Poll: Will College Sports Be Cancelled for the 2020-21 School Year?

[Gooner]

So, did the exploitation of Justin Fields end when tOSU called off the season while the exploitation of Trevor Lawrence continued when Clemson elected to play?

Because for all of this exploitation, Justin Fields is desperate to play, and he is being denied that option and was told what to do. While Trevor Lawrence, who could elect to not play and has more access to information about the decision to play or not play than anyone, chose to play, while also leading the players movement for the season to start. It's a popular narrative to claim that colleges are exploiting the athletes, but in this day and age, athletes have never been better informed and have never been more willing to speak out to assert their rights. While a number of college players have opted out (which is a good thing), the vast majority of the athletes want to play football (and all other college sports) and are outraged when they have been denied the ability to play.

In actual practice, the narrative that football players (and other college athletes) who want to play are a bunch of brain-washed dopes that don't know what is good for them is simply wrong. College athletes want their schools to provide a safe environment for them, and if the school provides reasonably available protections and protocols, they want to play. We are going to go through this again soon when basketball is about to start up, and it's going to play out the same way. The vast majority of athletes want to play and columnists/talking heads that are too lazy to look beyond the conventional "see, how these schools are exploiting these poor ignorant athletes and forcing them to play" will write/blabber on with the same uninformed thoughts that they have been spewing for the last 20 years.

Of course they want to play. But that should matter 0% when deciding whether or not it is safe enough to have a season.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

if minor league sports were separate from academics then we wouldn't have to worry about all this cognitive dissonance

 

[wakephan09]

Speaking from experience, being a student-athlete on campus when nobody but your teammates is around is just about the greatest thing ever.

Don't forget they're also getting unlimited meals, training and nutrition resources, workouts, and other benefits they'd not be getting at home.

Most students enrolled at resident colleges and universities want desperately to leave home and their parents and be with their friends but are (increasingly) denied that opportunity. Would be pretty great to be a football player at Carolina right now, for example.

I'm ambivalent about the whole playing thing, but just wanted to push back against the argument that somehow college football players living in the bubble are *more* exploited than they already were.

 

[wakephan09]

Also, there are probably a bunch of football players that desperately want to play precisely because this season is their last chance to make their case to NFL teams.

While the pandemic is certainly exposing a lot of the corruption and inequity in college football, it also reminds us that the NFL and most athletes *need* the college game.

It's a crazy complicated problem.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

well yeah, that's the problem, that the only path to the NFL for American kids is via three years of academics

not a single person designs this as the best system from scratch

it's that too many people have a lot financially and emotionally invested in the system as it is, not that it's a good system

 

[avalon]

I am posting this here again since no one seems to have read it last time. It is worth a read. I will say that I agree with a good bit of it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sa...s-boycott-pay-players-title-ix-ncaa?_amp=true

I will also add one thing he doesn’t discuss. For those that want to go pro they get a stage to audition on. Great students in academic fields do not get that.

Athletic directors don’t want to build those lavish facilities either, but they’ll keep doing it as long as recruits keep making college choices based on cherry wood locker rooms instead of chemistry departments.

Nor do ADs want to pay an offensive coordinator $1 million per year. But they also understand the capitalistic principles of a free market economy and the effect of winning football games on their bottom line – and don’t want some guy with a backwards cap from the local JC spitting chewing tobacco into a cup while mulling over third-and-long in the fourth quarter at the Rose Bowl.

Crazy to see him listing issues that could be solved by paying the players.

Not to mention using capitalism to excuse huge coaching salaries while arguing that college athletes should take what they are limited to and stop complaining.

Poor poor athletic directors, spending all that money on things they don't want.

 

[PhDeac]

well yeah, that's the problem, that the only path to the NFL for American kids is via three years of academics

not a single person designs this as the best system from scratch

it's that too many people have a lot financially and emotionally invested in the system as it is, not that it's a good system

The only path to any stable career for most American kids is at least two years of academics.

 

[tagsfan]

The only path to any profession for most American kids is at least two years of academics or trade school.

FIFY.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

The only path to any stable career for most American kids is at least two years of academics.

but nothing about sports makes it that way

it is that way because it's been that way


look around the world and show me another professional sports league that is like the NFL

 

[PhDeac]

I consider trade schools to be academic in the same way similar programs at community colleges are academic. You’re still talking about a two year investment in many cases.

 

[PhDeac]

but nothing about sports makes it that way

it is that way because it's been that way


look around the world and show me another professional sports league that is like the NFL

It’s American football. It is unique. There’s no 18 year old who could come in and contribute.

 

[Gooner]

It’s American football. It is unique. There’s no 18 year old who could come in and contribute.

That doesn't mean that development should be outsourced to colleges and universities. The NFL gets a free minor league system. For all intents and purposes, college football players at the FBS level are professional athletes. Only archaic ideals like "amateurism" and the antiquated NCAA prevent the obvious from occurring: a breaking off of sports from academics.

 

[PhDeac]

Sure. I agree with that. That's the point I've been making. They're treated like professionals, they should be paid for the work they do. That's a key argument for why it's fair to pay football players, but not most other college athletes. There's no avenue for football players to get paid until they're three years out of high school. That's not the case for other sports.

 

[Pilchard]

Coach K makes apocalyptic statements about the loss of another NCAA Tournament this upcoming March: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29687865/duke-mike-krzyzewski-says-ncaa-afford-again-lose-ncaa-basketball-tournament

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98% or more of the money for the NCAA," Krzyzewski said on Tuesday's edition of Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin on ESPN Radio. "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

"I think that's where you should start," Krzyzewski said on ESPN Radio. "Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble."

 

[deacdixieboy]

so, who doesn't belong in the list, and why?

2 of those require advanced degrees. One requires college and usually an advanced degree. One requires a GED.

 

[Gooner]

Coach K makes apocalyptic statements about the loss of another NCAA Tournament this upcoming March: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/29687865/duke-mike-krzyzewski-says-ncaa-afford-again-lose-ncaa-basketball-tournament

"We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like ... it produces 98% or more of the money for the NCAA," Krzyzewski said on Tuesday's edition of Keyshawn, JWIll & Zubin on ESPN Radio. "We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you don't have the NCAA tournament."

"I think that's where you should start," Krzyzewski said on ESPN Radio. "Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble."

lol yeah no shit you have to have the tournament if you want the NCAA to still exist

 

[thatguy2016]

2 of those require advanced degrees. One requires college and usually an advanced degree. One requires a GED.

ah - yes, one must have a college degree to be a military officer, while anyone can go into business

that's what you meant, correct?

 

[PhDeac]

Is Coach K making the case for not waiting until March to have a tournament or pushing back the tournament later because the NBA will likely be pushing the draft to August next year anyway?

Honestly, if the NCAA had their act together, they could have done a bubble tournament over the summer.

 

[deacdixieboy]

ah - yes, one must have a college degree to be a military officer, while anyone can go into business

that's what you meant, correct?

I’m not trying to make this the politics board so I won’t get into an argument about the qualifications (or lack thereof) that it takes to murder people all around the world in the name of “keeping us safe.” I will say that the post I responded to did not say “officer.” Have a nice day. Sorry I’m not sorry that I offended you.

 

[Gooner]

Is Coach K making the case for not waiting until March to have a tournament or pushing back the tournament later because the NBA will likely be pushing the draft to August next year anyway?

Honestly, if the NCAA had their act together, they could have done a bubble tournament over the summer.

No they couldn't, that wouldn't have allowed them to maintain the facade