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Subject: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: An Observer [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 15:27:18 05/08/24 Wed All of us who love the Ivies being nationally competitive in many if not most sports bemoan that NIL contracts are transforming the college sports landscape and concentrating the many ingredients of winning down to simply one: $ $ $. Paying for better athletes than the next guy has is all that will matter now. Should we join the NIL arms race? If so, what will that do to Ivy student bodies and campus atmosphere? Here are four articles about what it takes to win in the new world order. They are written for a general New York Times audience and not even tailored to the nuts and bolts details that avid sports fans would understand. In short, it is a stinking sewer out there and it's going to get smellier. If we expect to join that game without being tarnished, we are kidding ourselves. To win the rat race, you must become a rat. No, thanks. If it means that we drift from nationally competitive to mostly uncompetitive and eventually to irrelevant, I am willing to take that chance. We can always change our minds and get into the race later. That is one example of the asymmetric choice in front of us. Once you're a rat, you're going to have a tougher time leaving the rat race. On the other hand, if you stay out of the rat race for several years before deciding that it's acceptable, you can quickly get up to speed. All it takes is money and the unvarnished willingness to apply that money in the name of winning. https://theathletic.com/5466694/2024/05/03/ohio-state-football-nil-transfer-portal/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/31/us/college-athletes-nil-sugar-rose-bowl.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/us/college-athletes-donor-collectives.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/business/dealbook/ncaa-athletes-union-pay.html [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: Ghost [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:38:29 05/08/24 Wed Interesting perspective, and you assess it accurately. The question is, does everyone in the league jump in? If only a couple do, you'll have a huge imbalance in the league. Doubt if all 8 Presidents would ever be gung-ho about this, more likely they'll take a "why should we change just because the rest of the world is?" attitude. The status quo will be just fine for them.

[> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:14:43 05/08/24 Wed Depends on what the Presidents think is necessary to save their jobs - or to bring donors back in the fold... Something suggests that hewing to status quo on campus is a dangerous idea for keeping one's job right now.

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: Ghost [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 19:27:00 05/08/24 Wed No Ivy President's job is contingent on his/her thoughts on NIL. My guess is they'll appoint a three person committee to do a two year study and then they'll evaluate those findings. Since the NIL $ are outside the athletics department's control, just can't see the Presidents opening up this can of expensive worms. They'll all be fine with the same rules for all eight in the sandbox.

[> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: Quaker62 [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:39:53 05/08/24 Wed Pete Carril was right. “If you are in the rat race, by definition, you are a rat”

[> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: Ben [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 18:08:35 05/08/24 Wed We know what that leads to.

[> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:26:03 05/09/24 Thu If the Ivies don't care about this stuff, why does Tommy Amaker make so much money?

[> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: 2 cents worth [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 14:14:01 06/01/24 Sat "This stuff" has just started. Ask that question in 10 years while watching the Ivy football champion finally get that post season test against a solid Nescac rival.

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Four Articles on What It's Like in the NIL Sewer Author: observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:50:14 06/01/24 Sat This stuff has been around since before Lou Gehrig barnstormed as a Columbia Freshman. The only thing is that the facade has dropped. Athletes at all schools aren't representative of the student body. Harvard recruits skiers whose GPA without a decent slalom run time wouldn't get them in. Yale recruits gymnasts the same way. Columbia recruits archers. Cornell recruits equestrians. None of these are on the team solely because they happened to get admitted to these schools. Now - sure there's a matter of degree - and we haven't heard of any FedEx envelopes filled with cash, but we also have heard of Mitch Marrow and the Princeton tennis player whose family friend footed many bills... and those things happened WAY AFTER the implementation of the AI and the "no scholarship" and "no bowl game" tut-tutting took place. So there's that, too. Not to mention Varsity Blues and Jerome Allen, and etc etc. The upshot is that Alabama is now a more desirable school to attend for academics than it was before Nick Saban, the same way Duke is pre-Krzyzewski and Miami pre-Schnellenberger. The idea that there is NO GOOD REASON to emphasize sports on campus at the expense of academics is a macguffin, if not a falsehood. And if a strict focus on "academics over athletics" means that many people on campus are unaware of the history of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and/or the meaning of the word "apartheid," then maybe the current priorities are also out of whack. Sewers are sewers.