programs comes from general school operating funds and student fees…schools don’t like talking about it too much.</p>
<p>Just because football may be a cash cow at some schools, does that mean that recruits should be subject to abuse while coaches make mega-millions?</p>
<p>In the past (1980 ish), the players would have sweet jobs from boosters in the summer, making $25/hr at a car dealership to drive cars through the car wash, or stocking the grocery shelves overnight, while others in those same jobs were making $4/hr. It was really helpful to poor players as then they could afford to have their parents attend a game or they could pick a school farther away to begin with because they could afford to get there but it meant booster could get around ‘paying’ players directly by paying them indirectly, so deemed unfair and the financially strapped players were then limited for summer earnings.</p>
<p>Trying to get the corruption out of NCAA sports put an end to that and lots of other things. No free cars for them to drive, no tickets for their families, no traveling home. Strict qualification rules by the NCAA. Sometimes the stricter rules hurt the poorer players or smaller teams, sometimes they help.</p>