I am not sure who the Congressman was, but one called up his show (this was on XM ESPN U, not ACCN) and was discussing this. He said "we" (congress) has been on Mark Emmert and the NCAA to "get in front of this" or it is going to become the Wild Wild West and we are are going to have to get involved eventually.
And he ripped Emmert and the NCAA. Great line by the Congressman, "Mark Emmert seems to be nowhere to be found except when it is time to sign a new contract". They have been saying that they are are going to have to figure out how to pay these guys and do it in an organized fashion that maintains some semblance of competitive balance. And again, the NCAA preferred to just bury their heads and didn't seem interested in coming up with some semblance of an organized solution. Now, because of different laws, you have state to state variations on what some of these benefits are too the players, and some schools in certain states will have unfair advantages. And as this gets sorted out, if it gets out of control, congress will have no choice but to step in and possibly remove the non profit status of these schools and make these kids employees with all that comes with it and they don't want to do this.
That college football now is a highspeed train away from become "NFL Lite" as Packer called it, with maybe 40-50 teams having 100 scholarships. And they were also focusing on the fact that yes, they had no illusions on education over football, but the fact is 2% of these guys make the NFL and 2000 of them right now are in the Transfer Portal. Does education even matter at all? Why are all of these kids transferring? Because they can?
This is not good. And again, it is slanted for the very top teams. Hell, now they can hoard 5 star recruits AND get the players they missed on their first go round in recruiting them. It is completely BS. And not the opt outs for bowl game (meaningless) so how can they be sold to the public. Perhaps the only good to come from this is these opt outs will start cutting into viewership and attendance which will fast track an expanded playoffs.
And he ripped Emmert and the NCAA. Great line by the Congressman, "Mark Emmert seems to be nowhere to be found except when it is time to sign a new contract". They have been saying that they are are going to have to figure out how to pay these guys and do it in an organized fashion that maintains some semblance of competitive balance. And again, the NCAA preferred to just bury their heads and didn't seem interested in coming up with some semblance of an organized solution. Now, because of different laws, you have state to state variations on what some of these benefits are too the players, and some schools in certain states will have unfair advantages. And as this gets sorted out, if it gets out of control, congress will have no choice but to step in and possibly remove the non profit status of these schools and make these kids employees with all that comes with it and they don't want to do this.
That college football now is a highspeed train away from become "NFL Lite" as Packer called it, with maybe 40-50 teams having 100 scholarships. And they were also focusing on the fact that yes, they had no illusions on education over football, but the fact is 2% of these guys make the NFL and 2000 of them right now are in the Transfer Portal. Does education even matter at all? Why are all of these kids transferring? Because they can?
This is not good. And again, it is slanted for the very top teams. Hell, now they can hoard 5 star recruits AND get the players they missed on their first go round in recruiting them. It is completely BS. And not the opt outs for bowl game (meaningless) so how can they be sold to the public. Perhaps the only good to come from this is these opt outs will start cutting into viewership and attendance which will fast track an expanded playoffs.
