Originally Posted by Viperstick
As predicted, the "pay the players" chorus has begun.
If this is the solution, it needs to become a business transaction. As such, there should be 1) a contract between player & school (not the coach) to protect each parties' interests; 2) a signing bonus paid based on the player's past performance (3-star Sam Miller would have commanded more upfront cash than 2-star X Williams); 3) annual reassessment of quality of service (Sam Miller's salary goes down, while X Williams' salary goes up); 4) only a portion of salary is available for immediate spending, a significant portion goes into an escrow account for disbursement at completion of service contract; 5) full federal/state/FICA taxation; 6) institution of 401K & match.
Time for everyone to grow up a little.
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Compensation to the players is something that absolutely needs to be on the table, simply because of how much money people are making off of them. It offends the intellect when the actual drivers of the revenue are not compensated fairly, thus all the pro sports drama any time a collective bargaining agreement comes up.
The fact that the money is almost as big for the big 2 college sports, and there is NO compensation and no collective bargaining makes it hard for a lot of people to see any justice in the system.... but at the same time, the idea of just turning college players into free agent/salaried commodities is pretty gross, too.
So I like a lot of what Viperstick proposes as a more robust system of give-and-take. Maybe remove the "annual reassessment" clause, which could be an even more grotesque loophole than anything already on the books.... or, at the very least, some bare minimum "buy out" (equal to 125% of the tuition/room/board costs that would be required to complete a degree, with no requirement that that money be spent at the same institution) on top of full pay-out for all years of service completed.
Two proposed additions:
(1) Adoption of a "pool money" system, as used in the MLB draft. In the absence of a draft, all schools would get the same "pool money" per year, with penalties (to be subtracted from future years) for going over, and the ability to make a limited transfer of your unused pool money to the future, if you come up short. Details would have to be hammered out, but the upshot is that smaller schools won't be totally shut out of top tier talent, since there won't be any more "Fab Five" classes.
(2) A significant portion of all future National TV Contract Money is set aside for Performance Bonuses. Not PERSONAL performance, but team wins. Bonuses would be available for Regular Season Championships, Conference Tournament Championships, Post-Season Appearances (NCAA and NIT only), and Post-Season Wins (NCAA only). Bonuses are the same, regardless of conference, but obviously, this still favors conferences that actually advance teams in the Big Dance (while still rewarding teams who do their best and dominate in a lesser conference, which might be enough to lure a recruit who would rather star on a dominant MEAC team than ride the bench for an ACC team that's never gonna sniff the NCAA Tourney).
That is all.
