he was making 2.5 at psu, so they definitely had to make it worth his while. that's a strong number, if true
shut the hell up, nerds. you use these "student-athletes" to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and just as much or more in fundraising.
Spoiler Opinion Guest Essay College Sports Are a Treasure. Don’t Turn Them Into the Minor Leagues. March 23, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET Video CreditCredit...By Angela Kirkwood By John I. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick Father Jenkins is the president of the University of Notre Dame, where Mr. Swarbrick is director of athletics. In a teary locker room this month, after the Notre Dame men’s basketball team ended its season with a close loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, the coach spoke not about lost opportunities on the court, but rather about the six master’s degrees (in addition to undergraduate degrees) that members of the team had earned, the lifelong friendships they had formed, and the invaluable lessons they had learned about leadership, teamwork and growing through adversity. The locker room is a classroom where the lesson that athletics can and should be part of a university’s educational mission is lived every day. Even Knute Rockne said that college athletics should be secondary to academics. The nation is now immersed in the thrill of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament. (Our women’s team plays Maryland on Saturday.) But beyond the excitement, college athletics is in crisis. It faces threats on a number of fronts: the growing patchwork of contradictory and confusing state laws regulating it, the specter of crippling lawsuits, the profusion of dubious name, image and likeness deals through which to funnel money to recruits, the misguided attempts to classify student-athletes as employees. Underlying all that is the widespread belief that college athletics is simply a lucrative business disguised as a branch of educational institutions. We call on universities to reaffirm that student-athletes are students first and to ensure that their athletic programs serve the schools’ broader educational mission, not the other way around. We call on the N.C.A.A. and athletic conferences to set policies that support that goal. And we urge Congress to protect the N.C.A.A.’s ability to regulate the competition for new players to ensure it remains fair and above board. began in 1939 with eight teams and no television. It was so popular that it doubled to 16 teams in 1951, to 32 teams in 1975, and to 64 teams in 1985, then added a “play in” opening round in 2001 that was expanded in 2011. Television coverage grew with the tournament; CBS and Turner pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year (soon to be $1 billion a year) for the right to broadcast the games. As the tournament’s popularity increased, so did the value of a winning team — and the salaries of successful coaches. The perception has grown in recent years that student-athletes, whose talent and hard work create so much revenue for schools and even coaches, get nothing in return. Echoing public opinion, courts have struck down longstanding N.C.A.A. regulations that barred student-athletes from profiting from their image and likeness. That has resulted in further antitrust suits against the N.C.A.A. and athletic conferences. We have been vocal in our conviction that student-athletes should be allowed to capture the value of the use of their name, image and likeness (N.I.L.) — in other words, profit from their celebrity — for one simple reason: Other students are allowed to. If a college student is a talented artist or musician no one begrudges him the chance to make money from his skills. And athletes should as far as possible have the opportunities other students enjoy. Unfortunately, the new N.I.L. rules have proven to be easy to abuse. To avoid the N.C.A.A. prohibition against directly paying athletic recruits, many schools funnel money to recruits under the guise of a supposed third-party licensing deal — regardless of whether a player’s name, image and likeness have any market value whatsoever. We must establish and enforce regulations that allow legitimate transactions while barring those that are recruiting enticements or pay-for-play. The claim that student-athletes otherwise get nothing from a multibillion-dollar college sports industry is false — and the misperception behind it goes to the heart of what is at stake. If a talented high school player heads straight to the minor leagues, he earns a paycheck. If he goes instead to college, he can earn something far more valuable: a degree. Economists estimate a college degree is typically worth about $1 million in enhanced earning power in a lifetime. At our institution, 99 percent of student-athletes who stay for at least four years get a diploma. Because less than 2 percent of all our student-athletes will play in their sport professionally, such a benefit is useful indeed. At Notre Dame, revenue from football and men’s basketball goes to support 24 other varsity sports, including, most important, women’s sports — most of which did not exist on college campuses before 1972. Since the advent of Title IX 50 years ago, no development in college athletics has been more significant than the rise of women’s sports. While many female athletes have benefited from N.I.L. deals, those who press for giving a higher percentage of revenue to football and men’s basketball players should understand that such a decision could endanger women’s athletics. At Notre Dame, that encompasses more than 300 female student-athletes, all of whom work just as hard as their male counterparts to compete at the highest levels in their sport and in the classroom. Overseeing N.I.L. transactions is just the beginning. To enhance the educational experience and overall health and well-being of our student-athletes, the N.C.A.A. should also set a limit on how many days away from campus a team can require. Part of a college education is the interaction with others in the classroom, the dining hall and the dorms. Student-athletes deserve that experience, too. The N.C.A.A. or the athletic conferences should create a national medical trust fund to benefit all student-athletes who are injured while playing, regardless of sport, school size or standing. And finally, we should set a policy so that players who leave school to go pro have the option to return — with the same financial grants they had the first time around. At Notre Dame, we have done this for many student-athletes, including the Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis, who returned last spring to complete his degree 28 years after leaving to play professionally. Congress, too, must act to resolve conflicting state regulations, clarify that our athletes are students, not employees, and give the N.C.A.A. the ability to enact and enforce rules for fair recruiting and compensation. Professional athletics must play a role, too. Though baseball and hockey allow players to go pro right after high school, the N.B.A. age requirement for draft eligibility forces most of the highly talented players to attend one year of college. The N.F.L. offers no alternative to intercollegiate football until a player has been out of high school for at least three years. Both policies push talented young players to enroll in college regardless of whether they have any interest in the educational experience it offers. To ensure that players arrive at college only after making an informed choice — and a real commitment to learning — we urge the N.F.L. to establish a minor league alternative for young players. Similarly, we hope that the N.B.A. and its Players’ Union, in accord with the 2018 Commission on College Basketball, use the upcoming contract negotiations to eliminate the “one and done” rule and allow 18-year-olds to proceed directly to the league. College athletics is a treasured national institution. Professionalizing teams, treating athletes more as employees than as students and weakening the vital connection with the educational mission of their colleges will rob college athletics of its special character. Gradually it will be seen as merely a version of the professional minor leagues. More important, that approach will not serve the vast majority of young men and women who pursue a college degree and grow personally while they play the sport they love. We can support them and preserve the institution that serves them. John I. Jenkins has been president of the University of Notre Dame since 2005. Jack B. Swarbrick is a vice president and the director of athletics at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame clumsily trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and unsurprisingly embarrassing themselves in the process.
I’m sorry but what pompous assholes. Enjoy being like every other private catholic school with a lot less money. Hope Freeman has a good agent.
it's almost amazing to me how seemingly intelligent people can't reason out what's actually happening here.
Maybe people are sick of the administration playing both sides against itself. Try to pretend that football is important while also trying to hold on to some centuries old ideology. Either be in and acknowledge it or become Wabash. Football is the single reason why ND is known. It’s their history. To try and act holier than thou every time the idea of money comes up to a university that has made billions off the backs of others is gross.
it’s wild that a white clergyman and affluent attorney in their late 60’s cant relate to the motivations, struggles and goals of a largely minority group of teenage athletes
And even if it’s not a minority athlete football is mainly played by the working class and poor now a days who have the same damn motivations
I mean fuck even if you have a roster of only Montanas, Ferittias & Pynes kids still want to win and the admin has proven they’re not at all serious about that
by the way i'm talking about posters in here and media members that are held up as having a good perspective on things: connelly, godfrey, etc. the economics of college athletics is way more precarious than anyone really cares to acknowledge. miss me with the whole "...but the product is so good under NIL." first, great sample size moron (the statistician, connelly). second, the golden goose is going to fly into a brick wall if student-athletes are classified as employees. Do you know what well-run organizations hate the most? throwing good money after bad. enjoy it while it lasts chucklefucks. the investment office is not waiting for the athletic department to drop off a check. notre dame's nest egg was substantially built by it's reputation in football, but that's over. football is a pittance in the money-making apparatus. is jack an egotistical asshole? most definitely. does he understand the realities better than maybe anyone in college athletics? most definitely.
making a large investment in the next coach for one of your few profitable sports that doesn't require a ton of (eventual) labor should be a signal, but no one seems to be paying attention
I think the only answer is to cancel football and see if you can get 80000 people in for a biology lecture.
I’ve rooted for a school that’s never taken football seriously ever so this won’t be much of an issue to me.
Sure, ND is the Washington Generals waiting for the 3 point shot to be outlawed and this new age “dunk” fad to pass
You can either adapt to the changing landscapes where players have power and control over their bodies, or sit back and expect to still make money off the backs of teenagers and young adults. Amazing the man who backs that got Covid at the announcement of a shitty SCOTUS judge wants to do the latter.
Thoros hasn’t been kidding about deemphasizing football because it’s a dying sport. ND is signaling hard that it won’t play in the minor leagues when it happens.
I did not read but I have a good idea where this was going, so my question is, what good does this article/essay whatever can do for nd football? They are really trying to screw freeman after all.
“The economics of college athletics is a slippery slope” -the people who charge $136 when Toledo comes to town
ND alumni still care very much about the athletics programs, especially football (duh). This is entirely anecdotal, but from my experience, a high percentage of students and alumni were athletes in high school and part of their passion for the university is tied to the Fighting Irish moniker on the playing field. The larger mission of ND and the money-making apparatus that comes along with it is still tied largely to keeping the donor base energized. When athletics don't perform, that donor base becomes more apathetic. Long story short, if you're measuring athletics contributions to the ND bottom line just by looking to see if athletics cost centers are profitable and/or how profitable are they, you're missing a piece of the puzzle or being disingenuous. Donors care greatly about athletics, and lack of a commitment to athletics could greatly impair donations to the university, even donations that aren't earmarked for athletics.
I've been texted multiple times by ND to get my $200 donation in to participate in the ticket lottery and having the two most prominent figures in the admin write a "Why We're Opting Out of Football" article in the NYT is a pretty good way to get me to not donate
NCAA: Hey ND, we're going to change the college football playoff system to pretty much guarantee if you go 10-2 you'll be in the playoffs every year. Oh, and if you go 11-1 it'll be pretty much guaranteed you'll host a school - probably from a warm weather state - in South Bend in December. And, this whole conference realignment thing is lining up so that you can stay independent forever and keep making ungodly amounts of money as the only major independent. Oh - and - by having an enormous brand with its own TV channel you'll be positioned really well in an era where kids can use their own name, image, and likeness to earn money that they deserve. Should be a cool era for you guys. ND: What if we simply do not want to allow poor kids to make money?
the students being admitted to the university now are on average significantly less likely to give a shit about football than those that came before, athletics, yes, football, much less. that's a larger demographic trend. students being admitted now are also less likely, on average, to have as strong of ties to the university as those admitted in the past, thus they have limited ties to the university's status as an elite football school (it's the best academically ranked school they were able to get into). the alumni base changes as boomers die and students graduate. if you make student-athletes employees, then the athletic department becomes a cost center, especially where those certain sports were already cost centers. these are not hard numbers to run. the opportunities to become a student-athlete, in general, at any school, will be substantially less. programs are already being cut across the country. if sports survive at schools post student-athlete employment status changing, they will be those sports that require small rosters and limited staff support, or those that drive enough fundraising support to keep them in existence. football's viability long-term is bleak, unless something changes.
This feels like a miscalculation. And even if it isn’t, I’m not even sure trying to test it makes any sense.
how do you think we pay for football? people complaining about the cost of season tickets going up and then in the same breath complaining about notre dame not doing what it takes to compete in football operate with aspirational lack of awareness
sure, but you don't have a fiduciary duty to the institution. if those that do are willing to question it, you probably should too. these aren't amateurs.
I would love to see the financials if Notre Dame football isn't paying for itself and multiple other sports.
even if you assume it's paying for itself now it doesn't mean that it will continue to do. the op-ed isn't about the current state of affairs as much as it about a potential state of affairs.
I hear ya... maybe I underestimate the changing demo that's currently enrolled at ND. The fact still is that some of these more recent graduating classes won't be the core of the ND donor base for a couple of decades. And student-athletes being employees obviously has greater implications than the wild west NIL run we're seeing today, I get that.