College Sports = Extended Slavery

[Jockey]

Graduating just 67% of athletes is pitiful -- and that's cited as one of the best graduation rates in the P5. I'm not surprised to learn that the SEC has such a poor record in this regard.

Maybe, but we don't know if it is pitiful unless we know the rate for non-athletes so we can make a comparison.


69% is much higher than the rate for students, in general. So in fact it is the opposite of pitiful.

[BCHoopster]

Thesis: The NCAA tournament, with its "one loss and you're out system," is essentially like the Holocaust.

Discuss.


Really, are you an anti-semitic individual, the Holocaust was life and death, and death to 6M people.  Basketball is a game, no correlation what
so ever.

[Jockey]

Thesis: The NCAA tournament, with its "one loss and you're out system," is essentially like the Holocaust.

Discuss.


Really, are you an anti-semitic individual, the Holocaust was life and death, and death to 6M people.  Basketball is a game, no correlation what
so ever.

Dude, he wasn't being serious. Don't know how it could be much more obvious.

[Shooter McGavin]

I think he is making a point of how dumb the original thesis is on the subject line.

[GooooMarquette]

I think he is making a point of how dumb the original thesis is on the subject line.

Yep, it was pretty obvious that he was being facetious because of the OP and subject line.

[BCHoopster]

Dude, he wasn't being serious. Don't know how it could be much more obvious.

When you lose a family member to the Holocaust, it becomes serious. 

[MU82]

I didn't see those words in the article. In what context are the players being lynched?

You are correct. "Plantation" was in there. "Slavery" was in the title of this thread. "Lynching" is another example of an over-the-top metaphor in this realm. Wasn't trying to misrepresent anything.

[Shooter McGavin]

Correct.  Slavery and lynchings are just as serious.  Comparing college athletes to slaves is absurd.  Comparing the NCAA tournament to the Holocaust is absurd.  That's his point. 

[Cheeks]

I didn't see those words in the article. In what context are the players being lynched?

The words aren't being used in the  article, but one of those words was used by his favorite guy this week so he has to get that out as part of his post...it's part of his weaving narrative wherever he can in an attempt to get his narrative out.  He knows damn well why he said it and did it.  What was so funny was watching the videos this week of so many other people using the same word only 20 years earlier in the same situation with only one difference. 

[MU82]

The words aren't being used in the  article, but one of those words was used by his favorite guy this week so he has to get that out as part of his post...it's part of his weaving narrative wherever he can in an attempt to get his narrative out.  He knows damn well why he said it and did it.  What was so funny was watching the videos this week of so many other people using the same word only 20 years earlier in the same situation with only one difference.

Politics

[Cheeks]

I would have preferred an approach of how many student athletes earned a degree that never would have if not for college sports?  I can name a number of MU basketball players where this applies.

[wadesworld]

The words aren't being used in the  article, but one of those words was used by his favorite guy this week so he has to get that out as part of his post...it's part of his weaving narrative wherever he can in an attempt to get his narrative out.  He knows damn well why he said it and did it.  What was so funny was watching the videos this week of so many other people using the same word only 20 years earlier in the same situation with only one difference.

Because if something was considered acceptable in the past then only SJWs in this PC culture we live in today would ever consider it inappropriate now.  If not for all these snowflakes in today's society the rich white man could still legally own other human beings as a piece of property (staying on topic with slavery).  Damn, why do all these SJWs need to ruin everything that is good?

[wadesworld]

I would have preferred an approach of how many student athletes earned a degree that never would have if not for college sports?  I can name a number of MU basketball players where this applies.

And you know this how?

[Boozemon Barro]

Because if something was considered acceptable in the past then only SJWs in this PC culture we live in today would ever consider it inappropriate now.  If not for all these snowflakes in today's society the rich white man could still legally own other human beings as a piece of property (staying on topic with slavery).  Damn, why do all these SJWs need to ruin everything that is good?

Holy strawman batman! Hahaha

[silverback]

I'm grateful folks read it and reasonably encouraged that only a handful of readers here looked to hide in semantics rather than refute the central idea – arguing word choices rather than acknowledging the problem.

I agree that we're fortunare MU seems very open to welcoiming students back to complete their degrees.

Thanks.

John Scott Lewinski

[Marcus92]

Maybe, but we don't know if it is pitiful unless we know the rate for non-athletes so we can make a comparison.

69% is much higher than the rate for students, in general. So in fact it is the opposite of pitiful.

I stand corrected. I assumed (should have known that was trouble) the graduation rate for undergraduate students was higher than that. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the 6-year graduation rate at public institutions is 60%, and at private institutions it's 66%.

Graduation rates are higher at more selective institutions (above 80%).

Thanks for checking on this one. Always good to learn something new. I'm now more informed on this issue than I was yesterday.

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40

[Boozemon Barro]

I would have preferred an approach of how many student athletes earned a degree that never would have if not for college sports?  I can name a number of MU basketball players where this applies.

How many coaches would have become millionares without college sports? How many sports journalists would have jobs without college sports? It's a big business that generates a lot of interest and money from the general public so it's a benefit to everyone involved. Doesn't make it right to artificially cap what the players can make.

[1318WWells]

How many coaches would have become millionares without college sports? How many sports journalists would have jobs without college sports? It's a big business that generates a lot of interest and money from the general public so it's a benefit to everyone involved. Doesn't make it right to artificially cap what the players can make.

Do you think that high school student athletes should be paid as well? High school coaches get paid and there are journalists that make a living off of covering high school sports. High school sports generate a lot of interest and revenue from the public.

No, they shouldn't be paid either. Value the education that is being provided through playing sports, it will open many doors down the road. Value the exposure that is provided as well, it will open many doors down the road.

[brewcity77]

Do you think that high school student athletes should be paid as well?

If someone wants to pay them for their NIL, then absolutely yes. There's absolutely no logical reason to argue otherwise.

[Galway Eagle]

If someone wants to pay them for their NIL, then absolutely yes. There's absolutely no logical reason to argue otherwise.

NIL?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

NIL?

Name, Image, Likeness

[brewcity77]

NIL?

Name, image, and likeness.

Say the local restaurant or grocery store wants to pay a high school kid to be in their commercial or newspaper ad. If they want to give a HS kid $50 to appear, I have no problem with that. If it's the kid that works there part-time as an employee and they get extra to be in the commercial, fine. If it's the recognizable high school player who shoots a basket or scores a touchdown and says that's where they're going after the game, fine.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Do you think that high school student athletes should be paid as well? High school coaches get paid and there are journalists that make a living off of covering high school sports. High school sports generate a lot of interest and revenue from the public.

No, they shouldn't be paid either. Value the education that is being provided through playing sports, it will open many doors down the road. Value the exposure that is provided as well, it will open many doors down the road.

Just a general nitpick. There's a difference between "student athletes should be paid" and "student athletes should be allowed to profit off their NIL."

I think a lot of people who are for allowing student athletes to profit of their NIL are also against student athletes being paid. I'm personally one of those.

[GooooMarquette]

And you know this how?

Cheeks probably has plenty of clear-cut examples given his time in the AD, but you can also make a pretty solid educated guess with a little simple common sense.

Take Jim Chones, for example. His family was so poor that Al actually told him to take the ABA offer. Chones had almost three years of college credits from his time at MU, and later earned his degree. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-05-24-9905240024-story.html

Or watch "Hoop Dreams" and tell me Will Gates would have gotten a degree without a scholarship.

It doesn't stretch the imagination to guess that there are similar stories behind many of Al's "cracked sidewalk" kids...and plenty of kids since.

[Boozemon Barro]

Do you think that high school student athletes should be paid as well? High school coaches get paid and there are journalists that make a living off of covering high school sports. High school sports generate a lot of interest and revenue from the public.

No, they shouldn't be paid either. Value the education that is being provided through playing sports, it will open many doors down the road. Value the exposure that is provided as well, it will open many doors down the road.

Well if high school sports were generating millions of dollars for individual schools I'd say they should be paid. Some are getting scholarships to private high schools for sports, which I know is a stick in the craw of fans of public schools.

The point is that the athletes are valuable to these institutions, and I think their value should be determined by market forces rather than a cartel-like organization of individual institutions agreeing not to pay their labor.

Opening doors down the road is a nice ambigious source of value, but real money is better, and tangible. All that door opening down the road value would still be on the table as well.

Just lift the amateurism regulation and see what happens. I'm not advocating universities be forced to pay players, rather that they can choose to pay or not pay them whatever they want.