You really want to confuse the debate and ignore the Central issue.
"Yeah yeah yeah school makes millions off the athletes". You gotta to be joking sir. The NCAA earns BILLIONS from taking advantage of athletes. You are high.
I’m not confusing anything. The debate is on the “Central issue”. A student athlete is what it says, non professional in their sport. A academic institution chooses to have athletic programs. They don’t have to, but to do so brings recruits, which in turn increases revenue from the base academia. The student athlete chooses whether to accept the academic scholarship (which ties him to the school, like a contract). If he doesn’t want to be committed to a scholarship, pay his own way like a academic student and if he doesn’t like the program, the transfer portal is a clean separation. So to say they are taking advantage of is a misnomer. They are given a scholarship to attend the school academically at no cost, but is also allowed to participate in their athletic programs to either play a sport “that’s paying for their education”, or for the spotlight to which to promote his/her future endeavor in the sport itself. Schools make a lot a money, in all facets. Sure college sports sticks out because of the NCAA branding furnishes broadcast rights to regular games and bowl games. But they also make a ton of money from private and government contracts in academia. Collate all the schools and universities non-sport contracts in the private sector or government domain and it’s a billion dollar industry as well. All for free to the student participants curriculum vitae in the name of research or development.
A player doesn’t have to go to college in order to play the game. Although, the NFL by-laws require you be at least three years removed from your high school graduation, there by increasing the timeframe from becoming an actual professional and/or getting on a scouts radar. So, if offered a scholarship you sign an academic contract with the school to play their sport under the institution’s name, and increase the chances of being seen by professional franchises.
The NCAA caved under pressure and the perceived disparity with coaches being able to leave before their contract is up, and allowed the transfer portal mechanism to be fair to the student athlete. As for NIL, again the NCAA caved because the optics of student athletes not getting “salaries” while under scholarship was a hardship for some. The Central issue is the NCAA has allowed NIL, but doesn’t have listed outline of rules for which to implement it. Everyone is doing their own thing. As topseed indicated, he is his son’s agent. Other college players now have agents coming out of high school for the sole purpose of NIL deals. Sponsorships require signed contracts, but the NCAA doesn’t treat NIL the same. Sure coaches can say anything, but the school is represented by the Alumni collective or Boosters. They are the gateway to getting NIL deals from them.
The thing is, this QB, Sluka, has already participated 3 years as a student athlete at another program. He also has one more year of eligibility. He probably chose the school because of being able to have a chance to start and getting what was “promised to him”. His agent should have gotten in writing the NIL deal so as to sign it at the same time signing his commitment. Otherwise, there is no binding agreement documented. A hard lesson to learn before going into the professional football business. Personally, IMO he never wanted to play for the school on the helmet, but rather the name on the back of his jersey. Basically, just for individual achievement. The wrong sport to do that. He’s quitting on his teammates and while it’s early, a possible shot for the team to make the playoffs.
Your wittle feelings got hurt mighty quickly.
