Pay for Play, NCAA Style

I see that college athletes can now sign endorsement deals for payment.



Well, shit.



This sort of crap originates from the Great State of California, you know. The California state legislature and their Supreme Leader, Gavin Newsom, passed legislation allowing such behavior at that state’s colleges. The NCAA followed suit, otherwise all the quality athletes would automatically go to California, because they can get paid there.



Can a college athlete with a giant endorsement deal now even be removed from the student body for, oh, I dunno, refusing to go to classes or failing to pass? Or will that athlete be entitled to continue to represent that college because that’s his income source and he has a RIGHT to it? If he gets expelled does he have a cause of action to retain his endorsement? Is this athlete a student or an employee? If he gets hurt on the field of competition is he entitled to disability payments? After all, he WORKS FOR THE GODDAM STATE!! Probably be represented by AFSCME or AFL-CIO. With union rights.


Can a player sue his coach if the coach benches him causing the athlete to have fewer chances to have his name repeated by the announcers?



If a female soccer player doesn’t get as big a deal as a male football player will that be a Title IX issue or maybe a lawsuit issue? Christ, this idiocy will NEVER end.



The only acceptable solution is for any Institution of Higher Learning that receives any public money to be prohibited from offering athletic scholarships. Private schools can continue to pay their athletes under the table like they always have done, or they can just put them on the payroll. I don’t care. But if they feed at the public trough, athletic scholarships should be prohibited.



Finally, if any Institution of Higher Learning decides to continue to offer scholarships, athletic or otherwise, that money should be treated as normal income and taxed as such. Fair, after all, is fair.


Long as I'm on "fairness" here--What about really good High School athletes?  Or musicians?  Or cheerleaders?  Or drama students?  Or elementary school Spelling Bee champions who appear on PBS stations nationwide?



Yeah, I know that I used the male pronoun throughout this missive, but frankly I don’t give a shit if you’re offended.