The death knell for athletic donations.

So my BIL works in the athletic department at Penn St. Basically FB and both BB teams will be employees going forward and all non-revenue sports will basically become club sports. Now each school can modify what teams can be considered employees but contracts whether it be 1,2, or 3 year will be used. Not sure about lower levels but it's coming in the next 5 years.

fjblair wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2024 8:03 am

The death knell for athletic donations.

One would assume that the value of a scholarship will be income (salary/wages) for the athlete. Yosef club donations cannot be used to pay coaches salaries so I assume donations will not be permitted to pay athletes' wages. Yosef club donations are currently tax deductible because they are for scholarships. I agree, the beginning of the end. I'll not pay athletes and will transfer my donations to a true (tax advantaged) charity.

So basically greed from the institutions and now the players is going to completely ruin college sports.

Mjohn1988 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2024 10:18 am

So basically greed from the institutions and now the players is going to completely finish ruining college sports.

FIFY

I do wish more money for TV contracts would have gone and would go into general school operations such as need and merit based scholarships, but with all that ADs and coaches get I can't fault the athletes wanting their cut. I do think student fees for athletics should become voluntary at the same time. The redistribution of monies should be happening given the amount coming in if not helping everyone on campus but that also includes the general student population not having to go into thousands of dollars of debt either. I can't speak for every school but for most schools the athletic fees is more than the cost of tickets.

I hate to see college athletics fall apart like it is likely going to, but from a moral and ethical viewpoint this is better that the one-sided manner the wealth was flowing into campuses for something that is not at the core mission of a university and not really doing anything to promote that core mission beyond some PR for the school.

Unfortunately there is no longer a "supreme" governing body for college athletics that is concerned about fairness (parity). The NCAA has been neutered by the courts and the SEC and Big 10 now make the rules. For college athletics to survive long-term, there must be a governing body that can see beyond just the schools with 100,000-seat stadiums. Revenue sharing of some sort is the answer, I think. Look at the NFL. Without revenue sharing, could Indy or Jacksonville compete with Dallas, NY, or LA? If you're running a business, getting as close to a monopoly (within the law) is good; if you're running a sports league, not so much. You need enough parity to maintain interest in your product. At some point, we will grow tired (I hope) of watching only SEC and Big Ten teams in the CFB playoffs.

Much has been written about how baseball went from the national pastime to what it is now and the movement of the NFL into that postion. Some of it has to do with the parity that comes into play with how the NFL deals with money and such. You don't generally see NFL teams be down for years and years and during the season the best winning team is not doing that much better than those just out of the playoffs. There are some exceptions to that and some of that may have to do with under 20 games a season vs over 160 but that parity keeps interest around and the ability to have some upsets. That is what drives March Madness. It is the 12 seed wins drawing eyes to the TV. That does require some level of parity between the top seeds and the lower seeded teams.