(01-25-2024 11:58 AM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 08:40 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 05:56 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  

(01-23-2024 01:46 PM)Psicosis Wrote:  

(01-22-2024 11:18 PM)Bathtub Gin Wrote:  I really hate athletes now, I really do.

Roots for the "free market," chafes at anyone getting paid market value. Checks out.

The “free market” and professional sports don’t mix. Pro sports are basically the antithesis of a free market model. They are heavily regulated monopolies with strong unions and revenue sharing.

At the team level, they are heavily regulated competitive markets ... the problem with removing the regulation which would allow them to be "free markets" is that unfettered markets often tend toward tight oligopoly, and a tight oligopoly is problematic when what you sell is competition against other businesses in your sport.

The legal challenge in the US is that much of the required private regulation of teams in a sport is accomplished by forming a cooperative league structure with rules on player movement which are illegal for a business association to impose except by agreement with a union representing the players.

At the college level, there are fewer fetters (so a tighter oligopoly), and the fetters that have been imposed on player movement have been under the legal fiction that the players are students at the individual schools who just happen to have an interest in playing varsity sports as an extracurricular activity. With various elements of the necessary limits on an unfettered market falling to court challenge, the process of moving college sports to a viable semi-pro sports model is an intrinsically tricky process.

In sports the challenge is to balance the needs of parity, competition, and rules standards with mobility in market rewards.

The NFL does a good job of managing this. Especially in comparison with MLB.

Yet look at the # of different champions recently. Since 2000 MLB has had 16 champions, with only 5 teams winning more than one. Since 2000, NFL has had only 13 champions with 6 winning more than one. And Bal/KC could easily keep it at that.

Greedy schools
Greedy conferences
Greedy TV networks
Greedy coaches
and now...
Greedy players

Any way for fans to become greedy and keep the trend going?

College athletics isn't dead yet, but I'm sure we'll get there soon.

(01-25-2024 12:38 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 11:58 AM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(01-25-2024 08:40 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 05:56 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  

(01-23-2024 01:46 PM)Psicosis Wrote:  Roots for the "free market," chafes at anyone getting paid market value. Checks out.

The “free market” and professional sports don’t mix. Pro sports are basically the antithesis of a free market model. They are heavily regulated monopolies with strong unions and revenue sharing.

At the team level, they are heavily regulated competitive markets ... the problem with removing the regulation which would allow them to be "free markets" is that unfettered markets often tend toward tight oligopoly, and a tight oligopoly is problematic when what you sell is competition against other businesses in your sport.

The legal challenge in the US is that much of the required private regulation of teams in a sport is accomplished by forming a cooperative league structure with rules on player movement which are illegal for a business association to impose except by agreement with a union representing the players.

At the college level, there are fewer fetters (so a tighter oligopoly), and the fetters that have been imposed on player movement have been under the legal fiction that the players are students at the individual schools who just happen to have an interest in playing varsity sports as an extracurricular activity. With various elements of the necessary limits on an unfettered market falling to court challenge, the process of moving college sports to a viable semi-pro sports model is an intrinsically tricky process.

In sports the challenge is to balance the needs of parity, competition, and rules standards with mobility in market rewards.

The NFL does a good job of managing this. Especially in comparison with MLB.

Yet look at the # of different champions recently. Since 2000 MLB has had 16 champions, with only 5 teams winning more than one. Since 2000, NFL has had only 13 champions with 6 winning more than one. And Bal/KC could easily keep it at that.

But look at how often the low revenue teams even finish above .500. In the 70s/early 80s the dominant teams were Oakland, Kansas City, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Pittsburg, 5 who rarely see the top anymore. The Dodgers and Yankees were behind them. Pittsburg hasn't been to the World Series since 1979 and Cincinnati 1990. Only the Mets and the similar small market Brewers haven't been more recently in the NL. Oakland hasn't been since 1990 and Baltimore since 1983. KC won in 2014 and 2015 but that was the first time since 1985. Every other AL team has won a pennant since 1990 except Seattle who has never won.

(01-24-2024 03:19 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 01:56 PM)b2b Wrote:  

(01-23-2024 02:13 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The transfer portal is tougher since we’re still trying to recognize these players as student-athletes ....

Come on now. Some of these guys are doing 4 schools in 4 years. A traditional student would have a hard time academically transferring that much.

One of my sisters did 4 schools in her first 4 years and 4 different majors. After 2 years she got married and went back. After children she went back for her 4th year. Now it took 5 years to complete, but that was primarily because architecture is very sequential. So she got her bachelor's with about 200 hours.

It's not as uncommon for non-traditional, part-time, or commuter students. There are many types of schools out there for them for part of or perhaps all of their respective journeys.

But, we're not talking about those kind of schools for this sort of thing with athletic transfers. This is going from flagship to flagship to main campus to good private school as if it's nothing. A regular student is not able to transfer this freely, assuming the athlete is even matriculating while at the respective stop.

I would like to see someone make some sort of "tour" of the Ivies, though. Start at Cornell, transfer to Yale, then Princeton, and end at Harvard.

(01-25-2024 02:38 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 03:19 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-24-2024 01:56 PM)b2b Wrote:  

(01-23-2024 02:13 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The transfer portal is tougher since we’re still trying to recognize these players as student-athletes ....

Come on now. Some of these guys are doing 4 schools in 4 years. A traditional student would have a hard time academically transferring that much.

One of my sisters did 4 schools in her first 4 years and 4 different majors. After 2 years she got married and went back. After children she went back for her 4th year. Now it took 5 years to complete, but that was primarily because architecture is very sequential. So she got her bachelor's with about 200 hours.

It's not as uncommon for non-traditional, part-time, or commuter students. There are many types of schools out there for them for part of or perhaps all of their respective journeys.

But, we're not talking about those kind of schools for this sort of thing with athletic transfers. This is going from flagship to flagship to main campus to good private school as if it's nothing. A regular student is not able to transfer this freely, assuming the athlete is even matriculating while at the respective stop.

I would like to see someone make some sort of "tour" of the Ivies, though. Start at Cornell, transfer to Yale, then Princeton, and end at Harvard.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg did do Cornell-Harvard-Columbia! Of course Cornell was undergrad and she went to two different law schools.

My sister was non-traditional later on as she was older, but it was Kentucky-Texas-New Orleans-Houston, not generic regional colleges that most people outside of their state have never heard of.