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UAA and Cost of Attendance

Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

I still don't believe that athletes are owed anything if we believe that colleges and universities are places of higher learning not sports leagues. If you are attending said school to get an education, the fact that you get any break on the cost of that education is a gift from the school regardless of the amount.

HOWEVER, if you are only attending the school to further your hopes of becoming a professional athlete, then again I think the school owes you nothing because playing for that school is no different than paying to attend sports camps, getting your own personal trainer, etc. Being part of a top college team is no different than being part of your local PeeWee in-house league. You paid to play then hoping it might get you to the NHL some day, why is playing for a college team any different. You can pay to play there too, hoping it might get you to the NHL some day.

The problem with the whole discussion is that people only look at the sports aspect of the equation and we neglect to remember that these players should be on these teams because they are trying to get an education and just happen to be good at sports. I know full well this is not what happens at big D-I schools, but that doesn't make it right, or it doesn't mean we need to make the rules to suit them. If they are not there to get an education first, then they should pay whatever it costs for them to be part of the team because they are "using" the institution for their own personal gain down the road, hoping to become a professional athlete.

Frankly if it means that 20 or so of the biggest schools in the US are no longer part of the NCAA and they become some private "minor league" that exist solely to feed athletes to professional leagues, so be it, good for them. If the NCAA really wants to be about student / athletes, the best thing they could do it turn these programs loose and let them do their own thing so the other 90% of the schools can get back to the real focus of students who happen to compete in sporting events for their schools in their free time, of their own free will, and at their own cost.

That being said, we know the NCAA won't let them go because they are really just interested in the revenue that those programs generate, not the students and how their education is progressing.

Ryan J
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

uaafanblog said:
Your derisively inane rebuttal also lacks reality ... here's why: The NCAA is the only game in town. The NCAA has created a system of labor (and by every legal definition applied anywhere outside of the NCAA it is indeed labor) over generations. They have controlled access to professional careers de facto forcing young athletes to play by their rules. Get off the farm once and see the world around you. In your world the day before an athlete signs a contract to play professionally for 1 million dollars a year his market value was only the cost of his education, room and board. But it wasn't. The day before and the day before that that kid's market value was 1 million and his slave owner school was getting away with housing, feeding and educating him for all of a maximum of about 50K a year. Also watch a South Park episode and learn something.


The existence of the monopoly and one's participation in it isn't an act of will. It's an act of necessity. A necessity born by a generational conspiracy to ensure NCAA hegemony over that demographic of the athletic marketplace.
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I'll have to defer to the expert on derisively inane rebuttals.

The NCAA isn't the only game in town. It's certainly the best game in town, at least with respect to some sports with a professional league. Not only do you get your shot to prove yourself and move on, you get an opportunity for an education to fall back on. But it is certainly arguable the NHL and MLB would survive quite nicely without any NCAA programs producing kids to draft.

You act like this was some sort of master plan to earn billions off the backs of student athletes. Generations of kids went to college and played major sports with virtually no chance or expectation of turning it into a career. The universities poured, and continue to pour, hundreds of millions of dollars into making their programs better because it pleases their alumni and because the school leaders believe it brings some prestige to the institution. A side effect of this has been that professional sports leagues, primarily the NBA and NFL, have a source of well coached, well trained players to select from for their leagues.

So the Universities invested their money creating the best feeder system for two professional sports leagues, turned it into an extremely profitable enterprise for the schools, but now it's unfair? Now it's slave labor? Why do you think it's never the swimmers and the women's field hockey players leading the charge on the "forced, free labor" argument? They're "working" just as hard if not harder than the football and basketball team.

Again, it's just a case of a huge pile of money sitting there. The greedy kids (and primarily those whispering in their ears) are just one more set of hogs lining up at the trough trying to get theirs.
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

It was good to meet Mass and touch base with some die hard UAA hockey fans. Too bad there weren't more "regulars" at the Meet & Greet, but it is summer and it is a week night. Still, made me even more excited for this coming hockey season. Mass will be a good addition to the program.
 
uaafanblog said:
Your derisively inane rebuttal also lacks reality ... here's why: The NCAA is the only game in town. The NCAA has created a system of labor (and by every legal definition applied anywhere outside of the NCAA it is indeed labor) over generations. They have controlled access to professional careers de facto forcing young athletes to play by their rules. Get off the farm once and see the world around you. In your world the day before an athlete signs a contract to play professionally for 1 million dollars a year his market value was only the cost of his education, room and board. But it wasn't. The day before and the day before that that kid's market value was 1 million and his slave owner school was getting away with housing, feeding and educating him for all of a maximum of about 50K a year. Also watch a South Park episode and learn something.


The existence of the monopoly and one's participation in it isn't an act of will. It's an act of necessity. A necessity born by a generational conspiracy to ensure NCAA hegemony over that demographic of the athletic marketplace.
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And if the NCAA market place was unfair then somebody could set up a competing system? Yes? Because clearly there's a mismatch and somebody could surely cough up the money down the road... Or is there something that makes the system a natural monopoly.

I think a lot of us would admit that it's a massive collusive system at its heart. But don't talk to us about stealing their wares. They have other opportunities.

Oh, they're entitled to the same level of everything else? Europe does exist does it not? Maybe they are willing to pay?
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

Hal9K said:
Louie Mass is an excellent addition to UAA's staff.
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Even if he did play for BG? Interesting that the introductory article that I read made no mention of that fact. ;)

Seriously, it will be good to see him again when you guys come to town this year. Always a quality individual both on and off the ice.
 
BGFan said:
Even if he did play for BG? Interesting that the introductory article that I read made no mention of that fact. ;)

Seriously, it will be good to see him again when you guys come to town this year. Always a quality individual both on and off the ice.
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Even if! I'm pretty sure it was mentioned, but don't even matter. We need someone with his skill set in a desperate sorta way. Nice job by Matt Thomas to get Louie on board.
 
uaafanblog said:
It's categorically not a choice. You're thirsty having been stuck in the desert without a drink for a couple of days. Guy that raped and murdered a young girl in 1990 puts a glass of water in front of you. Say's you can choose to drink it or not. But you know you might not find another glass of water today. There's no choice. The NCAA is the only game in town.
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Possibly the worst analogy ever. No kid has to choose college, no kid has to play hockey, and no kid has to choose to play hockey in college. Oh no, come to our school and get an education. If you're smart and or determined you'll learn something. If you're good enough to last play the sport you love. When you leave it could be for the NHL, It could be with a degree, and you'll most likely have a network of contacts to get your foot in the door you otherwise wouldn't have if you were Joe Blow student.
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

Slap Shot said:
Possibly the worst analogy ever. No kid has to choose college, no kid has to play hockey, and no kid has to choose to play hockey in college. Oh no, come to our school and get an education. If you're smart and or determined you'll learn something. If you're good enough to last play the sport you love. When you leave it could be for the NHL, It could be with a degree, and you'll most likely have a network of contacts to get your foot in the door you otherwise wouldn't have if you were Joe Blow student.
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And to remind uaafanblog... slandering somebody with the truth is not slander no matter how wound up you are.
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

Slap Shot said:
Possibly the worst analogy ever. No kid has to choose college, no kid has to play hockey, and no kid has to choose to play hockey in college. Oh no, come to our school and get an education. If you're smart and or determined you'll learn something. If you're good enough to last play the sport you love. When you leave it could be for the NHL, It could be with a degree, and you'll most likely have a network of contacts to get your foot in the door you otherwise wouldn't have if you were Joe Blow student.
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There is no other game in town for many sports by which a talented athlete may develop his skills and reach his goal of playing professionally. When the NCAA monopoly is the defacto minor league system (were talking football and basketball) such athletes don't have another choice. Sure, there are some basketball opportunities overseas opening up, but an 18 year old accessing these opportunities is problematic. So yeah, the thirsty guy that wants water doesn't have to take it from the rapist/murderer. But the risk profile in not doing so is pretty broad. Luckily for athletes in our sport, the NCAA isn't the only game in town.

It's hilarious to me that historically there's a pretty major dislike on this board for anything to do with the NCAA. And yet here on this subject there are multiple people bending over backward to excuse the monopoly that the NCAA has on athletes. Makes me wonder why. I guess when hockey fans are a-ok with a team using a ridiculously racist nickname like "Fighting Sioux" they are also blind to the racism inherent in the NCAA's monopoly.
 
Re: UAA and Cost of Attendance

What is with your rapist/murderer bleating? Are you implying that all NCAA coaches raped and/or murdered someone during their playing days? If so, pretty smeary.

uaafanblog said:
BullThe NCAA has long taken advantage of essentially "slave labor" conditions on a wide range of athletes. It's been shameful and it's time it is beginning to end.
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Yeah, it's "slave labor" to play D1 football/basketball/baseball/hockey, nevermind the (quarter/half/full) scholarship and all of the perks that come with being BMOC.

Could you be a bigger nitwit? Great job cheapening actual slavery that still occurs in this world.
 
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