Calipari's Modest Proposal

[GoMuskies]

None of this seems too outlandish to me. Could Xavier afford to play in the world of college athletics that John Calipari proposes?

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10760355/kentucky-wildcats-coach-john-calipari-likens-ncaa-dying-soviet-union-new-book

[JTG]

Actually seems pretty reasonable to me. Maybe not the $50k loans. And I agree that a player can transfer, but I would stipulate he can't follow the coach. That could lead to a school's team being decimated. I think X could handle his proposal.

[blueblob06]

Interesting ideas. Not sure how I feel about them. It would certainly be rough for teams like say Ohio U to try to cover all those expenses and compete with Ohio State.

And would that be for all athletes? Or just athletes in sports that are considered "high revenue producers"? It would certainly get interesting quickly if these rules were considered by the NCAA...

[nuts4xu]

Athletes already get stipends and student loans to help give them spending money.

I didn't see anything Calipari said that could not be done, and would help improve the NCAA experience for the student athletes.

The billions and billions the NCAA makes would only take a small hit to fund the types of programs Calipari mentions. It also keeps the NCAA away from the slippery slope of unionizing student athletes.

[xubrew]

What if coaches were only allowed to make half-a-million dollars a year?? As much as we love amateurism, no one seems to mind the idea of multimillionaire coaches.

What if the NCAA kept it's licensing agreement with EA Sports, and actually allowed them to use all of the player names and likenesses for an increased fee?? They could have given that money to the players. Hell, don't stop with video games. Allow names to be put on jerseys, which would undoubtedly increase sales and licensing fees, and use that to go toward the player stipends.

The money is there. It would just have to be spent differently, and that's what the NCAA (and the universities don't want to do). Preserving amateurism is great. Preserving your own salary by saying you want to preserve amateurism is even better. Heaven forbid that coaches and athletic directors only make five or six times as much as what the average working person makes instead of what they make now.

[The_Mack_Pack]

Fair ideas. Implementing them would open a whole new can of worms though. This wouldn't just be limited to basketball. There's no way a small school with a football team could take on those expenses. Players would start to petition for more of a stipend for being the starting QB vs. being the backup center or something. It would get pretty messy.

[xubrew]

Fair ideas. Implementing them would open a whole new can of worms though. This wouldn't just be limited to basketball. There's no way a small school with a football team could take on those expenses. Players would start to petition for more of a stipend for being the starting QB vs. being the backup center or something. It would get pretty messy.

Small schools have always been able to cover tuition increases. Just sayin.

[casualfan]

Interesting ideas. Not sure how I feel about them. It would certainly be rough for teams like say Ohio U to try to cover all those expenses and compete with Ohio State.

And would that be for all athletes? Or just athletes in sports that are considered "high revenue producers"? It would certainly get interesting quickly if these rules were considered by the NCAA...


Why?

[GoMuskies]

The payments should come direct from the NCAA. Thus, Kentucky would be subsidizing Campbell.

[XU 87]

Why?

Because smaller programs don't have football or basketball programs which can subsidize the cross country and swimming teams.

Calipari's proposal will work fine for his basketball players. And the UK basketball program makes enough money to subsidize the other sports. But I suspect smaller schools will find his proposals financially difficult.

On the other hand, and as mentioned above, maybe the NCAA could pay these out of its billions.

[xubrew]

The payments should come direct from the NCAA. Thus, Kentucky would be subsidizing Campbell.

I think there are actually several ways to generate enough money to do that. The NCAA is about to get an $800 million dollar windfall. They'll get a similar windfall with the new football playoff.

They could easily increase the licensing fees and generate much higher levels of revenue from video games, jerseys and t-shirts. A friend of mine figured that for around $100 million, the NCAA could actually pay all div1 scholarship athletes in all sports the $2000 stipend that was proposed, and they could easily come up with that money off of licensing and the huge increase they're getting from the CBS/Turner contract.