Why are college athletes not unionized?

[Youk]

Because They ARENT PROFESSIONALS. They are students. Therefore they shouldn't get the revenue from jersey sales and other things like that.

Agreed with that. Also, when the revenue is earned by the school off of sports, the money goes right back into both the school and the sports program, making them both better off. They already receive money during road trips for food/expenses. That's good enough. They are not professionals, and the majority of which will never become professionals. They are getting a quality education for free, and using that education to further themselves in life. How many of those athletes would have gone to college or as good of a college if it wasn't for these scholarships?

[Senser81]

They can wait to get to the NFL.

Its just a small percentage of college athletes that actually make it to the NFL/NBA.

Major scholarship athletes are very well taken care of.

Not relative to the income they generate for the University.

Which is why this hasn't really come up.

This has actually been an issue for a long time now. I remember Mitch Albom talking about this in the early 90's.

They don't need the money when practically everything is paid for.

Everything isn't paid for, and again its all relative to the income they generate. UNC selling #50 basketball jerseys and collecting the money, while Tyler Hansbrough doesn't get a dime.

I'm against anything that makes NCAA football more of a business because thats what the NFL gets closer to every day.

So the NFL ISN'T a business?

[Senser81]

Maybe thats why I said MAJOR COLLEGE ATHLETES dumb fuck. He listed Derrick Williams who is plays for Penn State. Perfect example.

Oh, silly me. I apologize for you interpreting my comments to mean "a very small percentage of female field hockey players actually make it to the NFL/NBA".


Take the cock out of your ass and the cum out of your ears and try acting intelligent for once. Sheesh.

My point remains...a very small percentage of major college athletes who play football or (men's) basketball actually make it to the NFL/NBA.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

In principal, I agree student-athletes of revenue generating sports should be allowed to share in the profits. However, that brings up another issue.

Like it's already been said, students aren't technically employees so that's why they aren't unionized. But let's suppose they were. Do we only unionize athlete's of those sports that turn a profit? Unions are created supposedly for the fair and ethical treatment of all employees in a given company or industry. So does some guy who's an alternate on the swimming team get the same benefits as the star quarterback at the same school? Or do we have some sort of pay scale based each person's financial contribution to the school? Or better do they all get agents and negotiate contracts to go to school? What of female athletes? Very few female sports programs turn a profit and I'm fairly certain all of them are basketball. If I'm a star football or men's basketball player and we're gonna start unionizing & outright paying everybody I want a much larger cut than athletes in other sports. Hell, I want a larger cut than guys on my own team if I'm the star.

Unionizing them sounds like a great rally cry & it would be if only the football & basketball players were involved but they're not. So many athletes can only compete in their sports at many schools because of the money one or both of those sports is bringing in.

Again, I agree in principal that athletes should be getting more but flat-out unionizing isn't the answer.

Should grad students get a cut of the grant money given to the University for research?

[Senser81]

Should grad students get a cut of the grant money given to the University for research?

Sometimes a grad student's research job at the University is entirely dependent on grant money. So, in essence, the grant is paying the wage for the grad student. Grant money usually has 'strings attached', meaning its money that can only be spent a certain way for certain things. I see your point, but I think that situation is different than the football team getting $2.5 million to play in the Alamo Bowl.

[Senser81]

I really can't stand you. You have already made enemies with a few people on the site. You just don't know when to stop and it has made you the most annoying thing since Jax. You just remind me of someone that has a shit life and comes on here to try to make it seem like you have some type of purpose to find legitimacy in everyone's post.

Thats nice. I enjoy people who like to throw around terms such as 'cocksucker' and 'dumb fuck', then when they are hit with return fire they go crying to mommy. Sorry if I annoy you, but I can't help it when you say stupid things over and over again (see the Vick thread) or if you can't interpret simple comments correctly (see this thread). My recommendation would be if you don't really know what you are talking about or you don't really understand what you are reading, then lay off the profanity when you type your responses. Cumtwat.

BTW, what other people's 'hit list' have I made? Or are you pulling a Point Blank and refusing to name names.

[FirstTimer]

Hokie and Point Blank = Woodward and Bernstein............... VSN=Watergate

[steeljake]

What if Derrick Williams had torn his ACL in the Rose Bowl against USC?

then he can still get the education that was promised for him playing on the team.

[Youk]

then he can still get the education that was promised for him playing on the team.

Exactly. These players are getting free room, board, meals, and extra incentives already given to athletes, including tutors and other help.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/28/local/chi-jock-tutoringnov28

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Sometimes a grad student's research job at the University is entirely dependent on grant money. So, in essence, the grant is paying the wage for the grad student. Grant money usually has 'strings attached', meaning its money that can only be spent a certain way for certain things. I see your point, but I think that situation is different than the football team getting $2.5 million to play in the Alamo Bowl.

I agree that the situation is different, but, like the grad student with on scholarship in part because of the grant money available, the athletic program is able to give out scholarships and provide the facilities they do to these athletes, in part (can't forget things like alumni donations, etc) because of the money raised by those programs.

I guess, the issue for some here, indirectly, is that the money raised from winning in athletics trickles down to the entire student body, alumni, staff, etc when I guess, in their opinion, a percentage should be going into those student-athletes that made it happen?

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

With a degree in what, communications? What classes did he take? How much did he really learn?

The point is that some people have said that "they get their big paychecks in the NFL anyway," but that simply isn't true. You can't say "They'll get theirs eventually," and then if they don't, say "well they got an education."

If I work ten hours, but I don't get paid until the eleventh hour and just before I sprain my ankle and can't finish working, and all they do is feed me lunch, you can't say "well at least he got lunch." The fact that the athletes are being given some compensation does not mean that they are being given adequate or fair compensation.

Like I said, back during the Gilded Age, if you provided a service for somebody and all they did was give you housing, and pay you in currency only good at the factory store, that was called a Factory Town. They were outlawed for a reason, because you can't work a guy for twelve hours a day, send him to a shack with a coupon to buy bread, and say "We fed him, we sheltered him, and the work made him stronger." It's an argument people stopped having in the 1930's or so.

People also need to stop the nonsense that athletes are just students. A University does not make millions of dollars a year by recruiting English majors. A University doesn't get the money for a new stadium by giving all their Bio majors a free ride, and forbidding them to make money through any other method involving Biology. Colleges target and use athletes to very specific purposes. They are brought onto the campus as athletes, not students, to make money for the sports program, not to win esteem for the school's educational programs. Any other view of the relationship between major sports universities and their athletes requires a willful ignorance of... a lot of things.

So, the University should pay him because he decided to take a worthless (guilty as charged) degree?

I guess the countdown clock should start right now for me, waiting on that big fat check from the University.

Gotcha.

[Senser81]

I guess, the issue for some here, indirectly, is that the money raised from winning in athletics trickles down to the entire student body, alumni, staff, etc when I guess, in their opinion, a percentage should be going into those student-athletes that made it happen?

Yeah, thats about it. I would like to add that its strange to me that John Calipari can earn $3.5 mil/year coaching the Kentucky basketball team, yet a player like Jodie Meeks gets a 'scholarship to an SEC school not named Vanderbilt', which is like getting minimum wage.

[Senser81]

So, the University should pay him because he decided to take a worthless (guilty as charged) degree?

I guess the countdown clock should start right now for me, waiting on that big fat check from the University.

Gotcha.

Coulda been worse...Williams could have majored in "Gay/Lesbian Studies"...like Hokie obviously did.

[Youk]

With a degree in what, communications? What classes did he take? How much did he really learn?

That's not the schools responsibility. If the student is a dumbass, then the student is a dumbass. As if communications won't get you somewhere in life. If the athlete is taking that major, then they're probably better off than they would have been without the scholarship.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Coulda been worse...Williams could have majored in "Gay/Lesbian Studies"...like Hokie obviously did.

Perfectly missed opportunity...the correct answer was "Marketing"...