School says it disagrees with national labor relations board ruling, plans appeal http://www.marketwatch.com/story/no...get-approval-to-unionize-2014-03-26-161033655
As a guy who would garner more pleasure from getting kicked in the scrotum than watching people I don't know representing a school I didn't attend playing a game the outcome of which has no affect on me. Could someone kindly give me a brief explanation why college football players would feel the need to unionize?
1) The players want protection/insurance/money for medical expenses as a result of injuries that materialize in the future because of having played college football. 2) The players might be able to receive "additional compensation" beyond their full scholarships because of the profitability of the team for the benefit of the school and NCAA. 3) The "push" to unionize college players will coattail what's going on in the NFL with the brain injuries of retired players. :eek:
If this ends up going through (long way off), I will never watch another game again. Fucking unions ruin everything.
Let's face it, most of the male football/bball players at the D-1a level aren't there for the education. They're there to hopefully win the lottery and make the leap to the pros. It's all a facade. They're not student athletes. They're athletes who are (*wink* *wink*) students. Banish football and bball, and establish a real minor league/d-league for football and bball. Then the players will learn their true value - $0 for 95% of the players. What happens to the money from the alumni and TV contracts? It dries up. I'm probably wrong, but it won't go to these minor leagues. Why? There's no hook. No marque value. No school identity. No tradition. No rivalry. No all-consuming passion to reach #1 in the polls and win the championship from the players, coaches, administration, student body, or alumni. So go ahead and kill the goose. If I ran the schools, I'd kill the sports. Make them create a minor league system. Acquaint the players with riding hours at a time in broken down buses, staying in 3rd-rate hotels, have bare-bones training facilities, etc. Just like in baseball's minor league system. It's all about money and entertainment. The athletes are just cogs in the wheel. Necessary, but interchangeable. They can always find someone new to take the place of a departing player. Are they being exploited? Of course they are. Most know this going in. The big carrot of a pro contract is enough motivation for the players to toil and endure playing for nothing. Just like kids working all hours in a Silicon Valley start-up. The stock options are the golden handcuffs. You can't win the prize unless you're willing to work 120 hour weeks for peanuts, with the very real risk of having nothing to show for it after 5 years. That's the gamble, and for most people, it's worth taking. Especially in your early 20s. Very little downside, and (potentially) huge potential upside. The unintended consequence of unionization will be the continued suppression of minorities/poor, as college athletics is truly the only path out of the ghetto for a majority of them. It's funny how blinded to reality these idealistic, liberal fools are. They think they're helping, and they're only hurting.
College Football and to a smaller extent Basketball brings millions into University coffers through ticket sales, merchandising and more importantly TV contracts, it's Big business. Just understand the recent conference realignments, it was all about the mighty buck. Profits from these fund basically all other collegiate sports; their tuition, equipment, infrastructure, etc... The NCAA has positioned themselves over the colleges and extorts them via fines for breaking a multitude of stupid rules and regulations. * example, a family member of a student athlete couldn't use a cell phone of their respective colleges coach, administration or booster to call a wrecker if their car broke down.... that would be construed as monetary gain. Yes the playing field for the different colleges needs to be as equal as possible, unlike the days of old when the major universities would basically buy up and scholarship all the better athletes. These athletes put their bodies on the line to make millions and millions for the colleges, to pay them something isn't and shouldn't be a crime. Most of them show up to campus on scholarship with little to nothing, coming from impoverished backgrounds