Yeah, there's nothing like giving workers the opportunity for fair compensation and freedom to move around to inject dirt and corruption into what was once a pristine operation of holding kids hostage and corrupting them with under-the-table payments and enticements.
"Penn State isn't paying that."
- Thread starter heckmans
- Start date
It is pay for recruiting/play, aka bribery. Or perhaps some are more comfortable with the governmental term for bribery... lobbying. I don't know why it's still being called NIL, it's not NIL in any sense of the term. I have no problem with NIL. I have big problems with bribing a player to sign an LOI with a particular college.
I'd still rather give a donation that goes to pay a Red Cross employee than a football player, and it's not even close.
To clarify your lobbying point.... The first amendment specifically protects citizens' rights "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
It's reasonable for people living their lives around the country, to hire an agent to petition the government in DC on their behalf. It became known as lobbying because these hired agents would wait in the lobby of the Willard Hotel waiting for Grant to come over for the White House for a drink. It is highly regulated to limit and control "bribery." Respectfully, the issue is not lobbyists, it's that we've let the govt get so big that lobbyists are sent to follow the money. Return to a Constitutional govt and the problem of lobbying goes away with the Trillions of in spending.
Just reread the article (posted on a rival team’s site) the text doesn’t support the headline. The text only supports the fact that Nick wanted to be at Penn State vs anywhere else. People guess at NIL numbers. I don’t doubt he could have got more money somewhere else. I never believe the numbers that are thrown around.I truly believe CFB will see a significant contraction overall....time will tell, but regardless, it seems the current realities of CFB are not compatible with the legacy of Success With Honor. Penn State has the biggest alumni assoc, but alums are not writing checks in comparison to its current peers.
Nick Singleton makes it clear, Penn State has an NIL problem… and a big one
Penn State is hoping for a bounce-back junior season from Nick Singleton after he struggled to produce the explosive plays in 2023 that he became known for as avictorybellrings.com
Unfortunately Lion_backer, the revenue surplus generated by the Athletic Department in 2023 was $126,350. That amount of money doesn't go too far when distributed to the athletes. I believe this was due to the payout to Shrew. Texas is paying $50,000 to their line men, don't know what the oilmen are contributing to the star players.
In 2022, the Athletic Department surplus was $10.7 million, again doesn't come close to matching tOSU's NIL of $15 - $20 million, and that money isn't coming from the athletic budget!
Also consider that the ICA is supposed to caugh-up at least $60,000,000 per yr for the next 20+ yrs. The simple solution is to charge each student $1,000 per yr tacked onto their tuition.
Last edited:
Raising tuition is always the default solution at Penn State. But I guess we're already the most expensive flagship state school in the country so we might as well set some kind of an unbeatable record so that our football team can maybe get a little better.
It would likely take a complete collapse of college football for that to happen. Which I am totally rooting for. Tear it down completely and rebuild it right.
The raising $1 grand in tuition for each student is T-I-C, but it would cover the necessary mortgage of about $60 mil per year.
Borrowing $700 million will probably have $500 million in interest attached, soooo about 1.2+/- total payment for new stadium suites, new press box & the outdoor cocktail lounge between the 20yd lines on the west side.
I'm not opposed but how? It's a major business. Schools are just going to give away billions to make it what it used to be? Make it make sense....
I don't know how. Perhaps things get so out of hand a bunch of the blue bloods eventually say enough. Or it loses enough fans (probably not going to happen). Somehow bankrupt the NCAA?
My guess is enough big donors for a lot of schools are going to dry up eventually. We're seeing it with PSU donors not wanting to jump in. What exactly are these donors seeing for their money? Besides a (hopefully) winning program?
I doubt they dry up honestly...haven't they existed for decades at many schools? I think rich people, very rich, love thinking they're influencing a sport they likely wish they would have been great at.
Truthfully I think no matter what happens Penn State will always be in this group that lives and dies with NIL now. With or without the NCAA involvement.
Then maybe there shouldn't be any more scholarships, or at least reduce their value by 50% to spread more of the wealth among the "downtrodden youths"? How many of these kids are going to get autograph $ without a stage to play on? I mean we are talking about "fairness" here, right?
How about this; college football is a huge cash cow for the broadcast networks, including streaming services. And at least some parity is critical to keep a wide fan base engaged. If only five teams dominate it will become impossible for the rest to continue playing such an expensive sport.
So since the broadcasters have such a vested interest they should insist in their multibillion dollar contracts that a certain percentage goes directly to the players. Spread out evenly between the P5 or top 50 to ensure some competitive balance.
There could still be other sources for NIL if players earn it somehow but stop just writing checks for showing up at practice. Only true NIL payments.
The networks have the most to lose. Let them pony up and pay the bills.
????
FBS has always been the haves and have nots. Indiana, for example, is happy to take the money and run
Although I am generally opposed to the Nil system, because it means that only about 15 or 20 colleges can be competitive every year, I don't think Ohio State for instance paying $20 million dollars in nil money is really that expensive. I would view Ohio State football as roughly an Enterprise worth about $5 billion to the state of ohio. (I realize I am just throwing out a number, but at the very least when considering the worldwide reputation of Ohio State football, at the very least it should be worth 1 billion dollars.) The 20 million is only a small proportion of that. I think in Columbus and Ohio there is always going to be a lot of money for nil. When people think about the state of Ohio, Ohio State football is clearly at the very top of the heap of things that come to mind.
I hate to say it, but I agree that some kind of collapse is needed to rebuild this thing. I'd be damned if I wanted to pony up $1000 more a year in student "fees" to support a bunch of jocks. If a university degree ain't good enough recompense, go pound sand. The damn tail is wagging the dog!
Well, since the players sued to be able to get paid, perhaps a regular student group can to make sure they aren't funding the jocks?
Like this--what are you even talking about? They sued to get money from revenue yet you want "regular" students to try to say they shouldn't have scholarships which doesn't even make sense.
Again, it doesn't even make sense--you're penalizing them because they bring money into the school--then you have to pay them even more
You have to accept they're being paid because they're profitable for Penn State
This "take away their scholarship" nonsense might be even more insane than the fear of a QB that hit 52% of his passes this year--it's a close call.
WHEW,
all of the publicity of $700 mil in stadium renovations I was so concerned that the loans would put PSU in a financial rabbit hole for the next 1/4 century.
I didn’t realize that our BOT had a long term contract with Elevate providing the financial means necessary to pay the stadium rehab. 🙄 T.I.C.
August 29, 2024 update from Barry:
Two very important updates: we reached our goal of $10,000 – THANK YOU! Your donation is being very well spent. We are keeping this fundraiser up because of the second piece of important news…
Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to hire Attorney Terry Mutchler and her team of attorneys Erika Silverbreit and Justin Boehret. On Tuesday, August 27th, they filed an amended complaint (you can read the PDF here: http://barryfenchak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BF-2024-Amended-Complaint-27August2024.pdf) which added the fact that I have also been denied access to review the contract signed with Elevate Tickets, who will be handling the ticket sales for Beaver Stadium. Penn State administration has touted this contract as key to helping generate the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to pay for the stadium renovations, as well as providing critical funding for the Intercollegiate Athletic Department for the years ahead.
To be clear: I am not making any accusations of impropriety or fraud. But for a contract that Sports Illustrated reports is a ‘massive long-term deal’, all trustees should at least know the basics.
Your support in making this happen has been the game changer. Stay tuned for more, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter at: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/957603/122519395614328579/share
all of the publicity of $700 mil in stadium renovations I was so concerned that the loans would put PSU in a financial rabbit hole for the next 1/4 century.
I didn’t realize that our BOT had a long term contract with Elevate providing the financial means necessary to pay the stadium rehab. 🙄 T.I.C.
August 29, 2024 update from Barry:
Two very important updates: we reached our goal of $10,000 – THANK YOU! Your donation is being very well spent. We are keeping this fundraiser up because of the second piece of important news…
Thanks to your generosity, we have been able to hire Attorney Terry Mutchler and her team of attorneys Erika Silverbreit and Justin Boehret. On Tuesday, August 27th, they filed an amended complaint (you can read the PDF here: http://barryfenchak.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BF-2024-Amended-Complaint-27August2024.pdf) which added the fact that I have also been denied access to review the contract signed with Elevate Tickets, who will be handling the ticket sales for Beaver Stadium. Penn State administration has touted this contract as key to helping generate the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to pay for the stadium renovations, as well as providing critical funding for the Intercollegiate Athletic Department for the years ahead.
To be clear: I am not making any accusations of impropriety or fraud. But for a contract that Sports Illustrated reports is a ‘massive long-term deal’, all trustees should at least know the basics.
Your support in making this happen has been the game changer. Stay tuned for more, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter at: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/957603/122519395614328579/share
Last edited:
There is only so much $ to go around when it comes to donations. Maybe you don't realize this, but PSU tuition is already pretty high for an average Pennsylvania family, and the academic rankings have been heading in the opposite direction. And this is a big part of the reason why multiple Branch Campuses are on life support. So we may be reaching a breaking point relatively quickly based on the current state of affairs with so much $ pouring into athletes, 99.9% of whom will never be spoken about again.
Maybe schools should get back to being schools?
What? You realize how much the athletes are bringing in, yes? Far more than they're getting
Maybe I do realize.
There's 2 different issues here ... 1. how someone thinks things should be, in their perfect world, and 2. how things should be, given imperfect realities.
As to issue 1, I'm the foremost promoter of amateurism in college sports. My perfect world involves prospective student-athletes applying to, and being accepted at, institutions of higher learning completely blind to their athletic participation. They have to get in based on their academics first, before a coach can reach out to them at all. Teams would play other teams within their region ... at least until playoffs. Athletes wouldn't be forced to dedicate over 40 hours a week to their athletic pursuits, because that's a full-time job, in addition to their studies, and isn't conducive to academic success. And so on ...
But I realize that's never going to happen, and all that's been occurring in college sports ... FOR DECADES ... is more and more focus on athletics ... and other than scholarships, virtually none of this is for the benefit of the student athlete. It's all been about how colleges (including coaching staff) can make more money, and get more out of each athlete.
And at every turn, the GREAT majority of fans were cheering those moves on. We ended up with all interested parties making bank off a process that now sometimes starts in the 8th grade of a prospective student-athlete. Grown men paid millions to coax a child to join their program, and take on a full-time job while their academic studies are a secondary concern, at best ... and that grown man can just toss them aside and take away their education if something shinier comes along. Colleges, advertisers and broadcasters all making bank off bigger and badder schedules, conferences, etc. Let's have these kids work all week, then travel all weekend to work some more and what more do they get? Nothing. And then you have all the ancillary "parasites" .. the recruiting services, the camps, the trainers, the instructors, etc. ... that whole athletic development/notice infrastructure that's profiting off these kids, whose parents are footing that bill, so the families are netting out even less and less from the fake/inadequate educational experience. And so on ...
And, finally, we get change that may actually benefit the student-athlete and now it's "whoa! the game is ruined! It's dirty and corrupt! It's not what I remember! This is chaos! It's professional sports now!"
Dude, it's been professional sports, except the person benefitting the least while benefits, overall, have been BOOMING ... has been the student-athlete ... but now it's just a dirty, unpure, uninteresting experience now that kids have some power in this.
So, from my perspective ... if we can't get back toward more of my perfect world scenario ... and we won't, because that would require all the folks making bank off the kids to sacrifice all that money and success for the good of the kids ... and we KNOW that won't happen ... then at least we can give benefits to the kids. Is the current structure great? Absolutely not. They need to modify it, no doubt ... but the focus should be on how to get these kids their due while making it more structured and fairer for all.
