The broadcasters already pay money to the schools.
It’s definitely the NCAA that is standing between broadcasters and players. It’s not as if the networks are deciding to skip the players.
I know that system is set up to prevent that, but broadly I think we should talk about broadcasters paying players rather than schools. I teach at the University, so like others I balk at the idea of a school paying players directly. But, I also work in entertainment and it just makes sense for me that if you could scrap everything and create a more equitable system from scratch, that broadcast money would go both the players and the school. You have to pay an actor, musician or dancer to broadcast their work, it’s a quirk that this subset of athletes aren’t treated the same way.
The reason that people talk about the schools paying the players is that the broadcasters are paying the schools for the rights to broadcast those students.
This would be one of the many avenues available if athletes owned their own name, image, and likeness…a system I fully support.
I’m curious, do pro athletes get paid directly by broadcasters?
I’m having a hard time picturing a system where they pay athletes for playing, particularly in team sports. Perhaps for doing promos for their broadcasts, but that would go to a tiny minority of the players and probably doesn’t amount to much.
No, but it’s all part of the league revenue, which gets allocated to the players via the cba
Yeah, I understand how that works in leagues with revenue sharing like the NBA. The broadcasters paying players directly seems radically different even without a CBA. I have a hard time imaging how that would work. I was curious what that poster would propose and whether he had other revenue streams in mind.
Well the obvious thing is that the TV networks pay schools and conferences billions of dollars to broadcast the amateur athletes. That’s why it makes sense for some of that to be distributed to players.
As far as throwing someone $5 for shooting a promo, not so much. But if athletes were able to profit off of their likeness, I assume it wouldn’t take long for them to sue and demand a share of the TV revenue.
The strongest weapon college athletes have is a strike, not another lawsuit. No CFB playoff games or no NCAA basketball tournament one year would force major change.
If the NCAA proposes to let players profit off their likeness, they are going to control how it’s done and it’s going to be written into their scholarships. I can guarantee it will exclude any revenue sharing from ticket sales or broadcast rights. If the schools think granting players any rights to profit from their name or likeness will lead to revenue sharing, there’s no chance they will approve it. I am sure they will have 100s of lawyers looking into it.
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Which is why players aren’t going to be granted any rights to profit from their name or likeness.
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I can understand why ticket sales, concessions, merchandise and alumni donations go to the University’s Athletic department for their discretion. That’s not too dissimilar to high school sports. And the world-class actors in our Musical Theater program don’t get a cut of ticket sales for their UMS shows.
It’s the broadcast dollars that I think should be apportioned to the players. For reference, an actor on a TV show gets $933 minimum if they’re coming in for one day’s work.
Well hell I guess we should start paying the Marching Band also. This issue may lead to the demise of College sports. Might as well just turn it into full blown minor leagues. Right now College sports is much more exciting than professional sports but when out right paying College players happens that will totally change.
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Are you saying players should be paid scale?
I still don’t understand what you are suggesting. Could you give a proposal where college athletes are paid directly by broadcasters? Just saying they should get money from them doesn’t address the issue.
Do players get the same amount for every game? The same % share? For every sport? How much? What if some broadcasters are willing to pay players and others won’t?
I don’t see why letting players make money would ruin the sport if coaches and athletic directors making millions didn’t.
And even if it did, my entertainment isn’t more important than doing the right thing IMO.
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No specific proposal. Just making a broader philosophical argument. Tickets sales, merchandise that doesn’t feature their likeness, donations and such bring in a lot of money but it makes sense that that goes to the University to cover a lot of what they need to do.
It’s the broadcast rights that has brought crazy money into college athletics. A lot of people are getting rich off the talents of these young men and women and it’s unfair that they don’t get any of that money.
I’m sure there’s a lot of ways you could do it. I’m not sure on this but I think NBA players get 50% of the TV deals (which are used to set the salary cap and minimums). Maybe you could take a percentage of what the NCAA or Conferences negotiate and split that evenly among all the athletes as a stipend. Maybe that forces the Jim Delaney’s of the world to have to take much needed pay cuts.
Merchandise that doesn’t feature their likeness? C’mon man. Every jersey I have ever owned is because of the player and Michigan. It’s not just because it’s a Michigan jersey. I would imagine most people buy jerseys for the exact same reason.
41 = Glen Rice
4 = Chris Webber
5 = Jalen Rose
25 = Juwan Howard
2 = Charles Woodson
6 = Tyrone Wheatley
10 = Tom Brady
21 = Desmond
32 = A-Train
1 = Probably the only thing close to an exception, but still got it because of AC, DA, Terrell, and Braylon
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Denard = 16, Trey = 3, etc. etc.
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Sorry, but slippery slope arguments like this are ridiculous. No one is going to pay the band. Unlike the players, they don’t generate revenue.
I get that people like you want to go back to the good old days, but surely even you can see the hypocrisy and inherent unfairness of a system that literally makes billions off the labor of student athletes while preventing them from earning a dime beyond the costs of education.
Perverse systems like that are exactly why there are so many people trying to cheat the system. The recent school company scandals are just the tip of the iceberg. The current incentives to cheat would be reduced greatly by allowing kids to profit from their likeness, while inserting far more fairness into the system for the athletes.
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Distribution of broadcast revenue is part of the school’s budget that pays for AD expenses. At UM, we had about a $180 million budget in 2018. $67 mil for salaries of 390 coaches and staff was the biggest item. $26 mil went to scholarships, 75% out of state, and $17 million on debt service for our first class facilities, etc., etc.
The inequity to the players is overstated, IMO. Only a handful of players in high profile sports could generate income from selling their likenesses. Abuse of this would be difficult to contain. Yes, the teams generate a lot of broadcast revenue to the schools. Michigan got $50 million in 2018. All of that went to the above mentioned expenses. The flip side is the broadcast exposure that the players get playing on high D1 teams. That is worth a lot. Yes, a few hoops players could, if allowed, go right to the NBA. 99% need the exposure and training that they get in college. If not NBA, then playing overseas where a Michigan pedigree has some weight. Stu Douglass has played in Israel since graduation.
We take a kid out of high school and give him/her the best training, the best facilities and maximum exposure. What is that worth if you’re not Emoni Bates? Plus a $60,000/yr. scholarship if you’re out off state, free tutoring, a cost of attendance stipend, a $12 million study facility on the athletic campus. Then there are the doors that are open to you as a former Michigan athlete.
I’m not necessarily opposed to a student/athlete getting some compensation from appearing in a promotional ad, but I’d want it tightly controlled so that rich boosters don’t have any more corrupting means than they already have.
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