Amateur sports with incredibly high overhead

Sometimes all one need do is listen and look at the facts.  First we listen to Mark Emmert, NCAA president, speak about amateur college sports:

·         NCAA President Mark Emmert stuck to his contention that amateurism is the core of college athletics, saying any effort to pay players would destroy a framework that has been in place for more than a century and cause many schools to either abandon sports or refuse to play other schools that do pay.

·         Emmert said college athletes themselves wouldn't want to play against other athletes who were getting paid.  "They want to know everyone is playing by the same rules," he said. "They want to know the other teams consist of student athletes just like them."

·         Emmert said one of the biggest reasons fans like college sports is that they believe the athletes are really students who play for a love of the sport and for their school and community

·         "It's one of the most fundamental principles of the NCAA and intercollegiate athletics," Emmert said. "They have always seen and assumed that intercollegiate athletics is about the notion that these are members of the student body. They're not hired employees conducting games for entertainment. They're not a random group of folks that just come together to play sports."

You can read the entire article at:  http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2014/jun/20/ncaa-head-pay-could-destroy-college-athletics/

Now, for some facts:

·        Last year, Nick Saban, football coach at Alabama, took home $5,500,000.00 for coaching his “amateur” sports team

·        His buddy, Mack Brown, at Texas, got about the same

·       The fellow at Arkansas, who used to be at Wisconsin, got a cool $5,100,000.00

·        Urban Meyer at Ohio State - $4,600,000.00

·        Steve Spurrier at South Carolina - $3,300,000.00

·        Here’s one that may bring a tear to your eye:  Brady Hoke at Michigan - $4,100,000.00 for a 3 win; 5 loss record last year in the Big 10 or 12 or 14 or?  Four million bucks buys you three wins out of 8 conference games.  More than $1.3 million per win - half a million just for showing up

·        Here’s the real kicker – there are 70 “amateur” college football coaches making at least $1,000,000.00 a year

·       Take a look at the entire listing along with their staff salaries.  Go to:  http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/salaries/

There is only one place; one conference; one small group of colleges and universities in America today engaging in “amateur” sports – it is the Ivy League consisting of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn and Yale.  They have this strange system – everyone applies to school as a student and is either accepted or rejected.  Oh, one other thing – no athletic scholarships – if you need financial aid, fine but you better have the smarts  and the aptitude to qualify.

When the fool or just plain obliviously deceptive Emmert spoke about schools abandoning sports or refusing to play against schools that pay their athletes (giggle – giggle), who did he have in mind?  We doubt these 3, 4 and 5 million dollar men will opt to stay home Saturday afternoon and forgo their paychecks, huh?

Who destroyed amateur sports in America?  The well paid coaches and their well paid staffs and the big money flowing from TV and Nike may be prime suspects along with others.   But we’ve seen this playbook and this gathering over and over again.  The play?  It’s just greed.  Plain, pure, simple and ever so predictable – greed.  It's a fundamental folks.  Greed always destroys those who engage it.

BTW, that same greed is why those products and services that fill up much of the televised airtime for these “amateur” sports events cost so much more in the store today.  Not only do you get to watch 3, 3 ½ hour football games – you get to pay for it if and when you buy the junk that is advertised over and over again interrupting and delaying the “amateur” game.