CDAGRIZ said:
Yukon said:
CDAGRIZ said:
I'd like to see the power conferences branch off, pay their players, have unlimited scholarships, STILL get the bowl sponsorship money, abolish all recruiting rules, and really see who is best without stupid regulatory restrictions. You have more money? Cool. You can choose to spend it if you want to buy better players and a better program. Real life.
Yep. And they wont even be enrolled in class.
Yes. If that is what the University wants to show the world as its student athletes, then that's what it should be able to do.
While I do not necessarily disagree, or agree ... such decisions are complicated by the fact that almost all of the "big time" program are, in fact, state-supported institutions. Along these lines, they have not handled two consequences particularly well.
One is obviously the huge advantage all that money gives for athletic recruitment -- in terms of facilities, promises of TV time to enhance future (NFL) careers, etc.
But even aside from athletics, publicly-funded schools have had to grapple with how to handle "outside" money -- that is, grants (foundation or Federal), joint ventures with industry, and revenue streams based on patents and licenses. Some science and engineering departments have developed
substantial income from those sources. They often work out some sort of salary-enhancement protocol for professors who bring in large amounts of money ... for themselves and to support more graduate (sometimes undergraduate) research. To say that the "non-income" disciplines get pissed about the $$ support/income disparity is a gross under-statement. (Does this sound familiar?) In the more extreme cases, schools have had to split off the "income producing" faculty into some sort of "research/industrial" park. They retain professorships and teach classes, but their true affiliation is with the "corporation" (different structures exist) at the research park.
So: Will big-time football programs finally admit that they are just "farm teams" for the NFL ...and split themselves off into income-producing entities that just happen to provide some students with athletic scholarship. I have no idea ... but that conclusion does not seem, sadly, out of the question.