This is already happening. Wisconsin gave up baseball years ago, because of Title IX. Schools do it all the time. Look at hockey. There's not nearly as many DI schools participating because of Title IX.
It was mentioned that the wages, at $600 a month each participant would be $480K. That's just the stipend. Does anyone have any idea how much money it costs to run an individual athletic program? It isn't just "money in the door" like some people believe. There's the costs of a program. Everything from equipment, to facility, to staff, and maintenance. The costs are enormous.
This
Article will give you a lot of detail about the cost of athletic programs, and it can't be pinned to the NCAA, or any other group. It's based on the reality of costs. Sports are something that will disappear from most colleges very quickly, if the pay for play people win their argument.
The whole idea is whacky. Nobody is even considering the "value" of a college degree. It's like people believe it's "owed" to athletes because they play there, and means nothing. It disregards the thousands of kids (40,000 neighborhood) at Wisconsin, and the money that comes from them to support programs that to them, mean very little. Pay for play also disregards the 23 Wisconsin based athletes who competed in the past Olympics. Their training ground, their participation in athletics, will disappear, except for the handful who are so gifted that they are lauded like conquering heroes.
Take a look at the cost of doing business in a small DI college. The University of New Mexico. The Lobos have it tough, and admit it. Most schools don't want to admit it, because you can't get talented athletes to attend a school that doesn't have the best of everything. It's a damned beauty contest because of what it is. NMU is losing their butts on sports, and has taken the necessary action, and is admitting it has no choice.
NMU Budget Problems.
A few years back, I won't say when, I had a friend associated with their program, and he told me how they actually had run out of money for even the necessity of feeding these athletes. I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that the coaches had to become pretty darned creative in getting these kids fed. They even had a problem with uniforms at that time, because they didn't have big time Armour All, or another sponsor handing them threads. Only the big guys got that.
The NCAA strives to make things competitive on a DI basis. Yet, there are teams in that group that are the bullies on the block. For a long time, Wisconsin was one of those programs that had sand kicked in their face by Michigan, OSU, and the other "elite" programs, because of money available to run systems. At least the way it's done now creates a degree of parity, and teams that work for it, have a shot at a bowl game often enough to make them solvent.
I, for one, will walk away from college sports, the day it all changes to pay for play. I was ticked off enough when the
Michigan basketball scandal was exposed. Because they were such a high profile team, and a member of the elite, their sanctions weren't nearly as tough as they should have been. But, this speaks for what happens, when outside money is involved in programs. One way or another, either outside the school, or within the school, there's going to be corruption, and there's enough now, without nurturing it.
Just my opinion. Fire away! rt(
