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Ruh-Roh: NCAA Lawsuit

We wait for the judge to render her decision and then see what impact it will have for Marshall.
 
We have a whole generation of young kids that have ADHD, can't carry on a conversation and love their phones and tablets more than their family members. They have no interest in spending 3 hours watching a football or basketball game. They have to be entertained and those brains stimulated constantly to be engaged.
 
I remember going to Mountaineer games all the time as a kid with my parents and my brother - it was kind of a big deal, but I don't remember it bankrupting the family. Today if a family of four wants to go sit in the endzone at a Mountaineer game, they're looking at spending $276 just on tickets.

The TV contracts were already over-valued by the fever of a bidding war, so there's no more juice in that lemon. With live attendance declining, ticket prices are already straining the market. My gut tells me most P5's will have to turn to their parent institutions/state governments for economic support.

This is not a true economy. The whole of college athletics is built on a giant pile of taxpayer dollars from almost every state in the union. If you removed the foundation of over a century of state-funded institutions throwing money down this hole with no expectation of a financial return, these guys would be making $25k a year and living in motels like CFL players.
 
We have a whole generation of young kids that have ADHD, can't carry on a conversation and love their phones and tablets more than their family members. They have no interest in spending 3 hours watching a football or basketball game. They have to be entertained and those brains stimulated constantly to be engaged.
This is largely because parents don't want to spend time parenting their children. It's so much easier to put a video game, tablet, cell phone, ect in front of them so you don't have to parent.

Then all of a sudden, people wonder why kids are hooked on what they're hooked on. They're conditioned to it. It's not the kids. They don't come out of the womb reaching for a cell phone. It's the adults, yet people want to funnel the blame onto the children.
 
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This is largely because parents don't want to spend time parenting their children. It's so much easier to put a video game, tablet, cell phone, ect in front of them so you don't have to parent.

Then all of a sudden, people won't why kids are hooked on what they're hooked on. They're conditioned to it. It's not the kids. They don't come out of the womb reaching for a cell phone. It's the adults, yet people want to funnel the blame onto the children.
AMEN!
 
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This is largely because parents don't want to spend time parenting their children. It's so much easier to put a video game, tablet, cell phone, ect in front of them so you don't have to parent.

Then all of a sudden, people won't why kids are hooked on what they're hooked on. They're conditioned to it. It's not the kids. They don't come out of the womb reaching for a cell phone. It's the adults, yet people want to funnel the blame onto the children.

I couldn't agree with you more. Phones and tablets have become electronic sitters. I was at a Braves game about a month ago, as soon as the family in front of us sat down, the mother handed her cell phone to their 4 or 5 year old to play with. Halfway through the 5th inning the phone rang, so the mother took the phone away so she could answer it. The kid let out the kind of high pitched scream that could have opened a garage door... followed by "give me, that's mine"... It was so loud in fact, that Braves 3rd Baseman Johan Camargo, turned to look into the 3rd base line stands.
 
We have a whole generation of young kids that have ADHD, can't carry on a conversation and love their phones and tablets more than their family members. They have no interest in spending 3 hours watching a football or basketball game. They have to be entertained and those brains stimulated constantly to be engaged.
This phenomenon is not just tied to young people.

Next time you're at a restaurant look around and see how many adults are glued to their phones instead of talking to the company around them. Hell, do the same thing in a few weeks at the Joan while we're playing Charlotte.

Same thing applies with driving and texting. It's MOSTLY grown ass adults I notice doing this yet young people seem to get all the blame.
 
This is largely because parents don't want to spend time parenting their children. It's so much easier to put a video game, tablet, cell phone, ect in front of them so you don't have to parent.
I thought this way until I had kids. While I try to limit my kid's screen time as much as possible I try not to judge parents who don't. Sometimes an hour or so of your kid watching a YouTube video is the only down time you get all day.
 
This phenomenon is not just tied to young people.

Next time you're at a restaurant look around and see how many adults are glued to their phones instead of talking to the company around them. Hell, do the same thing in a few weeks at the Joan while we're playing Charlotte.

Same thing applies with driving and texting. It's MOSTLY grown ass adults I notice doing this yet young people seem to get all the blame.


Very true Chris. As a side note to this - My wife is a 4th Grade teacher and she has seen kids become less and less focused as more technology enters their lives. It’s a challenge to keep their attention and focus.
That and many other issues makes me wonder why people today go into teaching. My wife loves kids and wants to make a positive contribution in their lives but at times it’s like she is running in quick sand, uphill.
 
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Parenting is always about your kid asking for stuff they don't need, and having the strength to shut that shhh down, over and over. It manifests in kids today over-using digital devices, but that's just because modern technology is freaking awesome.

Trust me, if someone went back in time and handed the 8 year old version of you an iPad, you wouldn't be like, "Nah man, I'm gonna go around back and play in the dirt."
 
Back on topic...the super league is coming. And we will not be in it. The real question is what the "rest" will look like.

Yep.

Guess it boils down to whether or not all 65 P5 teams want in on the madness.

As the article points out, schools like Vandy, Northwestern, Duke and Stanford might just say thanks, but no thanks.

Could open the door for G5s like Houston, Fresno, Boise, UCF, etc.
 
Back on topic...the super league is coming. And we will not be in it. The real question is what the "rest" will look like.
And when that happens, I think a decent portion of college football fans will look at the "super league" as semi-pro football. I've lost interest in college football outside of Marshall and it will only get worse when it's clearly stated. I think the house of cards will crumble at that point and the next step will be interesting.
 
This won't be the last round of realignment - there will be another Haves vs. Have-Nots within the P5, between teams content with a $4,000 a year stipend (like Northwestern) and teams that want the ability to offer a four-star recruit a $100,000 signing bonus (like Ohio State).

No one from G5 will be moving up. For starters, there's no one in G5 economically perched to engage in this bidding war, but more than that: the whole thing will be fueled by the revenue from these recent TV contracts, and those would be diluted by additional inclusion/swapping out with current members. If you aren't already there, they don't want you.
 
And when that happens, I think a decent portion of college football fans will look at the "super league" as semi-pro football. I've lost interest in college football outside of Marshall and it will only get worse when it's clearly stated. I think the house of cards will crumble at that point and the next step will be interesting.
Exactly.

They start paying them and I will stop watching. Just wait until the citizenry wises up and says wait, we mortgaged the house, borrowed more money, and robbed our 401k so Little Johnny could go to college and the coach at Alabama is making $7 million a year and the players at Clemson have golden toilet seats. And, the middle linebacker can't read and spell his own name. We are not subsidizing it anymore.

Deck of cards. Gonna crumble.
 
And when that happens, I think a decent portion of college football fans will look at the "super league" as semi-pro football. I've lost interest in college football outside of Marshall and it will only get worse when it's clearly stated. I think the house of cards will crumble at that point and the next step will be interesting.

I'm assuming you haven't lost interest in college basketball outside of Marshall. Wouldn't this also impact college basketball just as much as it would football? Pretty fascinating thread.
 
They should be suing the NFL/NBA for the draft rules, if you can join the Army at 18 you should be able to play pro ball, no one is forcing them to go to college and play football or bball, stay home for all I care.
 
They should be suing the NFL/NBA for the draft rules, if you can join the Army at 18 you should be able to play pro ball, no one is forcing them to go to college and play football or bball, stay home for all I care.
The NBA and NFL are private entities and the teams are privately owned. They can hire who they want to. Plus, most 18 year old players are not ready for those two professional sports unless they are freaks of nature.
 
If you're going to pay players then we need a draft too. If you don't get drafted, you don't play college ball unless you want to be a non paid walk on.

You want to get paid. That's cool, you can also be cut the week before the season starts and take your azz back home to work at Burger King.
 
If you're going to pay players then we need a draft too. If you don't get drafted, you don't play college ball unless you want to be a non paid walk on.

You want to get paid. That's cool, you can also be cut the week before the season starts and take your azz back home to work at Burger King.

Yep. Can’t have it both ways. Maybe put in a stipulation of keeping a certain GPA. More incentive to get their degree.
 
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The NBA and NFL are private entities and the teams are privately owned. They can hire who they want to. Plus, most 18 year old players are not ready for those two professional sports unless they are freaks of nature.

They have rules or agreements that you need to be a certain age or have so many years of college in order to be drafted. Some kid from Ohio St sued them to get drafted early. If you want a guaranteed 4/5 year contract then you need to be a pro NHLer, MLber or NBAer not a kid deciding on college. That is what they want a scholly + be paid and that sounds like a guaranteed contract to me.
 
I'm assuming you haven't lost interest in college basketball outside of Marshall. Wouldn't this also impact college basketball just as much as it would football? Pretty fascinating thread.
I stopped caring much about that too. Conference realignment, loss of rivalries/tradition, etc made me not care for college sports outside of Marshall—not just a football thing.
 
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Yep.

Guess it boils down to whether or not all 65 P5 teams want in on the madness.

As the article points out, schools like Vandy, Northwestern, Duke and Stanford might just say thanks, but no thanks.

Could open the door for G5s like Houston, Fresno, Boise, UCF, etc.

There will he a lot more schools than just those saying that.

Kansas, UVA, Wake Forest, Rutgers, Indiana, even my alma mater Pitt, etc...

P5 schools that are either already way behind the 8 ball or where football is not king will stay in an "amateur" league.
 
If you're going to pay players then we need a draft too. If you don't get drafted, you don't play college ball unless you want to be a non paid walk on.

You want to get paid. That's cool, you can also be cut the week before the season starts and take your azz back home to work at Burger King.

I'd add players should also have to forfeit the scholarship and free room and board, since those are apparently worthless things that nobody wants anyway and are in no sense a form of compensation. Sorry, you can't have it both ways, kids.
 
I'd add players should also have to forfeit the scholarship and free room and board, since those are apparently worthless things that nobody wants anyway and are in no sense a form of compensation. Sorry, you can't have it both ways, kids.
Agree. Can’t have it both ways.

They want to be treated like pro athletes, let’s start. It will be a better product. Let’s start splitting the gate, merchandise sales, concessions, etc. But they no longer get free room & board, scholarships, etc...pay for your own damn books too. Also, no longer limits on practice time & film sessions. If the coach wants you in the film room until 2am, better load up on coffee...welcome to pro sports. If you’re late for practice, no more stadium stairs. You get fined. Late night at a bar and your name gets put in the paper? Pay the fine. Targeting penalty? No longer ejected, you get fined. Miss offseason workouts? You get fined. Miss getting treatment on your day off? You get fined. Report overweight? You get fined. Also, want to negotiate/battle with the school? Better hire an agent who gets a cut of your money. And wait until you’re no longer the hometown sweetheart and fans know money coming from their pocket is going directly into yours. Think college fans are rough? You get booed & cussed by your fans and you get tough questions from the media when you don’t perform/have an off day.

Better watch what you wish for. Pro sports are a grind. Chews up and spits out a lot of weak people who breezed through college athletics.
 
I don't think this push to pay college athletes is being driven by the kids themselves. Hell, any 18 year old will gladly take money if you're offering, so obviously they are in complete agreement with this happening. I think it's more the result of colleges with deep pockets wanting this so they can go legit with paying kids to come play and no longer have to hide it. There's no way you can convince me these big programs haven't been paying someone (recruit, family members, someone) for years to get the athletes to come play. Making it a standard process will make recruitment much easier since they're not hiding that shady component.
 
The NCAA would never do it and the P5 schools would never agree to it, but the issue could easily be fixed by taking 5-10% of revenue from each FBS school and putting it in a fund to pay all FBS players evenly for image rights and to pay the players a salary. I don't think you could do something where star players get more as that could create issues, but if these players are getting based tuition, room and board paid, and getting image payments then they would be doing better than most people in this country in terms of salary and benefits. That said, this would certainly hurt MU as we would be required to shift 5-10% of revenue to the general fund so we would still end up losing more money.
 
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The NCAA would never do it and the P5 schools would never agree to it, but the issue could easily be fixed by taking 5-10% of revenue from each FBS school and putting it in a fund to pay all FBS players evenly for image rights and to pay the players a salary. I don't think you could do something where star players get more as that could create issues, but if these players are getting based tuition, room and board paid, and getting image payments then they would be doing better than most people in this country in terms of salary and benefits. That said, this would certainly hurt MU as we would be required to shift 5-10% of revenue to the general fund so we would still end up losing more money.

The day a kid gets paid to go to college and earn a degree in order to get out of the holler or the hood is the day I quit watching for sure.
 
The day a kid gets paid to go to college and earn a degree in order to get out of the holler or the hood is the day I quit watching for sure.
It is going to happen as the media is pushing hard for it. We just have to accept it and try to find a system of payment that doesn't wreck every program outside of the P5 schools and cause a division split where we simply get sent back to FCS.
 
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It is going to happen as the media is pushing hard for it. We just have to accept it and try to find a system of payment that doesn't wreck every program outside of the P5 schools and cause a division split where we simply get sent back to FCS.
I will accept it by not watching it. NFL is ruined. Might as well ruin college as well.
 
Paying full scholarship players is bullshit. You cannot convince me otherwise. I spent just as much time in Henderson center and shewey building. Had to pay for my books didn’t get first dibs scheduling classes nor had access to free tutoring help. I understand they bring in “revenue” to the school but that doesn’t justify paying them
 
Paying full scholarship players is bullshit. You cannot convince me otherwise. I spent just as much time in Henderson center and shewey building. Had to pay for my books didn’t get first dibs scheduling classes nor had access to free tutoring help. I understand they bring in “revenue” to the school but that doesn’t justify paying them

But they don’t bring the revenue, the catalyst for fan support thus fan dollars is MARSHALL. I don’t care who’s in the uniform, I’d still be a MARSHALL fan. No player has ever effected that or been the reason for my money going towards MU in any capacity.
 
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College players getting paid to play would be terrible for the players. It would be good for the starters at Alabama but what about the backups at every school and 95% of players that won’t be in the nfl? Also, if they are going to make them employees of the school there is a lot to talk about considering the tax exemptions and donations given.
 
I like the idea of paying college athletes, especially football players. But I don't support making them rich. As we all know, we are already paying them. It starts with free school, and continues with things like gear, food, medical care, tutoring, bowl gifts. We also pay scholarship athletes money. The cost-of attendance stipend ranges from about $1,500 to just over $6,000. I would just like to see that number increased and standardized. $12-15,000 a year. Pay it if you can or if you choose, but you can't exceed whatever the agreed limit becomes.

@MStap mentioned in the previous post a word about the vast majority of college athletes. Like my sons, most of them are not going on to play in the League. The latest numbers suggest that less than 6% of D1 athletes make an NFL roster, and the average length of an NFL career is 3.3 years. So, only a very small few will continue on to make a living playing football.

But this huge majority of athletes that will play only in college is helping make college football a lucrative business for many thousands of people. From grounds keepers to SIDs to Color Commentators to Multi-millionaire Head Coaches. And the risk these football players assume is no less than that of the future NFL stars. Football is a dangerous game. Jordan Dowrey had back surgery before he turned twenty. He still has issues he plays through every day. He will likely have another surgery before he turns thirty. He is not unique. As a matter of fact, his is pretty typical of a college football player's career.

It's like this for me: Is an actor worth $20 million for a single film? Is a boxer worth $50 million for a single fight? Quite simply, no. Hard to justify. Until you look at the money that film or fight will bring in. The bigger question becomes what percentage of the money does the actor deserve? College football is a multi-billion dollar business. Tons of people are making a living off it, and plenty of people are getting rich because of it. It was different before, when college sports were played for a scholarship and pride in your school. While those things still exist, so do football staffs that makes in excess of $10 million a year.
 
I like the idea of paying college athletes, especially football players. But I don't support making them rich. As we all know, we are already paying them. It starts with free school, and continues with things like gear, food, medical care, tutoring, bowl gifts. We also pay scholarship athletes money. The cost-of attendance stipend ranges from about $1,500 to just over $6,000. I would just like to see that number increased and standardized. $12-15,000 a year. Pay it if you can or if you choose, but you can't exceed whatever the agreed limit becomes.

@MStap mentioned in the previous post a word about the vast majority of college athletes. Like my sons, most of them are not going on to play in the League. The latest numbers suggest that less than 6% of D1 athletes make an NFL roster, and the average length of an NFL career is 3.3 years. So, only a very small few will continue on to make a living playing football.

But this huge majority of athletes that will play only in college is helping make college football a lucrative business for many thousands of people. From grounds keepers to SIDs to Color Commentators to Multi-millionaire Head Coaches. And the risk these football players assume is no less than that of the future NFL stars. Football is a dangerous game. Jordan Dowrey had back surgery before he turned twenty. He still has issues he plays through every day. He will likely have another surgery before he turns thirty. He is not unique. As a matter of fact, his is pretty typical of a college football player's career.

It's like this for me: Is an actor worth $20 million for a single film? Is a boxer worth $50 million for a single fight? Quite simply, no. Hard to justify. Until you look at the money that film or fight will bring in. The bigger question becomes what percentage of the money does the actor deserve? College football is a multi-billion dollar business. Tons of people are making a living off it, and plenty of people are getting rich because of it. It was different before, when college sports were played for a scholarship and pride in your school. While those things still exist, so do football staffs that makes in excess of $10 million a year.

Are the football players at Marshall really making them money? I bet it would be interesting if someone really ran the true numbers of what the bottom line would be.
 
I like the idea of paying college athletes, especially football players. But I don't support making them rich. As we all know, we are already paying them. It starts with free school, and continues with things like gear, food, medical care, tutoring, bowl gifts. We also pay scholarship athletes money. The cost-of attendance stipend ranges from about $1,500 to just over $6,000. I would just like to see that number increased and standardized. $12-15,000 a year. Pay it if you can or if you choose, but you can't exceed whatever the agreed limit becomes.

@MStap mentioned in the previous post a word about the vast majority of college athletes. Like my sons, most of them are not going on to play in the League. The latest numbers suggest that less than 6% of D1 athletes make an NFL roster, and the average length of an NFL career is 3.3 years. So, only a very small few will continue on to make a living playing football.

But this huge majority of athletes that will play only in college is helping make college football a lucrative business for many thousands of people. From grounds keepers to SIDs to Color Commentators to Multi-millionaire Head Coaches. And the risk these football players assume is no less than that of the future NFL stars. Football is a dangerous game. Jordan Dowrey had back surgery before he turned twenty. He still has issues he plays through every day. He will likely have another surgery before he turns thirty. He is not unique. As a matter of fact, his is pretty typical of a college football player's career.

It's like this for me: Is an actor worth $20 million for a single film? Is a boxer worth $50 million for a single fight? Quite simply, no. Hard to justify. Until you look at the money that film or fight will bring in. The bigger question becomes what percentage of the money does the actor deserve? College football is a multi-billion dollar business. Tons of people are making a living off it, and plenty of people are getting rich because of it. It was different before, when college sports were played for a scholarship and pride in your school. While those things still exist, so do football staffs that makes in excess of $10 million a year.
It's getting ridiculous, honestly. The arms race is out of control.

I got into an argument the other day with my dad & uncles about this. The divide in college football has been labeled P5 & G5. We're all aware of that. But there's another divide that IMO is much greater. And that's the divide between the top 10% and everyone else. The divide between OSU/PSU/UM and Purdue/Indiana/Rutgers is so large, it's not competitive. Miss St can't compete with Alabama, but they're in the same conference/division.

College football is a farce. The top programs include noncompetitive programs into their conference to give them someone to beat on (rarely backfires on them, like it did last weekend w/OSU@Purdue). These top programs get to claim superiority, when it's actually just a lack of competition because of lack of systematic structure. I get that the top 10% make all of this money, but it's because their fan base is so large from people loving winners. OSU fans love the jersey, not the name on it. If Charles Woodson went to OSU and Orlando Pace went to Michigan, the money made by each program would stay the same. The player didn't move the needle.

Very few players actually make a program money, IMO. I agree with your statement on about $1,000/month for spending money. Players deserve that on top of what they already get, with what they put their bodies through. But I'm a fan of Marshall, not a player. I root for the players while they're at Marshall, but if Tyre Brady transferred somewhere else, I wouldn't be a fan of his and I wouldn't be a lesser fan of Marshall. Same with Rakeem Cato. Of all the players who have come through Marshall in the last 25 years, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich, and Randy Moss are the only ones who have moved the needle that much for me.
 
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