SCNOW...because I can and someone should (long)...

Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney just doesn’t get it.
Upon hearing Wednesday’s news that a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern football players can unionize, Swinney told reporters, “We have enough entitlement in this country as it is. To say these guys get nothing totally devalues an education.”

If I’m a Clemson football player, I’m insulted by that. In January, Swinney signed an eight-year contract worth $27.15 million. It’s an excessive amount for any coach, let alone a coach of Swinney’s caliber. And it’s blood money earned off the sweatshop labor that is his players.
Swinney chalks up a group of football players trying to unionize to better themselves as entitlement, yet there’s no one on Clemson’s campus who feels he’s entitled more than Swinney.
No? Then why did Swinney agree to his mega-million dollar deal that is guaranteed for the full eight years even if he is fired within the next three years?
If the Tigers fall flat next year, coach, and you get a pink slip, why should the Brinks truck continue to drop off bags on the doorstep of your mansion? Don’t we have enough entitlement in this country as it is?
Your words, coach. Not mine.
Here’s a little advice, Dabo. You’ve already gotten more than your share of the pie. Don’t begrudge another for trying to get his. Just shut up and coach.
These days, more cash flows into big-time college athletic programs and conferences than some third-world countries. The top programs rake in more than $100 million a year from football and basketball. The NCAA is enjoying a 14-year, $10.8 billion – with a B – contract for its men’s basketball tournament, and the major conferences like the ACC and SEC have a 12-year, $7.2 billion deal with ESPN for a football playoff.
Then there are the millions of dollars pulled down by the NCAA and its athletic programs through tickets, jerseys, clothing, car flags, seat cushions, bottle openers and any other trinkets rabid fans might buy. And don’t forget all the Benjamins from boosters and fundraising breakfasts, lunches, dinners and golf tournaments.
So no, Dabo, when it comes to your players – you know, those guys on the field the fans really pay to see – an education isn’t enough of the pie.
Three meals a day, a roof over your head, some books, lectures and a degree – if a “student-athlete” has time between two-a-days and road trips to earn one – might be sufficient for the no-names on your roster, Dabo. But the guys up the depth chart – you know, the guys who really bring home the bacon for you – surely deserve more.
What about Tajh Boyd, your quarterback who rewrote the Clemson and ACC record books the past three years? His NFL prospects don’t look real good at this point. Is a $40,000-a-year job he might land with his sociology degree all he should get for the riches he’s helped heap upon you?
The Northwestern lawsuit isn’t the first attempt to garner more for college athletes, and there are more on court dockets across the land. At some point, something will change.
One way to give athletes more would be to allow them to sign endorsement deals like Olympic athletes do. Continue to give an athlete his scholarship and have his true worth fulfilled by companies willing to pony up cash for the athlete to pitch their products.
The top athletes would likely garner the most endorsement money as they should, while players who rarely see the field would still have their scholarships. It’s a logical idea. And it’s fair.
No matter how it’s done, though, college athletes should be getting more of the loot. They earn it.
And for you not to see that, Dabo, when your cup runneth over is troubling.

kewatfor

Fan [51]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 3

Joined: 8/16/11

Bundy nonsense

Mar 28, 2014, 6:03 PM

Dear Mr. Bundy,

I recently read your response to Coach Swinney's comments regarding college football players forming unions and felt I must reply. In my mind there seems to be a great deal of shortsightedness expressed by those who like yourself are in favor of paying players. The first thing I think we should do is realize that we are largely talking about two groups of players. The first is the group that will likely go on to make significant money in professional sports. To say that these players are not getting compensated is a difficult argument to make. First, they are obviously getting an education which is in itself very valuable. The other things they are getting are a little harder to articulate but still translate into very real economic compensation. The main thing they receive is the stage on which to showcase their talent for professional sports. It is important to point out that not all stages are created equal. A player that attends Ohio State benefits greatly from the fact that his school has chosen to invest in and be passionate about his sport consistently for over a hundred years. It provides him with coaches who can maximize his potential, who can help him improve his craft, and who allow him to show what he can do against other top notch competitors. There is no doubt that excelling at Ohio State offers the athlete much greater credibility than excelling at the Citadel. The one school has poured assets into its program which benefit its athletes greatly and which very few individuals could ever obtain on their own. To a star football player, spending three or four years under the tutelage of Urban Meyer or Nick Saban is priceless. It gives him instant credibility and opportunity. Thus the amount of exposure and credibility an athlete receives is nearly directly proportional to the amount of resources his school has chosen to place in its sports program. Especially in football, this opportunity exists no where else. It is a very rare commodity. It may be often overlooked but it is very real.

The second group of athletes are those that will likely not play professional sports and truly receive only the education and experience of playing college football. In my mind this is the only group where there is even a question of whether or not they are taken advantage of and never receive monetary compensation for what they contribute. This group still receives an education if they are wise enough to take advantage of it. This is the same education that you and I got because someone paid real dollars for it. Either your parents saved and paid your way, or you worked hard and earned scholarships, or you took out loans and then had to pay them back with interest. Please do not tell any parent who puts money away for college or anyone who is currently paying off student loans that this is anything but an incredibly valuable economic resource. It can literally change the course of not only your life but your children's lives. It is estimated that college graduates earn 75% more a year on average than high school graduates. For one of the best examples of this let's look no further than the object of your considerable disgust, Dabo Swinney. Even before becoming a football coach he was earning a ton of money and had become very successful financially. He came from a background of poverty, ignorance, and a broken family. Do you think that he could have obtained this level of success without having a college degree and without the notoriety that came from being a former Alabama football player? He chose to take advantage of his scholarship and look where he is now. Earning far more than you and I could dream of and likely doing that even before he turned back into coaching.

Lastly I would like to point out the false view perpetuated by the media in general regarding those millions and billions of dollars the universities and the NCAA is making. Besides the head coaches who I agree do have unbelievably high salaries, who are the people getting rich off of this? Are there university presidents on the Forbes list of richest people in the US? Is the head of the NCAA right up there with Bill Gates? The answer is simple. It really does cost a lot to sponsor collegiate sports. Having a broad academic program with rowing and wrestling and girls volleyball costs a ton of money and these costs increase each year. The lion's share of all that TV money is going into other programs and in some cases even helping keep tuition down for other students as state governments increasingly reduce their financial support. If I am wrong then please supply me with the list of people at Clemson and USC that have gotten filthy rich off of the college football success the last five years and I will gladly stand corrected.

I love college sports and especially college football. It is big business in one sense and I know that there is tremendous money in it. I completely support the athletes being given some sort of stipend that better offsets the true cost of attending college, but let's please not turn them into pros too soon. There will be a time for that for those that are the elite of the elite. Instead let me cheer on the Tajh Boyds of the world who play like I used to play. Who will likely never see the millions from the NFL, but played hard none the less. Do you remember Rob Deboer for USC? I'm a Clemson graduate and I loved that guy. He never saw the millions from the NFL but boy was he what college athletics is all about.

It is very easy to say that college players should be paid, it is much more difficult to offer details as how this should be done. It's easy to blast Coach Swinney as out of touch but have you seen how much he truly cares for those kids? As much of an egotistical jerk as Bobbby Knight could be at times, his players love him and he loves them. Unions are for making sure that our automotive and aerospace industry continues to struggle to compete with other countries. Unions are for those who want to make sure there is no gap in pay between the guy that works hard and the guy that does the absolute little as possible. If unions have any place in today's society (and I'm not sure they do) then they surely have no place in college football.

Sincerely,

Kyle Watford, MD

PS I was just a high school athlete and the lessons I received there served me well throughout college and medical school. They taught me to value hard work, work with others, and work towards bigger goals than just bettering myself. They taught me to exercise regularly and stay healthy. I consider them to be perhaps the greatest lessons that I learned.

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RESPONSE

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I mean...like in the last 20 minutes***

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1st time seeing this article

Well done... I will be waiting for the clean-up article!***

The article was dumb. Censorship is dumber

Thanks and solid advice...

Re: The article was dumb. Censorship is dumber

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I hold the view that bad things will continue to happen

Bundy nonsense

Bundy nonsense

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