(10-04-2019 02:52 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-04-2019 01:00 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The "Scholarships are compensation!" argument is a red herring because the NCAA regulations apply to ALL athletes, regardless of whether they are receiving a scholarship. Many Division I athletes, most Division II athletes and all Division III athletes do NOT receive scholarships, yet are still prohibited to obtain compensation for their names and likenesses. Therefore, simply stating that scholarships are enough of a compensation neglects the fact that the vast majority of NCAA athletes don't receive a scholarship at all.

As I noted elsewhere, my kids' summer swim team coach is a Division I swimmer at an Ivy League school, which does NOT provide athletic scholarships. (Repeat: this person does NOT receive an athletic scholarship despite being a Division I athlete. Do I need to repeat that again?) Despite the fact that this person does NOT receive an athletic scholarship as a Division I athlete, that person still has to abide by the NCAA's compensation rules. Therefore, that person had to coach as a volunteer without compensation despite the fact that person's twin sibling (who was not a Division I athlete) was able to get paid for doing the exact same job. This is a real life scenario that I witnessed with my very own eyes and can't be called anything other than monumentally stupid.

For the love of everything holy, please stop using the "Scholarships are compensation!" argument because it's straight up not true for the vast majority of NCAA athletes that are still subject to NCAA compensation rules.

Actually, you bring up a HUGE point I had not really considered until now.

The key to competitive balance in the NCAA D-1 is two fold. One key has been the amateur rule that limits the outside influence of money on recruiting. The other, and perhaps the most important key----is the scholarship limit. With unlimited funds sloshing around by boosters---spots that currently go to non-scholarship "walk-on" players can now in effect become paid "scholarship" slots. All a booster need do is sign the kid to a 30K "appearance fee" and that kid now has the money to pay his tuition just like any "scholarship player" (without a dime coming out of the players pocket). Using this method, a school could potentially raise it EFFECTIVE scholarship limit from 85 to 105. In other words, this change will also undermine the scholarship limit. Undermining the scholarship limit WOULD most definitely vastly change how the game looks today.

Bear Bryant is smiling down from heaven getting 105 players again like he did with Track and Field scholarships.