OT: Calipari Gets $500,000 as NCAA Student Must Change Water

[Tugg Speedman]

See the part in Red ... Is a CAPA vote coming to the Madison Basketball team?

I've been in favor of the players unionizing not because I think unionization is a good idea but because it will be a catalyst for change.  In fact I do not expect a union.  Rather, the NCAA is a broken clusterf**k and this movement will cause epic change.  It is already having an effect as detailed here.

http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=43445.0

This change cannot be worse because we already have the worst system in place now.  The examples in this story explain why (see why the tOSU AD got a bonus!).  CAPA might be the thing that saves this broken system.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Calipari Gets $500,000 as NCAA Student Must Change Water
By Scott Soshnick
April 04, 2014 12:00 AM EDT

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-04/calipari-gets-500-000-as-ncaa-student-must-change-water.html

Before Zach Bohannon of the Wisconsin Badgers suits up for the Final Four tomorrow, he knows arena security will be checking the label on his bottled water.

The graduate student working toward a master’s in business administration knew that the Nestle Pure Life water he took from his hotel to practice conflicted with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s official sponsor, Coca-Cola Co. (KO)’s Dasani. He still brought it to warmups before last week’s regional semifinal, and security ordered him to remove the label.

While the 6-foot-6 forward removed one label, he attached another -- “ridiculous” -- to an NCAA system in which one shot by a 19-year-old University of Kentucky freshman who isn’t paid and who can’t benefit from his athletic notoriety can result in almost three-quarters of a million dollars in bonus money for his coaches.

“The NCAA likes to hide behind its student-athlete model,” said Bohannon, whose Badgers will oppose John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats in the national basketball semifinal tomorrow at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “Well, they can’t hide anymore.”

A handful of lawsuits and an effort by Northwestern University football players to unionize has led to unprecedented scrutiny of not only the NCAA, but university administrators and coaches. In current broadcast contracts alone, the governing body for college sports and the five power conferences are guaranteed more than $31 billion. That doesn’t include other sources of revenue such as sponsorship, merchandise sales, ticket sales and booster donations.
NCAA Rewards

A couple of numbers: The NCAA reaps $11 billion from its 14-year contract with CBS and Turner Sports to broadcast the Division I men’s basketball tournament. In football, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN in 2012 agreed to pay $5.64 billion over 12 years just for the right to show a playoff featuring two semifinals and a title game that’ll rotate among venues bidding to serve as host, according to an antitrust lawsuit filed last month by attorney Jeff Kessler, who helped to bring free agency to the National Football League.

The NCAA “is crumbling under the weight of its own hypocrisy,” said Allen Sack, a professor of sports management at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Sack, who played football on Notre Dame’s 1966 championship team, is president of the Drake Group, a collection of faculty members who since 1999 have called for reform of an athletic system that they say prioritizes money over academics.

Sports Revenue

Collectively, the schools in the NCAA’s five power conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 -- reported more than $5 billion in revenue in 2011-12, Kessler’s lawsuit said.

“It’s very simple,” said Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA football player who is now president of the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA, which is the Northwestern group that won the right to unionize in a decision by Peter Ohr, the National Labor Relations Board’s regional director in Chicago. “The NCAA’s No. 1 priority is to monopolize every last penny.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert wasn’t available to comment because of his Final Four schedule, NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said. He’s scheduled to address, among other things, reform issues at a press conference on Sunday.

The NCAA says 23 of the more than 1,100 member colleges and universities make more money than they spend on sports each year. The nonprofit organization funds $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships every year, the NCAA said.

Northwestern’s Profit

Northwestern in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013, posted a combined profit of more than $15 million in its basketball and football programs, according to data schools report to the U.S. Department of Education. Northwestern says it will appeal the ruling that allowed its players to unionize.

The current model of teams switching conferences in a chase for television dollars has its underpinnings in a 1984 antitrust case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA couldn’t restrict the number of TV appearances schools made each year, said Warren Zola, executive director of the office of corporate and government affairs at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. The ruling came five years after the launch of ESPN, which was thirsty for content, especially live events.

Calipari’s Bonuses

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament has already been a windfall for Calipari, who coached Kentucky to the 2011-12 national title, as well as his assistants.

Calipari’s base salary, including broadcast and sponsorship guarantees, is $4.2 million, according to his contract. He had already collected $200,000 in tournament bonuses before Aaron Harrison’s 3-point shot in the closing seconds beat Michigan. That triggered a $150,000 bonus for reaching the Final Four, and he gets another $350,000 if the Wildcats beat Wisconsin and then either the University of Connecticut or the University of Florida in the title game scheduled for April 7.

Calipari’s three assistants, meantime, will pocket $236,000 in bonuses that kick in from the Final Four if Kentucky wins the tournament. Added to the head coach’s possible $500,000, the staff’s total bonus possibility is $736,000.

Cars, Golf

Calipari’s agreement, which isn’t out of whack with what other top-tier coaches receive -- also provides for the use of two cars, 20 lower-level basketball seats to home, away and postseason games, eight football tickets for home games and membership, dues and the initiation fee for a country club.

Compensation for his players, meantime, is limited to their scholarship, room and board and certain fees. For an athlete like Texas resident Harrison, a year of out-of-state tuition, room and board at Kentucky would cost $33,300, according to the school’s website. Over four years that’s about $133,000.

College athletics are comparable to their professional counterparts when measured by the sale of T-shirts and hats.

Licensed merchandise of college sports accounted for a record $4.62 billion in retail sales in 2012, greater than any other sport except for Major League Baseball, according to the International Licensing Industry Merchandiser’s Association and CLC, the licensing affiliate of IMG College that represents more than 200 universities, including all of the Final Four teams, conferences and bowl games, as well as the NCAA.

Supreme Court

Ohr’s NLRB decision, which applies to scholarship athletes at private institutions, will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court, said NCAA chief Emmert, who in the fiscal year ended 2012 received almost $1.7 million in total compensation, according to the organization’s tax filing.

“It completely changes the relationship from a student who’s there to get an education and enjoy all the benefits of being a student at a place like Northwestern to being an employee,” Emmert said in a March 30 interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The NCAA, school presidents and athletic directors have proposed changes in governance, including a $2,000 stipend that would potentially fill any shortfall between the scholarship and the actual cost of attending school. The power conferences are also proposing separate rules, enabling schools with more revenue to offer greater benefits to the athletes, including better health care and lifetime educational needs, said Larry Scott, commissioner of the Pac-12, which according to the Kessler suit gets a combined $3 billion from ESPN and Fox, or almost $21 million a year per school, through 2023-24.

“Reform is needed,” Scott said, adding that he’s opposed to unionization because it would only benefit lawyers, agents and some star players. “Not everyone can afford to do the kinds of things we’re talking about. The higher-resource conferences can, and want to, and will.”

Cable Money

The proliferation of sports-only cable networks like NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports 1 has made DVR-proof content such as live events even more valuable. To that end, the five power conferences have negotiated more than $15 billion in existing TV deals, according to the Kessler lawsuit. Notre Dame football, which operates as an independent, has its own broadcast contract with NBC, which last year extended the agreement through the 2025 season. The network pays the South Bend, Indiana, school about $15 million a year, some of which, according to Notre Dame, is used to fund the financial-aid endowment for the general student body.

“Major college programs generate more programming per institution than any other sports entity out there,” said Lee Berke, chief executive officer of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media Inc., a consultancy based in Scarsdale, New York, whose clients include the University of Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Texas Christian University.

Besides TV, coaches and players decades ago became walking, talking billboards for the sneaker and apparel companies. At the Final Four, for instance, Kentucky, Florida and Connecticut have contracts with Nike Inc., while Wisconsin has an agreement with Adidas AG.

UNLV’s Swoosh

Using prominent coaches and teams for brand promotion was the brainchild of Sonny Vaccaro, who in 1979 while working for Nike paid former University of Nevada-Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian to have his players wear the company’s Swoosh logo. Two years later, Vaccaro said, he had 83 schools under contract, with more coaches calling with a request to become a part of it.

“They were lining up and nobody stopped them,” Vaccaro said in a telephone interview. “They were always ready to take the money.”

Former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon is among the plaintiffs in a 2009 lawsuit alleging the NCAA violates antitrust and publicity-rights laws by preventing students from being compensated for the use of their images. Electronic Arts Inc., the second-largest U.S. video-game publisher, agreed to pay $40 million to resolve the case, leaving the NCAA as the lone defendant. The judge has ordered settlement talks.

`Absurd System’

Vaccaro and Jay Bilas, a former Duke University basketball player and current ESPN analyst, bemoaned terms set forth in the contract of Ohio State University Athletic Director Gene Smith, who received a bonus of $18,086 -- one week of his $940,000 base salary -- when wrestler Logan Stieber won his weight class at the NCAA championship. Stieber, through a university spokeswoman, declined to comment on Smith’s bonus or terms of his contract.

“That’s an absurd system,” Bilas said. “Clearly this is a multimillion-dollar business. It operates as such in every fashion except the athletes aren’t getting a cut.”

Smith’s contract pays a bonus for what is identified as exceptional athletic achievements, including appearances in the Final Four and football postseason, and titles won by individuals in any of 20 sports. Ohio State’s wrestling team lost more than $1 million in fiscal year 2012, according to the school.

“It has gotten way out of whack,” former Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden said in a telephone interview, adding that he never made more than $2.4 million in any year. “Now they’re all making double.”

Bohannon’s Impression

All of this has made a lasting impression on Wisconsin’s Bohannon, who is more than just an interested bystander in the movement for change in college athletics. He’s participated in several of the conference calls with CAPA, the would-be Northwestern union, which has only emboldened his opposition to the NCAA’s system.

A day after being made to peel off the label, Bohannon said he sneaked a non-NCAA sponsor bottle of water into the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Once inside, he and his teammates shared a chuckle at the NCAA’s expense.

“I’ll make sure to thank my corporate sponsors when we get to the Final Four,” Bohannon said. “Oh, we’ll have the last laugh.”

[reinko]

Anyone else get annoyed by people who use the "OT" on the Hangin' at the Al, board?  Do you people honestly not see the The Superbar?  Do you think your post is so important that you want more eyes on it, so you put it on the main MU board?

/rant over

[Tugg Speedman]

I thought the superbar was for non-basketball stories.  This is a basketball story (and more) and OT means it's non-MU basketball directly.

If you think all non-MU basketball belongs on the superbar, look at the front page, about half the threads need to be moved (McDonalds Game, St' Johns, Refreshing, "I don't know how I came accross this,"  "If UW wins the NC," and on and on and on)

[Hards Alumni]

Anyone else get annoyed by people who use the "OT" on the Hangin' at the Al, board?  Do you people honestly not see the The Superbar?  Do you think your post is so important that you want more eyes on it, so you put it on the main MU board?

/rant over

+1

Hangin' at the Al
Forum / Message board for all things related Marquette Basketball - recruiting, coaching, game strategy, etc.

New Posts    The Superbar
What happens at the Superbar, stays at the Superbar. This is the place to talk about anything non-bball related, like jobs, technology, food & drink on campus, naked beer slide strategy, recent events, etc.

[Tugg Speedman]

So the mods should move all these threads on page 1 to the superbar
    
OT: Calipari Gets $500,000 as NCAA Student Must Change Water
Refreshing...
Don't know how I came across this
If UW wins the NC, does Bo Ryan stay?
MU Entrance Music - U2 ? Or is it time for a change?
Jabari Parker leaning toward staying, If so, Duke Oversigned by 1
Obekpa transferring from St. Johns?
Without looking it up, try and spell Wojo's last name New
Bruce Pearl recruiting
McDonalds All American Game...
Buzz's Bunch rebrand ideas?
Buzz, Buzz's Bunch and National PR this year???
DJO to the 76ers New
Buzz Bashing

[MUCam]

Anyone else get annoyed by people who use the "OT" on the Hangin' at the Al, board?  Do you people honestly not see the The Superbar?  Do you think your post is so important that you want more eyes on it, so you put it on the main MU board?

/rant over

I never read the Superbar. This article was very interesting and absolutely pertains to Marquette basketball, as we are talking about the future of the institution within which the basketball program operates.

The moderators do a nice job moving things they don't believe are relevant to the Superbar. Since you asked a few rhetorical questions, let me ask you this: Is it that hard to just ignore a topic that starts off with "OT", rather then bitch and moan about it?

[jesmu84]

Anyone else get annoyed by people who use the "OT" on the Hangin' at the Al, board?  Do you people honestly not see the The Superbar?  Do you think your post is so important that you want more eyes on it, so you put it on the main MU board?

/rant over

+1

[burger]

Hope you are on a "non-moneymaking" athletic scholarship like 80% of the kids are.....

You can say good bye to all of those sports unless there is some sort of revenue sharing....

This is not an Utopian society.....

Football and basketball fund over 90% of all the other sports.....

Marquette spends over $200,000 per year on each and every Bball player on scholarship.....

What if some of the other sports like track unionized and wanted the same level of benefit.....

Don't wish for something that will ultimately be bad.....

Also.....State schools will have a distinct advantage.....Public sector vs. Private sector.....

Change....change.....don't care where it comes from......

I am all for incremental prudent change ......

Do not get me wrong......

But there are a lot of things that you are wishing for that could tear the foundation of Marquette's basketball program apart
if "basketball" gets unionized.....

On a side point.....This will never stand up when it gets farther up the "court" line.....The laws are very much on the side of
the universities once you get past the "single person" activist stage who made this decision.....(a one person regional judgement)

A few lines changed in the college scholarship agreement......Take it or leave it.....

I think most will still take it.....

[jesmu84]

So the mods should move all these threads on page 1 to the superbar
    
OT: Calipari Gets $500,000 as NCAA Student Must Change Water
Refreshing...
Don't know how I came across this
If UW wins the NC, does Bo Ryan stay?
MU Entrance Music - U2 ? Or is it time for a change?
Jabari Parker leaning toward staying, If so, Duke Oversigned by 1
Obekpa transferring from St. Johns?
Without looking it up, try and spell Wojo's last name New
Bruce Pearl recruiting
McDonalds All American Game...
Buzz's Bunch rebrand ideas?
Buzz, Buzz's Bunch and National PR this year???
DJO to the 76ers New
Buzz Bashing

No. If it has to do with Wojo or even Buzz, it's MU bball relevant. The rest of those threads? Yes.

[hoops12]

If there is so much money involved, why don't they "at least" drop ticket prices so the average kid, or family can attend games? Ticket prices don't add that much revenue when looking at the whole picture. The average person can't buy season tickets anymore. With the kind of money programs/conferences make from television and advertisements, people should be able to attend games for $10. I'm totally serious! All this money that the NCAA and the coaches are drowning in is ultimately coming from the consumer. Most of the people that can attend games on a regular basis are either wealthy or they have a corporate connection. For almost all sports today, this is just wrong! Will it change? Probably not, but the greed and the 3-5 million dollar salaries (plus incentives) are ridiculous. Just my rant for the day.  

[Tugg Speedman]

No. If it has to do with Wojo or even Buzz, it's MU bball relevant. The rest of those threads? Yes.

See everyone has a different definition of what goes on the Superbar.

I don't know why it exists, very few actually bother with it.

Just incorporate all those threads here.  It won't kill you to ignore them.

[Hards Alumni]

If there is so much money involved, why don't they "at least" drop ticket prices so the average kid, or family can attend games? Ticket prices don't add that much revenue when looking at the whole picture. The average person can't buy season tickets anymore. With the kind of money programs/conferences make from television and advertisements, people should be able to attend games for $10. I'm totally serious! All this money that the NCAA and the coaches are drowning in is ultimately coming from the consumer. Most of the people that can attend games on a regular basis are either wealthy or they have a corporate connection. For almost all sports today, this is just wrong! Will it change? Probably not, but the greed and the 3-5 million dollar salaries (plus incentives) are ridiculous. Just my rant for the day.  

[Tugg Speedman]

Hope you are on a "non-moneymaking" athletic scholarship like 80% of the kids are.....

You can say good bye to all of those sports unless there is some sort of revenue sharing....

This is not an Utopian society.....

Football and basketball fund over 90% of all the other sports.....

Marquette spends over $200,000 per year on each and every Bball player on scholarship.....

What if some of the other sports like track unionized and wanted the same level of benefit.....

Don't wish for something that will ultimately be bad.....

Also.....State schools will have a distinct advantage.....Public sector vs. Private sector.....

Change....change.....don't care where it comes from......

I am all for incremental prudent change ......

Do not get me wrong......

But there are a lot of things that you are wishing for that could tear the foundation of Marquette's basketball program apart
if "basketball" gets unionized.....

On a side point.....This will never stand up when it gets farther up the "court" line.....The laws are very much on the side of
the universities once you get past the "single person" activist stage who made this decision.....(a one person regional judgement)

A few lines changed in the college scholarship agreement......Take it or leave it.....

I think most will still take it.....

Let me summarize this comment

You agree that football and basketball players are exploited and treated unfairly.  But you also agree that we should continue to treat them unfairly because it is more important to have a men's wrestling and women's softball team than be fair to football and basketball players.

And I think you're wrong about it hurting MU basketball.  I think MU basketball is a clear winner.  It breaks the power that the football schools have over everything.  Madison loses, the B1G loses ... not MU or the basketball only BE.  D1 loses, D3 gains.

Again, a union is not going to happen.  The NCAA will cave and give them what they want before it comes to this.  As the link at the top of the first thread says, they already are talking about giving them what they want (note, they do NOT want to be paid, they are arguing for better working conditions, like tuition after competing to get a degree, health care coverage and independent doctors)

Lastly, for 100 years we have been waiting for prudent incremental change in the NCAA.  It is never happened and, if anything, we have moved further from away from rational rules than ever before.  This is a naive concept because the NCAA is a monopoly has has no reason to ever change or be ever be prudent.  That is why the THREAT of unionization is needed.

[Tugg Speedman]

If there is so much money involved, why don't they "at least" drop ticket prices so the average kid, or family can attend games? Ticket prices don't add that much revenue when looking at the whole picture. The average person can't buy season tickets anymore. With the kind of money programs/conferences make from television and advertisements, people should be able to attend games for $10. I'm totally serious! All this money that the NCAA and the coaches are drowning in is ultimately coming from the consumer. Most of the people that can attend games on a regular basis are either wealthy or they have a corporate connection. For almost all sports today, this is just wrong! Will it change? Probably not, but the greed and the 3-5 million dollar salaries (plus incentives) are ridiculous. Just my rant for the day.  

Restated ... let's go on to the porch of the plantation and ask the master to loosen the chains a little and then we'll be happy.  Abolish slavery?  Not necessary, just give me $10 tickets and I'm good.

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

This is when Dick Strong and a conglomerate of donors become the de facto owners of the team.  

[Tugg Speedman]

This is when Dick Strong and a conglomerate of donors become the de facto owners of the team.  

Not sure what this is reference too but every high D1 program has a Dick Strong and big money donors that call the shots. 

The one's that do not are not high D1 programs.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

And I think you're wrong about it hurting MU basketball.  I think MU basketball is a clear winner.  It breaks the power that the football schools have over everything.  Madison loses, the B1G loses ... not MU or the basketball only BE.  D1 loses, D3 gains.

One of the reasons I like the idea of paying players is because I think it would start a bidding war among the top 15-20 programs, and I think that those costs would actually help create more parity. If Kentucky is shelling out $2,000,000 a year in payments for its players, but Marquette's players are willing to come for a total sum of maybe $200,000, that burns through a lot of resources for the bigger schools.

I think the bigger schools have the biggest incentive not to allowing paying of student athletes. Wouldn't surprise me if they destroyed themselves trying to buy up talent, while actual "student athletes" who are going for the academic experience are willing to take a lot less.

[Blackhat]

This thread screams commie... don't hate success.


George: “Your boyfriend reads the Daily Worker? What is he, a Communist?”

Elaine: “He reads everything, you know, Ned’s very well read.”

George: “Maybe he’s just very well…red.”

[Tugg Speedman]

One of the reasons I like the idea of paying players is because I think it would start a bidding war among the top 15-20 programs, and I think that those costs would actually help create more parity. If Kentucky is shelling out $2,000,000 a year in payments for its players, but Marquette's players are willing to come for a total sum of maybe $200,000, that burns through a lot of resources for the bigger schools.

I think the bigger schools have the biggest incentive not to allowing paying of student athletes. Wouldn't surprise me if they destroyed themselves trying to buy up talent, while actual "student athletes" who are going for the academic experience are willing to take a lot less.

First, no one is talking about paying for players, not the union, not the big schools and not the NCAA.

But if it came down to that, Jay Bilas explained how it would work ...

Kentucky offers Julius Randle $2,000,000 dollars (or whatever is the going rate).  It is a contract he signs and it is says ....

* Three year commitment.  If he wants to leave early for the NBA, it will cost him, and cost him a lot ($666,666/year).

* Morals clause.  Get busted smoking weed and pay a fine, say $25,000 first offense and $50,000 second.

Here is the really interesting part according to Bilas ...

* Maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA to stay eligible (remember this is still a rule, you are still a student and expected to act like one).  And now that your getting paid, we will not provide you with counselors and special classes.  You can hire your own counselors and no more "theory of basketball" class.  If you're ineligible, we will have a damage clause and you owe the school hundreds of thousands of dollars.  So go ahead and blow off class, it will cost you a ton.

Finally, since you're getting paid, you can sign endorsement deals and sell your likeness.


I have no problem with this kind of arrangement and think MU will do just fine in this type of world.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Title IX, non revenue sports, etc, etc

[brandx]

If there is so much money involved, why don't they "at least" drop ticket prices so the average kid, or family can attend games? Ticket prices don't add that much revenue when looking at the whole picture. The average person can't buy season tickets anymore. With the kind of money programs/conferences make from television and advertisements, people should be able to attend games for $10. I'm totally serious! All this money that the NCAA and the coaches are drowning in is ultimately coming from the consumer. Most of the people that can attend games on a regular basis are either wealthy or they have a corporate connection. For almost all sports today, this is just wrong! Will it change? Probably not, but the greed and the 3-5 million dollar salaries (plus incentives) are ridiculous. Just my rant for the day.  

Because sports aren't about the fans. It's about the owners (or schools) getting rich. They will charge whatever the fans will pay. Sorry, but they don't care about your family in ANY way - unless you are contributing $$$$.

[brandx]

First, no one is talking about paying for players, not the union, not the big schools and not the NCAA.

But if it came down to that, Jay Bilas explained how it would work ...

Kentucky offers Julius Randle $2,000,000 dollars (or whatever is the going rate).  It is a contract he signs and it is says ....

* Three year commitment.  If he wants to leave early for the NBA, it will cost him, and cost him a lot ($666,666/year).

* Morals clause.  Get busted smoking weed and pay a fine, say $25,000 first offense and $50,000 second.

Here is the really interesting part according to Bilas ...

* Maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA to stay eligible (remember this is still a rule, you are still a student and expected to act like one).  And now that your getting paid, we will not provide you with counselors and special classes.  You can hire your own counselors and no more "theory of basketball" class.  If you're ineligible, we will have a damage clause and you owe the school hundreds of thousands of dollars.  So go ahead and blow off class, it will cost you a ton.

Finally, since you're getting paid, you can sign endorsement deals and sell your likeness.


I have no problem with this kind of arrangement and think MU will do just fine in this type of world.

Bilas gave an excellent interview with Olbermann a week or so ago. Gave very solid reasoning for the union case and explained how it is not opening a hornet's nest.

[Aughnanure]

Title IX, non revenue sports, etc, etc

Plus, once they realize all but .01% of them are not even worth money this will go away. The colleges will say "fine, go ahead" we don't need to deal with this headache. It's amazing how some believe that whatever revenues a school generates via athletics is directly attributable to the athletes and not to the school's name and notoriety that gets them noticed in the first place. The name on the front makes them more valuable than the name on the back.

Just go the baseball route and get this over with. Let them leave after HS.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Plus, once they realize all but .01% of them are not even worth money this will go away. The colleges will say "fine, go ahead" we don't need to deal with this headache. It's amazing how some believe that whatever revenues a school generates via athletics is directly attributable to the athletes and not to the school's name and notoriety that gets them noticed in the first place. The name on the front makes them more valuable than the name on the back.

Just go the baseball route and get this over with. Let them leave after HS.

Yup.

I always love the argument that Player X brings in all this revenue.  Well, actually, no he doesn't.  Before player X, the revenue was still there.  Kentucky sold out games before Coach Cal.  MU had top 20 attendance before a top 20 recruiting class.  Is there a bump here and there because of D Wade or whatever?  Sure...a small bump. 

The vast majority of season ticket holders are going to renew year in and year out because if they don't, they lose their seats.  Regardless of who is coaching or what talent they are bringing in.

[Hards Alumni]

Yup.

I always love the argument that Player X brings in all this revenue.  Well, actually, no he doesn't.  Before player X, the revenue was still there.  Kentucky sold out games before Coach Cal.  MU had top 20 attendance before a top 20 recruiting class.  Is there a bump here and there because of D Wade or whatever?  Sure...a small bump. 

The vast majority of season ticket holders are going to renew year in and year out because if they don't, they lose their seats.  Regardless of who is coaching or what talent they are bringing in.

+1