NBAFan93 wrote:Sedale Threatt wrote:NBAFan93 wrote:
It’s a very slippery slope giving college players money... and the tax thing is a huge deal. And it’s not even just about paying the taxes themselves - things like facility rentals, building permits/leases, food and beverage vending, equipment purchases, donations and sponsors - so much of that stuff is handled WAY differently cause something is a non-profit versus a for-profit.
Well, of course getting a tax break is huge. That's more money in their pocket, which is the point of the whole enterprise anymore. Again, the entire model of college sports is grossly outdated. The notion that top-end participants (i.e. football and basketball) are noble amateurs pursing academic and athletic excellence with equal vigor no longer applies. They are merely tools to help a very much for-profit business make money -- nearly $1.3 billion in basketball tournament / football playoff TV money per year alone.
But colleges “raking in” money is a good thing - it makes for a better experience student athletes and the students that go to the events - it also helps keep costs down cause the school itself doesn’t have to use tuition money to fund their sports programs/facilities.
I guess if people are hostile towards the purpose of higher education and the people who participate and work in it (which honestly could be a little what is going on with all the hostility), and would rather all sports proceeds go to billionaire franchise owners and a handful of rich athletes, maybe we should do away w/ sports in our colleges and there not be things like college football on Saturdays, bowl games and the NCAA tournament.
Make it all a secondarily pro league for people aged 18-22, that isn’t associated with a school, and have it compete w/ the NBA/NFL. Will that be better?
Colleges like Duke and UCLA are non-profit organizations and their primary purpose is education - I really doubt the IRS is going to let them reap the benefits of a for profit sports enterprise on the side while still calling themselves an institution of higher learning and getting things like research and land grants to do their education stuff.
I'm not hostile to higher education at all. I've got a degree, everyone in my family has a degree. In all but isolated cases, it's the key to better wages and a better standard of living.
But neither am I going to buy into the hypocrisy of major college sports, which is the very definition of for-profit. That's where my hostility stems from. You've got coaches like Dabo Swinney pontificating about the sanctity of the student-athlete, while having absolutely zero problem making $93 million over 10 years to coach them. How about you take, say, $60 million and cut the rest for the athletes -- the vast majority of which will never make the NFL, or be rich -- who helped you make all that in the first place?
There's zero reason this couldn't be done, outside of the fact that they don't want to, and don't have to.
I'll add this edit I made to my previous post, putting into further perspective just how much money we're talking about...
The NBA - one of the most popular and successful professional sports leagues in the entire world - makes an estimates $2.7 billion per year on its national TV deals. The fact that the NCAA is within spitting distance just for their two major postseason events should tell you all you need to know about how ludicrous it is to consider them non-profit.
And this is before you get into the individual leagues; the Big 10 makes $240 million per year for its hoops / football rights, and the SEC is expected to crack $300 million with its next deals. These colleges are pulling in enormous sums of money, which is compounded by the fact that they don't have to share it with the labor pool in any significant way.
The mafia wishes it had a racket this lucrative.