I was talking about the fact that we will be playing West Virginia University in their stadium. Travel destinations are not on my radar.
You are also interested in Div III sports for some strange reason. I could not care any less! West Virginia hasnât been relevant in football in years.
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College football is a passion of mine. But, I understand the sentiment.
PS When they beat us on Mountaineer Field, what will that say about our program?
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Remember when losses to Oregon State seemed like a joke?
When was the last time they were ârelevantâ?
Good olâ Massey
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People talk about billions being made by the universities. Remember, however, that most if not all of the margin, even more, went to fund unprofitable female sports per Title IX. There was a big net gain because of the federal grants and contracts for research and financial aid to students that was preserved by compliance with Title IXâthe penalty for non-compliance is no federal funds (the statute is literally based on contract theory). Thatâs the exchange.
But obviously, for many universities, life would become easier just to say weâre done with this DI thing and go the Ivyâs way. Then the federal academic money would be preserved because equalizing investment in male and female sports would be simple. Most universities and administrators I have known would say good riddance. Maybe only Notre Dame has benefited in academic dollars from sports.
I believe the Pac 12 failed because the smart people who are capable of solving complicated problems washed their hands of the athletic programs and left the ADs in charge. I think youâre going to see more separation between universities and DI sports, effectively license agreements. They will be minor league sports teams or like European club teams.
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However, I donât think it was ever ethical or moral for universities to make money on athletesâ images without sharing the revenue and permission.
I think I feel differently about whether players were entitled to receive more than they got just to play.
But that there are all kinds of horrible unintended consequences from paying players is something I always expected.
I think that when the dust settles the biggest losers may be the 99% of the players who arenât pro material or big collegiate program stars.
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We had a faculty member - who is now at Kings College, London - who asked me why the U should have a football team, at all, why the faculty should tolerate this obvious distortion of the academic mission.
Athletics at universities in the US are as much about marketing and alumni engagement as anything else. Would anyone, anywhere think anything about SDSU if they hadnât gone to the Final Four?
My grandson just finished his FR year at SMU. One of his buddies is on the polo team. The polo athletes - students and equine - arenât part of the marketing for the university⌠which like the Ivy league schools and Stanford, needs no marketing. That sport is about networking for Billionaires.
I donât see Utah ever getting a polo team, which very few would watch.
Utah is climbing the academic ladder, far higher than where we used to be, but aspire to be higher. Athletics helps connect the name with our academics, as we rise, for a lot of people who pay attention to sports.
The kind of kids weâre recruiting are generally a lot more capable than when we werenât in the PAC. Chris Hill told Mac no on Sione Havili, because of some youthful indiscretions, because Hill was aiming to get us into the PAC. Randall is doing much the same thing with our academics - aiming higher.
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âI think that when the dust settles the biggest losers may be the 99% of the players who arenât pro material or big collegiate program starsâ
Seattleute, I agree with you here. I am afraid that your âswooshâ is all but guaranteed in the not-too-distant future.
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Utahâs reported athletic budget for 2023 was $126.3Mâits expenses $124.5M.
22M$ is about 19% of its 2023 revenuesâwhich should go up, but not enough to knock the % down by more than 1 or 2%.
Not to mention what they will have to pay for its share of the $ going for past damages.
Utah States revenues for 2023 $43M.
The inevitable Title IX lawsuit will be interesting: either by those not getting a âfair shareâ or the high profile players not want to share.
Appears NIL will now include actually doing endorsements etc. So Devion might get writerâs cramp from signing autographs.
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Yes. Many, perhaps even most of those kids would never have set foot in a university classroom or earned a degree without an athletics scholarship. I hope some key decision makers in the NCAA or Congress are thinking about those athletes.
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Weâre going to have to agree to disagree. This is where
I can hold two contrasting thoughts in my head. College sports has been like The River Runs through it for me and my extended family, and Iâm a huge believer in colleges and universities for our souls, our earning potential, the best values, and solving the worst human problems. I love the University of Utah. But I submit itâs laughable that DI sports has anything (positive) to do with Utahâs academic standing. However, weâve debated this enough here. Weâre not going to persuade each other.
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[quote=âoldstandingUte, post:30, topic:9280â]
The inevitable Title IX lawsuit will be interesting: either by those not getting a âfair shareâ or the high profile players not want to share.
[/quote]Can you create a formula that would give every freshman athlete the same base amount and then increase that amount when they become sophomores, etc. Utah has approximately 400 student athletes. If freshmen get $15k, Sophs - $25k, Juniors 35K and seniors and grads $50K and say there are 100 athletes in each class, it would cost $12.5m. You could then give each program a % of the remainder based on the number of full scholarships for the program to disburse based on athletic, educational and community service performance. Monies are paid monthly based on the athlete being on the team, enrolled and in good standing at the end of each month.
[quote=âoldstandingUte, post:30, topic:9280â]
Appears NIL will now include actually doing endorsements etc. So Devion might get writerâs cramp from signing autographs.
[/quote]I havenât seen this and I donât think anything is going to change with NIL. There was dark money before NIL, there is dark money now and there will be dark money moving forward.
When this happens college football will be the equivalent of the USFL and most of us will lose interest and the golden goose will have been cooked.
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NIL happened because of litigation. The portal has gotten out of control because of litigation. This is the chance for the NCAA and CFB powers to try to get ahead of something, for once in a long time.
If they donât enforce some kind of salary cap, itâs over. Conferences share money among the schools to cultivate some level of competition, otherwise schools like Oregon State or Iowa State would shrivel into bad joke status.
Equality never exists, but nobody wants to watch the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals over and over and over again.
On paper, based on NIL, resources and TV markets, Utah vs USC should be a tuneup game for the Trojans, but that didnât happen. People want to watch compelling games.
Iâm pulling for the NCAA to stick this landing. The alternative is the abyss.
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Itâs like trying to land an Antonov AN-125 âDreamâ - the biggest cargo plane in the World, on a postage stamp.
This is what the NCAA and P4 are trying to do.
A lot of mentions of Title IX in this discussion, rightfully so. But, I wonder, how many athletic programs of the colleges and universities in this great land of ours are actually compliant with Title IX right now? My guess, less than half. Unless there is a problem or if someone sues, that seems to be the only time anyone checks on it. I wonder how many times the U has undergone a federal Title IX audit.
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Be hopeful, Sir Greg:
Now, if anyone wants to assert the NCAA is like a Navy landing, totally agree:
Air Force vs. Navy Landing (youtube.com)
I liked this comment in the video:
Air force: I hope the landing gear wonât break
Navy: I hope the runway wonât break
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Whatâs a Space Force landing like?
Chris Hill with some cogent remarks: What former Utah AD Chris Hill thinks about the NCAA settlement â Deseret News
âFor me, itâs been troubling that itâs been in limbo for so long and everybody kind of knows where it was going in terms of players being paid in whatever avenues. And for one, I am glad that we can move on and maybe get some semblance of order to the various aspects of this compensation for athletes.â
âWell, itâs going to be very, very tough,â Hill said. âAnd I guess youâre going to have to decide as a university, do we want to get this done? Do we value all those other (non-revenue) sports? And how can we make sure they happen? Utahâs in a better position in one of the big conferences.
âHow to generate more money, and at the same time, how to maybe take a look at, are we running this in the most efficient manner we can? And a lot depends on what the bottom-line dollars are to go on. But I do think if itâs a university, theyâre going to want to make sure that they have those (non-revenue) sports. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to run an athletic department, and especially with the men and women both needing to be treated equitably.â
With more time to digest this, to me there are two big aspects that need to be addressed:
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Does revenue-sharing get confined to the revenue-generating sports?
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Or, in the name of fairness, equality and Title IX, does our partial menâs track team get dropped? Womenâs track / cross country? (Reference point - CU doesnât have a baseball team. You simply canât pay for everything)
I suspect the athletes and their families in the non-rev sports would be more than happy to not get salaries, if it means the programs can continue. How that aspiration is navigated with Title IX, I donât know.
Equality doesnât exist, it never has. A professor in Radiology makes more money than a Sociology professor. Whining and moaning hasnât rectified this reality, and itâs not going to rectify it in the future.
Hill alluded to some scrutiny coming on costs, including the rest of the staff that supports athletics, facility operations, transportation costs⌠everything. As weâve discussed here a lot, the revenue from ticket sales and Crimson Club and parking fees has limited upside.
I have no idea how tough this cost scrutiny is going to be⌠but if you look at all the costs involved in running a P4 college football team, some type of standard salary will be going to the guys who lay it on the line, the guys we see laying on the field, grimacing in pain.
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Just read the past damages are paid in part of front by NCAA & the balance comes from each teamâs share of the March Madness $$.
That is how they (the NCAA Board mostly P5 people) will force the non-P5âs to âpayâ a larger share of this part of the settlement.
Money is guaranteed by TV contract.
Plus they donât have to take it from annual budgets.
Genius, unless you are a Ut St fan.
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