re: Proposed CA bill would force schools to split football, basketball revenue with athletes

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You could replace the entire SEC with 1 star athletes and dress them in the college unis. Send all the 5-stars to a minor league. You could call it the USFL and wear those snazzy throwback unis. They could play in football havens like Birmingham, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans. They are free to make as much revenue as they bring in.

Guess what, people will still flock to college football.

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This is absolutely correct. Even if every SEC football roster looked like Mount Union, there would still be 80,000 people at the Georgia/Florida game and hundreds of thousands more in the area for tailgating.

When considering revenue, does that take in to account donations through institutions like TAF? Because I understand that the overwhelming majority of athletic programs don't make a profit on any given year, but funding is clearly flush for most power 5 programs and it is evident by the substantial increase in athletic and fan facilities over the last 20 years.

The bill itself is laughable, but I don't think the idea that there is ample revenue generated by the football and basketball teams to support compensation for the players is laughable.

A significant percentage of fans attend college games because of the social aspect. Tailgating, visiting your alma mater, seeing friends. For some, the game isn’t even the best part (I’m in that crowd).

Not many fans go to the games to see future pros. As Seinfeld said, “you’re rooting for laundry”. You want your jerseys to beat theirs. That’s all there is to it so long as the competition is fierce.

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It’s completely anti-American and socialist.

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It is neither of those things.

But I would be open to you convincing me that a system predicated on extreme and total authoritarian monopoly by management, is socialist.

Socialist would be if the players owned the league.

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The arguments are purely emotional and from a fans point of view, not what is actually the right thing to do and in line with our supposed capitalistic ideologies of the market

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For some, yes, it is all emotion. For others, there is some deductive reasoning occurring.

Student-athletes are getting compensation in the form of scholarships, books, housing, meals and on and on. One side argues they get nothing. This is a purely emotional argument as well.

Also, playing college sports is a privilege, not a right. The athletes don't have to play, they want to play. And now, rightfully, they can make money off of their NIL. Although, I think we all agree that some uniformity is needed to protect the sport and the athlete. But, the point is that they are voluntarily playing for a school and it has to work for both parties.

Now, we all should object to the government interjecting and telling an entity what they must pay someone. If this bill were to pass, the number of schools that will just do away with sports will be mind boggling. They won't be able to afford it so they will just close those programs.

Tell me, what student athletes are helped when there are less teams to play for?

The OVERWHELMING majority of student-athletes are very, very happy that their schooling is paid for and that they get to continue to play the game they love. All of those arguing in favor of this asinine proposal have their heads in the sand and are financially illiterate.