FishDuck Article Administrator No. 1 Share Posted January 31 There’s a lot going on in college athletics that will bring change. Change that will include the competition between schools on the playing fields and in the arenas, the competition over what school a recruit attends and the competition for the best coach. And even more areas of change than that. The changes will involve all sports, male and female, ... Unforeseen Consequences: Will the Student-Athlete Become a... FISHDUCK.COM There’s a lot going on in college athletics that will bring change. Change that will include the competition between schools on the playing... 1 3 Two Sites: FishDuck and the Our Beloved Ducks forum, The only "Forum with Decorum!" And All-Volunteer? What a wonderful community of Duck fans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smith72 Moderator No. 2 Share Posted January 31 Mr. Whitty your article gives us a lot to think about. The landscape for college sports is not done changing. We're now dealing with NIL and the Transfer Portal. Those have been major changes. Your excellent research and writing brings attention to more consequences that will have major impact. I don't have an opinion yet. But I'm sure our OBD Forum will help me. Thanks for giving us your thoughts and experience with this coming discussion. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 3 Share Posted January 31 Good gosh, what a great article! This is a can-of-worms that nobody thought of, and the cost could be enormous. Trying to get exceptions will end up in court? WOWWWW. Mike, this gives us so much to think about, and I am grateful you are applying your field of expertise to this subject. THANK YOU. 1 1 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave23 No. 4 Share Posted January 31 Thanks for bringing up this topic, as an employer I deal with workman's comp on a regular basis and this opens up a really big can of worms. I can only speak to how Montana works but this could get really expensive really quick. I own a restaurant and pay about 1.1% of on top of a salary for workman's comp insurance. If I was a roofing contractor I could pay anywhere from 10% to 20% on top of a salary depending on my safety track record. Football being a relative dangerous sport will lead to some extremely high premiums. Every state has different rules and every college would be assessed differently depending on their track record of safety. Once again this will just lead to more inequality in the balance of schools depending on their state and if they're legislature is friendly to the sport. I'm not saying these kids don't deserve healthcare, they most certainly do. Finding a balance will be extremely difficult and should probably be hashed out between players, schools and the federal government to even the playing field for everyone. I believe it's been said many times on this forum that college football is turning into a minor league sport and this is definitely a step in that direction. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicroBurst61 No. 5 Share Posted January 31 Fantastic article with just the "tip of the problematic iceberg" being exposed. This and many other issues were always going to crop up, moving from a (supposedly) pure amateur athlete status, to the quasi-worker/employee that these high profile athletes are becoming. Going to get even more complex if the push by a certain football conference to not even have to have your "employees" enrolled to participate in said programs. (Kinda like ignoring / manipulating admission standards back in the late 90's, early 2000's) with the reasoning that these young men are going to school to play Football and shouldn't be hampered by all that...education stuff. Same playbook will be applied here. I could write about all the billions of public funds (again, average layman has no real concept of that amount of money) that were used over the decades to create the venues and facilities of all these college athletics and they now "believe" those same departments "deserve" what was built for them at universities across the land. It can be frustrating and disheartening at times but the great equalizer is most likely positioning themselves, legally, to take on this new free-for-all college competition (threat?). That being the National Football League. NFL has far more resources and uses law firms containing hundreds of lawyers to protect their interests. And there are law firms attached to each owner and NFL team. There is NO WAY IN HELL that the NFL will allow college/NFL-lite football to challenge it for viewership numbers, quality players and coaches, or popularity. Believe me when I say that they will dig out EVERY obscure law or practice to ensure that NFL remains top dog. As college football crashes headlong into the "let's make as much money as possible" before saner heads prevail and start reapplying some sort of guardrails to the process; the true legal battles are just beginning. And many of those legal battles may actually end up being as entertaining as the product being litigated in those battles. Again, as fans, we are only along for the ride...whatever that ride may end up being is still to be determined. My advise...enjoy the ride as you can. Let the rest roll of your "Duck" back and continue to cheer on OBD! Ducks Rock! Rock. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drake Moderator No. 6 Share Posted January 31 Lawsuits will definitely decide the landscape of collegiate sports. The lawsuits brought forth on behalf of student athletes have an eye on the billions of dollars that are associated with college sports. However, not all colleges are created equal. Colleges certainly do not participate equally with the billions that are generated. If employee status is granted, then some colleges would be forced to eliminate sports because of the costs. If sports get eliminated, then opportunities to compete for many student/athletes are also eliminated. Employee status creates so many different issues and costs. How about a collective bargaining unit demanding higher pay? Maybe a player strike? In the end, we all will pay more for the privilege of watching sports. At some point it just gets too expensive. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 7 Share Posted January 31 (edited) Terrific take, Mike. Thank you. Not only Worker's Comp will be affected by athletes being determined to be 'employees,' but also FICA, FUTA, and State Retirement Funds, and will you be able to drop a player-employee from 1st to 2nd string without allowing him the benefit of an administrative hearing as has been negotiated between the workers union and the employer? IMO, it's inevitable that government action including that by the NLRB and State AGs, private litigation, and the liability that could attach to a university over such long-term injuries as CTE, will cause a split of at least big-time college football from their respective schools. All "indicia" of a football program will be assigned to a 3rd party, such as a private equity fund or the NFL, with the assignor indemnified and receiving an agreed-upon fixed payment. An arrangement with a private equity fund has already been looked into by FSU. Title 9? Tell the men's and women's swim teams that they are free to bargain for whatever deal the market will bear. Will this fly? The only 'remedy' that might work for a university employer will be to simply drop school-funded athletics. To my knowledge, no public school charter requires 'after school' sports. I can see the baby being tossed with the proverbial bath water. And a school like Alabama, for example, will have far fewer out-of-state full tuition dollar applicants. Lawyers private and representing and employed by the government are involved. what could possibly go wrong? Thanks again. Edited January 31 by Jon Joseph 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 8 Share Posted January 31 Mandel: NCAA takes on Tennessee, but it's likely a case of too little, too late THEATHLETIC.COM Much more so than the Florida State or Florida cases, this Tennessee case feels like a bigger-picture referendum on NIL collectives. What a Mess! And no one is around to clean IT up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 9 Share Posted January 31 Some needed clarification on the AGs vs NCAA lawsuits. These folks want wide-open 'free agency' in CFB. And they have a point. If there is no union to bargain with than any restriction on a player's ability to transfer can be viewed as a restraint on trade. BRUTAL! NCAA sued over NIL rules after Tennessee football investigation - ESPN WWW.ESPN.COM The attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over NIL-related recruiting rules. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Duck No. 10 Share Posted January 31 From: Grampa Duck, aka Mike Whitty While it's fairly simply for me to write the article of this thread focused on player injury and Workers Compensation that I was imersed in over 20 years ago, I don't know sickum about NIL, and am too old now to learn. But I can copy and paste from what others say about it. In that same John Canzano article I cited in the above article is this quote from an unnamed B1G AD: From a Big Ten AD: The schools have started talking more with each other to fact-check the NIL offers. If we come in second or third, we call the other schools that came in second or third and compare notes. Maybe we offered a kid $70,000 and the agent told us that some other school offered $100,000. We might call each other to make sure that is accurate. Too often, it proves not to be true. The admission here is that the AD is involved in negotiating the amount of NIL with the players' agents, and at least some of those agents cannot always be trusted. Maybe that negotiation is within the rules, I don't know. But how could it be otherwise than to have the AD in the loop? Can there be a workable program where the coaching staff identifies the player they want, communicates that to the AD, and the AD communites to the NIL proivider to go get us edge rusher "Ican Sackem". The NIL provider litstens to Ican's agent and finds out how much he wants, probably with added perks. The NIL provider communicates that info back to the AD who talks to the coach and says: "Is Ican worth $XXX,XXX to you guys?" The coach answers, "No, but he's worth . . .". I think you get the idea. A system where the information cruial to the negotiation for the player is being passed through three steps on the team side before getting to the player's agent, who then passes it on to the player's parents who talk to their son abouf it is fraught with potential miscommunication. And, the NCAA, in its defense, is dependent upon the schools for adequate enforcement funding. With the schools totally in control of the primary source of college football funding, TV money, the NCAA is in a no win position. Something major has to change in order for a fair system of NIL to work, assuming that's possible. The idea that the NIL provider can be distanced from the school is unworkable. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikethehiker No. 11 Share Posted January 31 On 1/31/2024 at 9:59 AM, Drake said: If employee status is granted, then some colleges would be forced to eliminate sports because of the costs. If sports get eliminated, then opportunities to compete for many student/athletes are also eliminated. This statement from Drake perfectly summarizes the end result if current trends are not reversed. The equity and logic are simply not sustainable. I've maintained this from the beginning - athletes need the stage that college football provides to achieve their dreams, and as long as no other minor league exists, colleges have a monopoly on amateur athletes. There is a reason athletes choose college football over other non-NFL pro and semi-pro leagues - the opportunities and rewards are far greater! Imagine these dominoes falling: -if players are employees, they must be compensated (wages and benefits and insurance) -if some football players are employees, all football players are employees -if all football players are employees, all student athletes are employees -if student athletes are employees, then they are not student athletes thus no student requirements -if there are no student requirements, there should be no limit on the number of years an athlete can play at a college -now you're stepping on the NFL's toes as several star athletes choose to stay at college (on field coaches) vs. grinding against pros for similar pay -now the cost of maintaining an employee base for both revenue and non-revenue sports is so prohibitive, colleges begin dropping some or all sports programs OR colleges elect to join true amateur conferences (if still permitted by law) where there is absolutely no student-athlete compensation permitted outside of standard books/tuition/room/board/equipment. If college football was smart, they would walk all of this back. Once insurance and laws get involved, they may end up killing their golden goose. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck No. 12 Share Posted January 31 Amazing stuff, but I have to say I just love football and......... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 13 Share Posted February 1 What about when a salary cap is instituted? Every pro sports league seems to have one, so the have-nots will be pursuing it sooner rahter than later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
