The issue is that any attempt to regulate NIL gets struck down by the courts. They could get around that by collective bargaining but that opens a whole new can of worms
The issue is that the NCAA was unwilling to compromise and thought that they were powerful enough to shut down any kind of pay for play bc they just made up a rule about it. Then got crushed by the courts and now it’s run rampant. Had they just sat down and shut the fuck up and created some kind of pay scale for players instead of being scumbags about it, they would have a better system in place. Dudes were getting free McDonald’s and getting in blacklisted. They couldn’t earn a single penny for anything. It was fucked up. Any repercussions about how the system is now, is on them and nobody else. Now these kids can run rampant and take advantage of a broken system that they created in the first place. There was a solution right in front of them but they were too stupid and stubborn to make something of it.
Bingo! Couldn’t have said it better. Even players who made money off of YouTube had to choose between the two. It was all so fucking stupid and selfish.
I always remember Jeremy Bloom a football player at the University of Colorado who was also a world-class freestyle skier who lost his college eligibility due to his ski endorsements. Thought it was stupid the way the NCAA handled that.
Players don’t want it either. They hold all the cards right now, why come to the bargaining table to make concessions when you can just sue and get whatever you want?
I’m not saying that they do want it? In fact I’d agree that the current set up of constant recruiting and churn is probably optimal for NiL earnings
I was just replying to the idea of regulating and adding rules to NiL
Most of the ideas or things people suggest to change the currents system would require the kids to be employees which is an entire Pandora’s box of worms that the schools have zero intention of opening
You don’t need to regulate nil. You regulate other things. If you start a game or play over x minutes in a year, you are no longer eligible to redshirt that year. If you receive nil funds then you have to get a gpa over 2.3.
An easy one would be if you stay over 4 years then you need to graduate in year 5. If you are not on track to graduate then you lose eligibility.
There are a ton of ways to get circumvent nil rules. You just need to think outside the box.
that is regulation. Something is needed. who the fuck cares at this point? I personally don’t want to watch the SEC or big10 every week but here we are
But it’s not regulating NIL. Which is why it could work. I also think they need to rejigger conferences (12 teams max) and standardize schedules (12 games total, 6 home and 6 away, 4 OOC split home/away, 8 div split home/away) and they could help matters as well.
No one in Boston is paying to see us play.N C State..the acc wants these areas so it get tv $..
Its a mess. College Presidents opened a portal DURING the.season..
Right? Like this is actually a fascinating experiment we're about to watch play out in real time. Everyone's always said "even the worst NBA player would crush it in college" but we never really got to test that theory.
Though I feel like there's a big difference between a guy who rode the bench in the NBA because he wasn't quite good enough versus a guy who just never got a real opportunity. Curious to see which one this is
The guys who “ride the bench” in the NBA have certain niche skills for their team. You may be strong three point shooter or defender. You have a “role” you can fit into. Players with long-careers are able to develop new roles as their career progresses.
Good players who can’t develop a role don’t make it out of the G-League. Mac McClung is the stereotypical “Best player in the G League”…he was one of the top players in his college conference and a great all-around player who would probably smoke everyone in a pick-up game. But he’s too short to effectively play defense in the NBA and really could never develop a “role” (aside from winning the Slam Dunk Contest).
It’s not just about being talented or not getting an opportunity. The team needs to have a reason to have you on the roster and save a chair for you.
If you take the current worst player in the NBA and put them on a college team… would they not be playing with and against people who are about to get taken in the first round?
Like… obviously he would be better than a lot of college players, but he was drafted in the 2nd round? … he’s going to be playing against a whole 1st round worth of draft picks?
At most they would play with or against 30 people about to be drafted in the 1st round. The majority of college players are never drafted. So he’ll mostly be playing with and against college kids who will never play in the NBA.
The caveat being that a significant part of a players draft stock is based on physical projection. The NBA doesn’t take the 30 best amateur players in the 1st round.
Until they’ve spent more than a season or more on an actual roster I wouldn’t say this is a fair evaluation of that.
For one, maybe they’re not truly NBA caliber. Sure, they were drafted but it’s more likely than not they never sign another contract. As a 2nd round pick, they might hardly even get any meaningful minutes. Getting in the NBA and staying in the NBA are two very different leagues of skill and talent.
The other part is pro development. A couple seasons of training camps, rico hines open gyms, access to the best trainers, g league minutes, etc whilst playing and practicing against the best talent in the world is the difference between an NBA caliber college player and an actual NBA pro.
Good god. This has become so stupid. Guy is 23 years old. Played 3 years pro ball. Drafted in the NBA. And now he’s the same status as a 17 year old just out of high school
Seriously go check out the ages and experience of everyone in NCAA Cross Country championships this year. Its already happened in the Olympic sports. Its laughable.
This has never been against the rules, there's no age limit to NCAA sports. What's novel now is people who have turned pro returning to NCAA competition.
Its not that novel tbh Brandon Weeden played minor league baseball then went to Oklahoma state to play football. dude was drafted into the NFL at 28 lol
At least it was a different sport in Weeden's case. That seems fine. But having already been a pro in a sport and then coming to play that same sport in college seems fucky to me.
Yep, and Europeans can be signed to Professional basketball teams and leagues at the age of 13 and then come to America and hop right into college basketball.
They get to develop under the most professional staffs and play against professional athletes, that include former NBA players and then hop in and are eligible to play with college freshman straight out of high school, here.
From another perspective, why should their experience stop them from getting a scholarship and a degree. If they're only there to try and get to the NBA, I understand not wanting them to compete in college. If they can pay their way through university and earn themselves a decent chance of a life after they're no longer competitive athletes, I say more power to them.
Most universities requiring the last 45-60 hours be finished at one school to matriculate, you’re absolutely right. No one’s going to class. What’s the point? The average NIL deal is 1-2 mil a year for QBs.
That contradicts your argument? We do know their ages.
Don't think there's anything wrong with recruiting internationally or older people, it is messed up recruiting people who are/were professionals beforehand
We know HIS age, there are many that have come over and we’re all assigned Jan 1st birthdays and their true age is unknown. I went to school with one of them.
They aren't stepping off the plane having never run before ready to start studying. They are pros in Kenya (for instance, for distance) who are honing their performance who then 'go pro' by crushing NCAAs for the NIL. Regardless of what anyone intended with this it has become a joke.
This is notoriously common in European football, including Yousouffa Moukoko and Silas Wamangituka. British Home Office numbers indicate that the number of false underage claims for asylum seekers is as high as 40% in the most recent statistics - no reason to think it doesn’t also happen in the US.
Recruiting from European leagues is already very common in NCAA basketball. The only thing noteworthy here is that this guy was drafted by an NBA team, but clearly he isn’t good enough for the league considering he wasn’t able to get a contract.
Kind of makes me wonder why any of these amateur vs pro in college vs nba rules are exist in the first place. Shouldn’t we just watch the most entertaining games? Why is amateur even a thing? I think it was so tv networks and organizations could profit on the backs of talented athletes that weren’t paid anything.
Plenty of highly populated places don't pro teams and instead cheer for college teams; Alabama for instance doesn't have a single pro team in the state but has one of the most popular football programs in the country.
Yeah this isn’t as complicated as people make it. What pretty much everyone agreed on was that players should be able to use their name, image, and likeness to get some money if they were a contributing member of their team. The best players should be able to get paid huge bags by Nike since they were bringing in millions to their schools just by attending, and lesser known players should be able to get a few thousand from the local car dealership to film a commercial.
What nobody wanted (and what actually happened) is boosters being able to pay salaries to college players as “endorsements”, and players switching schools regularly based on which boosters/teams are offering them the most money. It’s a fine line and is obviously tricky to navigate, but the current system absolutely sucks and might as well just be professional sports.
The thing is it's not like this was a surprise. It's literally the reason the rules were so strict before. It was to stop this exact thing from happening. I guess the speed at which we got this far is the most surprising part.
All of this could have been prevented if NCAA was more proactive about it. They took the hard-line stance of no NIL for so long that they had to be taken to court and lose.
Same here. I’m trying to check myself on this. I’m having trouble verbalizing my reasoning, but allowing pro players to return to college feels wrong. I don’t have a good reason why, but that pipeline should only run in one direction.
The path is supposed to be one way gates. If you forgo college to play G League, the college basketball chapter is meant to be over, not delayed until your NBA dies.
I agree with you. I was always in favor of college athletes getting paid but the anything-goes aspect of everything else that's come with it is ridiculous.
Exactly. If the NCAA says "tuition is compensation" then athletes were never "amateur." At that point youre just arguing about the form of compensation, like the old joke about prostitution.
Has this happened? I don’t think it’s ever been that egregious. This guy is 21, never signed an NBA contract, and plays like 8mins/game overseas. He probably won’t be dominant at the college level.
He is 21. He has played in a minor league in Europe. He isn’t good enough for an NBA team and couldn’t sign an NBA contract, which is why he is in the position in the first place. He isn’t some superstar athlete that will dominate college as people seem to think.
Straw man, but either way I don’t see why this matters. Lebron was drafted at 18, there’s no reason college sports need to coddle athletes who happen to be younger.
Not to mention that talented 18 year olds have more opportunities to get paid than they ever did, even with expanded eligibility.
Max Dowman is 15 years old and has already made his Premier League and Champions League debut since he's just that promising. Meanwhile, Jamie Vardy didn't make his Premier League debut until he was 27 and he's been one of the greatest English strikers of his generation. The way American sports are set up really forces everyone into a rigid development framework and makes anything other than quickly reaching the top unsustainable as a career.
Because colleges aren’t professional sports franchises operating at a profit. Football and men’s basketball brings in millions to these schools and helps make it possible for them to do things like give kids scholarships for women’s field hockey, swimming, etc. The end result of this will be the destruction of the student athlete and college athletics no longer being economical for many schools.
I don’t have a problem with kids signing endorsement deals with businesses, but as far as other compensation goes, they’re getting a free college education and should be happy with that.
By definition if you are not paid for something, it is not your profession.
For me it is an age thing. The cast majority of male athletes will have an unfair advantage if they are competing in their 21-25 age range instead of 18-22
College sports died for me when the PAC died. There is no meaning I feel like besides being an amateur league now for the pros. There used to be historical meaning behind the games and teams but now it’s all gone. The coaches are even complaining about distance traveled, being in different time zones, about NIL, entire teams changing between years, and more. I didn’t even watch a single game of CFB this last year because what’s the point now?
Why not just stop bullshitting and make a minor league for football. 10-12 teams. Pay the players. Then college football could go back to being amateur sports.
In hockey if you are a pro prospect hoping to get drafted you can play NCAA or you can play juniors. Why not make football more like that.
To the rich boosters: can't you guys think of something better to do with your money than try to buy a college football national championship?
At least for NCAA hockey, you are allowed to play college hockey when you’re drafted by an NHL team but the moment you sign a pro contract (including in Europe) you lose all eligibility.
I don’t know why they wouldn’t enforce it the same way here. Seems pretty cut and dry
Oregon has a Chinese guard who played in the CBA for the past few seasons. There are also many European youth team players who declined to play for the 1st team to enter NCAA. It's time to officially rethink amateurism in collegiate sports with NIL in mind.
God damn, I never thought I'd be this way towards sports. MLB is a joke and needs a salary cap. The NBA is so boring with no discernible offense in sight. NCAA football is so out of touch with what we actually want to see and their schedule for after conference championships is a laugh. NCAA basketball is letting grown ass 26+ year-olds play and taking spots away from kids that deserve their shot.
Most teams do not have a scheme its just 5 guys shooting three and driving. And scoring 150 points like that doesn't equate to offense. Thats just scoring points all willy nilly. But when there is no defense you really don't need anything like a triangle offense or a Princeton.
You can say NBA offenses are same-y, but to say there is no scheming and it's all willy nilly is ignorant. The game is heavily dominated by pick and roll and schemes that evolve out of defenses countering it. It seems like there is no defense because it turns out it's virtually impossible to stop a drive off a high screen from a skilled ball handler while not leaving the strong side corner wide open (when there are dozens of players who shoot 50%+ on open looks) or leaving the paint and/or high weakside wide open. And the pick and roll is still continuously improving and branching. It's such a dominant system that it's revolutionary NOT to use it, but even then you get really dynamic systems like the wheel. NBA offenses and defenses are meticulously flowcharted.
Fair enough. The real problem is the NBA is basically prohibiting defenders from doing anything and calling fouls on them when offensive players initiate contact. It makes the game unwatchable.
I enjoy watching all sorts of sports and have been following international basketball for quite some time, but I could just never get into the NBA since it just feels like they bend the rules for the sole purpose of first and foremost making it an entertainment product.
I’m very aware but that still doesn’t change how I feel. If you flame out in the pros because you thought you were better than or too good for the pros that’s on you. You messed up. You shouldn’t get a second chance at the cost of messing up (especially when you’ll probably flame out again on some level) some kids first and maybe only chance. Scumbag move Nnaji for doing this, his agent and lawyers for litigating and making this happen, and on the NCAA for doing dumb business
Wild that all this has happened, been drafted to the NBA, played overseas for multiple years and now going back to college and yet only just turned 21 this last August.
Is this a violation of some NCAA rule and the the NCAA granted a waiver? I don't follow basketball (NBA) draft like I do with NFL. I know there are some differences in what those leagues require to be able to be drafted/play in the league (NBA is now a minimum 1 year out of high school or equivalent while the NFL is three years minimum). But I would think the NCAA rules about eligibility for NCAA play would be the same for the different sports. "Go pro (or even try) and lose NCAA eligibility".
Is that not the case? I get that basketball is different and all. This guy never played NCAA basketball. It's very unlikely for this potential cenario to happen with NCAA football though. Am I missing something ? is the answer simply "it's basketball. Its different" ?
I do wonder when the breaking point will come that the team start demanding some form of rules here regarding NIL
The issue is that any attempt to regulate NIL gets struck down by the courts. They could get around that by collective bargaining but that opens a whole new can of worms
The issue is that the NCAA was unwilling to compromise and thought that they were powerful enough to shut down any kind of pay for play bc they just made up a rule about it. Then got crushed by the courts and now it’s run rampant. Had they just sat down and shut the fuck up and created some kind of pay scale for players instead of being scumbags about it, they would have a better system in place. Dudes were getting free McDonald’s and getting in blacklisted. They couldn’t earn a single penny for anything. It was fucked up. Any repercussions about how the system is now, is on them and nobody else. Now these kids can run rampant and take advantage of a broken system that they created in the first place. There was a solution right in front of them but they were too stupid and stubborn to make something of it.
Bingo! Couldn’t have said it better. Even players who made money off of YouTube had to choose between the two. It was all so fucking stupid and selfish.
I always remember Jeremy Bloom a football player at the University of Colorado who was also a world-class freestyle skier who lost his college eligibility due to his ski endorsements. Thought it was stupid the way the NCAA handled that.
Because they are not and the schools definitely do not want to treat them as employees
Schools don’t even want to treat the grad students teaching half of their classes as employees.
Players don’t want it either. They hold all the cards right now, why come to the bargaining table to make concessions when you can just sue and get whatever you want?
I’m not saying that they do want it? In fact I’d agree that the current set up of constant recruiting and churn is probably optimal for NiL earnings
I was just replying to the idea of regulating and adding rules to NiL
Most of the ideas or things people suggest to change the currents system would require the kids to be employees which is an entire Pandora’s box of worms that the schools have zero intention of opening
Tennessee does.
https://247sports.com/college/ohio-state/board/120/contents/tennessee-ad-proposes-collectively-bargaining-267185761/
https://www.on3.com/news/tennessee-ad-danny-white-calls-for-collective-bargaining-to-fix-college-sports/
Sounds very preliminary and misguided lol
I doubt a majority of schools or the ncaa itself will ratify something like this anytime soon
You don’t need to regulate nil. You regulate other things. If you start a game or play over x minutes in a year, you are no longer eligible to redshirt that year. If you receive nil funds then you have to get a gpa over 2.3.
An easy one would be if you stay over 4 years then you need to graduate in year 5. If you are not on track to graduate then you lose eligibility.
There are a ton of ways to get circumvent nil rules. You just need to think outside the box.
that is regulation. Something is needed. who the fuck cares at this point? I personally don’t want to watch the SEC or big10 every week but here we are
But it’s not regulating NIL. Which is why it could work. I also think they need to rejigger conferences (12 teams max) and standardize schedules (12 games total, 6 home and 6 away, 4 OOC split home/away, 8 div split home/away) and they could help matters as well.
Can we make conferences geographical again?
Make football its own national thing, keep all other sports regional.
The SWC has entered the chat.
No one in Boston is paying to see us play.N C State..the acc wants these areas so it get tv $.. Its a mess. College Presidents opened a portal DURING the.season..
yeah northerners don’t give a fuck about college - huge cultural difference. let’s ride pack
Well we’re already in this can of worms why not open up a few more
Isn’t it inevitable (and their right) to now unionize?
Who do they collective bargain with exactly?
When Ben Simmons tries to play college ball
I feel like he'd dominate in college
NCAA can't do anything if the courts reject all attempts to regulate it
Nobody gets it. "College" is in competition with "pro". Eventually people will have 20 year careers at the college level; think Tim Tebow.
Is there not a cutoff? Like age, enrollment, etc.
Only because the courts haven't struck those rules down yet.
haha how is it in competition? A majority of these athletes are not good enough to go pro
They should’ve made rules before implementing this shit
Sounds like we are about to find out about whether the worst NBA players really would dominate college basketball.
Right? Like this is actually a fascinating experiment we're about to watch play out in real time. Everyone's always said "even the worst NBA player would crush it in college" but we never really got to test that theory.
Though I feel like there's a big difference between a guy who rode the bench in the NBA because he wasn't quite good enough versus a guy who just never got a real opportunity. Curious to see which one this is
The guys who “ride the bench” in the NBA have certain niche skills for their team. You may be strong three point shooter or defender. You have a “role” you can fit into. Players with long-careers are able to develop new roles as their career progresses.
Good players who can’t develop a role don’t make it out of the G-League. Mac McClung is the stereotypical “Best player in the G League”…he was one of the top players in his college conference and a great all-around player who would probably smoke everyone in a pick-up game. But he’s too short to effectively play defense in the NBA and really could never develop a “role” (aside from winning the Slam Dunk Contest).
It’s not just about being talented or not getting an opportunity. The team needs to have a reason to have you on the roster and save a chair for you.
Yes and also I'm still mourning the loss of college sports as it was (with all its imperfections). I'm fascinated and also sad.
I mean… is this even a thing?
If you take the current worst player in the NBA and put them on a college team… would they not be playing with and against people who are about to get taken in the first round?
Like… obviously he would be better than a lot of college players, but he was drafted in the 2nd round? … he’s going to be playing against a whole 1st round worth of draft picks?
Maybe I’m just stupid.
At most they would play with or against 30 people about to be drafted in the 1st round. The majority of college players are never drafted. So he’ll mostly be playing with and against college kids who will never play in the NBA.
The caveat being that a significant part of a players draft stock is based on physical projection. The NBA doesn’t take the 30 best amateur players in the 1st round.
Yeah… but also every single year you have kids in college about to be drafted playing against a bunch of kids that will never be drafted.
The “experiment” is literally replicated every single year.
Until they’ve spent more than a season or more on an actual roster I wouldn’t say this is a fair evaluation of that.
For one, maybe they’re not truly NBA caliber. Sure, they were drafted but it’s more likely than not they never sign another contract. As a 2nd round pick, they might hardly even get any meaningful minutes. Getting in the NBA and staying in the NBA are two very different leagues of skill and talent.
The other part is pro development. A couple seasons of training camps, rico hines open gyms, access to the best trainers, g league minutes, etc whilst playing and practicing against the best talent in the world is the difference between an NBA caliber college player and an actual NBA pro.
Good god. This has become so stupid. Guy is 23 years old. Played 3 years pro ball. Drafted in the NBA. And now he’s the same status as a 17 year old just out of high school
cries in track and field
Seriously go check out the ages and experience of everyone in NCAA Cross Country championships this year. Its already happened in the Olympic sports. Its laughable.
Why would older athletes get extended eligibility like this in track and field?
They just start competing in their mid to late 20s
Africans come over to go to school and no one knows their real age. 18 year olds are running against people ten years older than them.
Edit: for those downvoting, here is a 28 year old freshmen:
https://wsucougars.com/sports/cross-country/roster/solomon-kipchoge/14628
This has never been against the rules, there's no age limit to NCAA sports. What's novel now is people who have turned pro returning to NCAA competition.
Its not that novel tbh Brandon Weeden played minor league baseball then went to Oklahoma state to play football. dude was drafted into the NFL at 28 lol
At least it was a different sport in Weeden's case. That seems fine. But having already been a pro in a sport and then coming to play that same sport in college seems fucky to me.
Dumbest draft pick ever.
I take it you don't follow the Cleveland Browns. Not even a top 5 dumbest pick.
Yep, and Europeans can be signed to Professional basketball teams and leagues at the age of 13 and then come to America and hop right into college basketball.
They get to develop under the most professional staffs and play against professional athletes, that include former NBA players and then hop in and are eligible to play with college freshman straight out of high school, here.
From another perspective, why should their experience stop them from getting a scholarship and a degree. If they're only there to try and get to the NBA, I understand not wanting them to compete in college. If they can pay their way through university and earn themselves a decent chance of a life after they're no longer competitive athletes, I say more power to them.
lol can we stop pretending this has anything to do with education for the professional athletes playing in the ncaa. They barely go to class anyway.
Most universities requiring the last 45-60 hours be finished at one school to matriculate, you’re absolutely right. No one’s going to class. What’s the point? The average NIL deal is 1-2 mil a year for QBs.
haha they are not students. do you really think any of these dudes care about a degree? haha
Damn imagine if NBA teams could draft 13 year olds. That'd be some crazy shit. We'd be reading draft profiles on like 6th graders.
That contradicts your argument? We do know their ages.
Don't think there's anything wrong with recruiting internationally or older people, it is messed up recruiting people who are/were professionals beforehand
We know HIS age, there are many that have come over and we’re all assigned Jan 1st birthdays and their true age is unknown. I went to school with one of them.
This dude was in high school, was actually 29.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/27/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathan-nicola-false-age
Yeah, I ran D2 XC, and even there we saw a couple of the guys that came over in their peak with made up birthdays.
They aren't stepping off the plane having never run before ready to start studying. They are pros in Kenya (for instance, for distance) who are honing their performance who then 'go pro' by crushing NCAAs for the NIL. Regardless of what anyone intended with this it has become a joke.
This is notoriously common in European football, including Yousouffa Moukoko and Silas Wamangituka. British Home Office numbers indicate that the number of false underage claims for asylum seekers is as high as 40% in the most recent statistics - no reason to think it doesn’t also happen in the US.
It’d be the first I’ve heard of something like that, you got any sources?
This guy was 28 years old as a “freshmen”:
https://wsucougars.com/sports/cross-country/roster/solomon-kipchoge/14628
My wife said. Look at the bright side. He is getting an education.
https://www.reddit.com/r/trackandfield/comments/1p4pqpg/in_the_ncaa_xc_di_cross_country_race_38_of_the/
Scroll the comments to see the discussion around ages.
Attended Kabirirsang High School in Kapsabet, Kenya…
So they DO know his age.
Got it.
HIS age, yes. See my other post about the one they didn’t know when he enrolled and ended up being a 29 year old in high school/
That's insane...
Definitely need to do a once-over on some eligibility rules.
Really? Is it that bad?
Are you using 'olympics sports' as a descriptor for track and field but not basketball?
It’s a very polite way of saying non-revenue sports.
Makes sense. There’s a whole heap of sports that no one really cares about outside of the Olympic competitions.
This is a pretty common saying. It’s just a way of saying every sport but football, basketball and at some schools hockey and baseball.
He’s 21
They acquired a free agent from the EuroLeague
I know, I was just saying he is 21 not 23
It's been two years since he last played for a Euroleague team
Recruiting from European leagues is already very common in NCAA basketball. The only thing noteworthy here is that this guy was drafted by an NBA team, but clearly he isn’t good enough for the league considering he wasn’t able to get a contract.
He’s 21 but still.
He is 21 years old.
He’s 21 fyi
He’s just trying to get an education! Come on guys! /s
Kind of makes me wonder why any of these amateur vs pro in college vs nba rules are exist in the first place. Shouldn’t we just watch the most entertaining games? Why is amateur even a thing? I think it was so tv networks and organizations could profit on the backs of talented athletes that weren’t paid anything.
Plenty of highly populated places don't pro teams and instead cheer for college teams; Alabama for instance doesn't have a single pro team in the state but has one of the most popular football programs in the country.
Tom Brady to Michigan confirmed.
LeBron gonna lead Akron to a title! At least that’s what I am rooting for.
The decision 2.0 and it’s just gonna be a normal college commitment announcement like he’s a high schooler.
Hell yeah, do the hat picking
Finally boys, our Zips are back baby!
Cur the Netflix special for Chad going to play for Oregon.
Am i a hypocrite if I am for college athletes getting paid, but not being okay with professionals getting to participate in college sports?
College athletes getting paid means they are professionals.
Yeah this isn’t as complicated as people make it. What pretty much everyone agreed on was that players should be able to use their name, image, and likeness to get some money if they were a contributing member of their team. The best players should be able to get paid huge bags by Nike since they were bringing in millions to their schools just by attending, and lesser known players should be able to get a few thousand from the local car dealership to film a commercial.
What nobody wanted (and what actually happened) is boosters being able to pay salaries to college players as “endorsements”, and players switching schools regularly based on which boosters/teams are offering them the most money. It’s a fine line and is obviously tricky to navigate, but the current system absolutely sucks and might as well just be professional sports.
The thing is it's not like this was a surprise. It's literally the reason the rules were so strict before. It was to stop this exact thing from happening. I guess the speed at which we got this far is the most surprising part.
All of this could have been prevented if NCAA was more proactive about it. They took the hard-line stance of no NIL for so long that they had to be taken to court and lose.
Yeah but you know what they’re trying to say
But they are "not" getting "paid to play" (they are). They are getting paid for "endorsement deals" using their "name, image, and likeness"
As of this year the schools are also paying them directly now as part of the House v. NCAA settlement.
They are participating in "revenue sharing", but still not being "paid to play" as "employees".
Same here. I’m trying to check myself on this. I’m having trouble verbalizing my reasoning, but allowing pro players to return to college feels wrong. I don’t have a good reason why, but that pipeline should only run in one direction.
The path is supposed to be one way gates. If you forgo college to play G League, the college basketball chapter is meant to be over, not delayed until your NBA dies.
Yea. College athletes getting paid literally makes them professionals.
I agree with you. I was always in favor of college athletes getting paid but the anything-goes aspect of everything else that's come with it is ridiculous.
I think you just need to get over the barrier and accept that college athletes were always professional athletes.
Why are we so stuck on professional athletics being a bad thing?
Exactly. If the NCAA says "tuition is compensation" then athletes were never "amateur." At that point youre just arguing about the form of compensation, like the old joke about prostitution.
Idk a 25 year old who played in professional leagues for 7 years playing against an 18 year old fresh out of high school seems wrong.
Has this happened? I don’t think it’s ever been that egregious. This guy is 21, never signed an NBA contract, and plays like 8mins/game overseas. He probably won’t be dominant at the college level.
He is 21. He has played in a minor league in Europe. He isn’t good enough for an NBA team and couldn’t sign an NBA contract, which is why he is in the position in the first place. He isn’t some superstar athlete that will dominate college as people seem to think.
Straw man, but either way I don’t see why this matters. Lebron was drafted at 18, there’s no reason college sports need to coddle athletes who happen to be younger.
Not to mention that talented 18 year olds have more opportunities to get paid than they ever did, even with expanded eligibility.
Wait til you find out about soccer
Max Dowman is 15 years old and has already made his Premier League and Champions League debut since he's just that promising. Meanwhile, Jamie Vardy didn't make his Premier League debut until he was 27 and he's been one of the greatest English strikers of his generation. The way American sports are set up really forces everyone into a rigid development framework and makes anything other than quickly reaching the top unsustainable as a career.
Because colleges aren’t professional sports franchises operating at a profit. Football and men’s basketball brings in millions to these schools and helps make it possible for them to do things like give kids scholarships for women’s field hockey, swimming, etc. The end result of this will be the destruction of the student athlete and college athletics no longer being economical for many schools.
I don’t have a problem with kids signing endorsement deals with businesses, but as far as other compensation goes, they’re getting a free college education and should be happy with that.
By definition if you are not paid for something, it is not your profession.
For me it is an age thing. The cast majority of male athletes will have an unfair advantage if they are competing in their 21-25 age range instead of 18-22
That definition doesn’t matter any more. It only did previously because the NCAA colluded to not pay them.
Define professional then.
Actually you are. They are both pros, they should be able to play either. If Wemby decides he wants to play for UTEP, then send 4 nattys
No, you’re allowed to advocate for a system that creates enjoyable sports
Idk guys, the charm has kind of worn off for me
College sports died for me when the PAC died. There is no meaning I feel like besides being an amateur league now for the pros. There used to be historical meaning behind the games and teams but now it’s all gone. The coaches are even complaining about distance traveled, being in different time zones, about NIL, entire teams changing between years, and more. I didn’t even watch a single game of CFB this last year because what’s the point now?
Why not just stop bullshitting and make a minor league for football. 10-12 teams. Pay the players. Then college football could go back to being amateur sports.
In hockey if you are a pro prospect hoping to get drafted you can play NCAA or you can play juniors. Why not make football more like that.
To the rich boosters: can't you guys think of something better to do with your money than try to buy a college football national championship?
Why would the nfl pay for that if they get a free feeder league?
Yeah entertainment and sports in general suck these days. The only thing that's fun is living your life and physically visiting XYZ location for fun.
Amusement parks, farmers markets, Christmas markets, stand up, live music etc.
But this is all if you can afford it.
They've made stay at home entertainment shit and go out entertainment expensive meaning good luck if you're poor.
Recorded entertainment or televised entertainment has been ruined in entirety.
You think? It’s the Wild West and completely fucked. The entire system is garbage at this point.
At least for NCAA hockey, you are allowed to play college hockey when you’re drafted by an NHL team but the moment you sign a pro contract (including in Europe) you lose all eligibility.
I don’t know why they wouldn’t enforce it the same way here. Seems pretty cut and dry
What if I told you there are players on college rosters this year that already played a bunch of AHL games?
Who is that? I’d understand if they were on ATO’s where they didn’t actually get paid but on a full AHL or ELC contract?
https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/amp/2025/09/18_Pro-Players-in-College-Hockey.php
Oregon has a Chinese guard who played in the CBA for the past few seasons. There are also many European youth team players who declined to play for the 1st team to enter NCAA. It's time to officially rethink amateurism in collegiate sports with NIL in mind.
Wasn't some kid denied another year of eligibility by NCAA when he was out with a heart issue?
Makes sense.
In before obligatory Back to School meme. But I can’t decide, is this more Rodney Dangerfield or Adam Sandler?
NCAA basketball is truly dead isn't it
This is fucking stupid.
Giannis should go drop 100 in a MAC game.
Giannis wouldn't survive a quarter in Ypsilanti.
DNP - Icy Driveway
Can a player making the league minimum choose to leave to make more money in college basketball
so instead of the g-league, nba teams can just send players (with eligibility) to march madness???
this is really fucking dumb.
I feel like it’s common sense that once you play in a pro league you should surrender your amateur status?
College players are professionals as soon as they accept money for playing.
Like it or not, NCAA D1 basketball is a professional league.
This is so bad for the sport of college basketball
Remember when Scotty Thurman declared for the draft, went undrafted, and that was it for him as a college player?
God damn, I never thought I'd be this way towards sports. MLB is a joke and needs a salary cap. The NBA is so boring with no discernible offense in sight. NCAA football is so out of touch with what we actually want to see and their schedule for after conference championships is a laugh. NCAA basketball is letting grown ass 26+ year-olds play and taking spots away from kids that deserve their shot.
NBA has no offense? Are you joking?
Most teams do not have a scheme its just 5 guys shooting three and driving. And scoring 150 points like that doesn't equate to offense. Thats just scoring points all willy nilly. But when there is no defense you really don't need anything like a triangle offense or a Princeton.
You can say NBA offenses are same-y, but to say there is no scheming and it's all willy nilly is ignorant. The game is heavily dominated by pick and roll and schemes that evolve out of defenses countering it. It seems like there is no defense because it turns out it's virtually impossible to stop a drive off a high screen from a skilled ball handler while not leaving the strong side corner wide open (when there are dozens of players who shoot 50%+ on open looks) or leaving the paint and/or high weakside wide open. And the pick and roll is still continuously improving and branching. It's such a dominant system that it's revolutionary NOT to use it, but even then you get really dynamic systems like the wheel. NBA offenses and defenses are meticulously flowcharted.
You think NBA teams can score 150 points with no scheme lol. That's the dumbest thing I've heard today
Fair enough. The real problem is the NBA is basically prohibiting defenders from doing anything and calling fouls on them when offensive players initiate contact. It makes the game unwatchable.
Yeah I agree I miss that gritty defense.
I enjoy watching all sorts of sports and have been following international basketball for quite some time, but I could just never get into the NBA since it just feels like they bend the rules for the sole purpose of first and foremost making it an entertainment product.
That’s American culture baby
“DISCERNIBLE” offense, as in almost all the teams run the same homogenous scheme.
Maybe he went back to college so he can make more money as an athlete. Times they are a’ changin’
Danny White at Tennessee has the right answer…
https://www.on3.com/news/tennessee-ad-danny-white-calls-for-collective-bargaining-to-fix-college-sports/
https://collegefootballnetwork.com/tennessee-ad-danny-white-nil-collective-bargaining-solution/
This is absurd.
Bro should be drafted by Toyota
Baylor? Hardley knew her
This is so stupid. Anyone who’s played a second of pro ball should immediately be barred from any and all college sports
He never played just got drafted
Some college kids make more money than professional athletes
cool.
once you sign a pro contract that should end all college eligibility. that’s just it
I’m very aware but that still doesn’t change how I feel. If you flame out in the pros because you thought you were better than or too good for the pros that’s on you. You messed up. You shouldn’t get a second chance at the cost of messing up (especially when you’ll probably flame out again on some level) some kids first and maybe only chance. Scumbag move Nnaji for doing this, his agent and lawyers for litigating and making this happen, and on the NCAA for doing dumb business
Knicks legend
Meh, burn it to the ground.
I hope this leads to Chris Weinke coming out of retirement to rejoin Florida State as their QB again.
Wild that all this has happened, been drafted to the NBA, played overseas for multiple years and now going back to college and yet only just turned 21 this last August.
Fing embarrassing
I am waiting for Lebron to appeal for his 4 year eligibility
What’s the point of college ball anymore?
I remember a time just entering the draft ended college
Is this a violation of some NCAA rule and the the NCAA granted a waiver? I don't follow basketball (NBA) draft like I do with NFL. I know there are some differences in what those leagues require to be able to be drafted/play in the league (NBA is now a minimum 1 year out of high school or equivalent while the NFL is three years minimum). But I would think the NCAA rules about eligibility for NCAA play would be the same for the different sports. "Go pro (or even try) and lose NCAA eligibility".
Is that not the case? I get that basketball is different and all. This guy never played NCAA basketball. It's very unlikely for this potential cenario to happen with NCAA football though. Am I missing something ? is the answer simply "it's basketball. Its different" ?
I'm conflicted on this and I can't put my finger on why. It sounds wrong, but I'm instintually ok with it