rcade

I was employed by The North Texas Daily as a student. Even if I had been going to school on scholarship, I would still have been an employee or independent contractor because UNT was paying me to do a job. The requirements to be a college football or basketball player are much higher than a job like mine. They should be paid directly by schools and treated like employees even if that word isn't used to describe the relationship. The argument that athletes are amateurs and scholarships are damn well enough compensation is past its sell-by date. Colleges, TV networks, coaches and boosters made the sports too lucrative to keep the actual product -- the players on the field -- from making any of the revenue.

The same justification applies just as easily to the players. I'm glad players are making some money. I will be gladder when there's a system in place that controls it better and discourages players from changing jerseys every season to chase dollars.

If Chandler and Chad wanted to be a package deal why didn't that happen months ago? He might want to be in Denton more than he wanted Take Your Son to Work Day in San Marcos.

Nobody at the top will ever want relegation in a sport that doesn't have it. They want the sure thing of always being in the big-money league even if they play like SMU for decades.

SMU hasn't finished in the top 12 since 1985 and you're expecting College Football Playoff revenue?

SMU is the guy who threw on a woman's dress at the last minute hoping to get on a lifeboat, but he forgot to shave off his Snidely Whiplash mustache.

Being a passenger on the Titanic felt great at 11 p.m.

I don't expect football to close up shop. I think UNT and other non-Power 3 schools will end up with other programs that are funded at similar levels. During the Littrell era we were among the best-funded programs in our conference in terms of budget and facilities. We might get better at funding and rise to that level in the American, or drop off to be more like the rest of the G5. The only gamechanger for us would be to have a coach whose long-term success is transformative, like what Jim Leavitt did at USF from 1997 to 2009.

I didn't open this thread expecting a war. Can we change the subject to something less controversial like the band wearing shorts?

I have my doubts about that premise. In every sport that got popular there was always money being made and people pushing the honor of amateurism to keep their costs low and profits high. The Olympics were supposed to be the peak of amateur sport and they've been rife with corruption.

Todd Whitten Before he was hired three times to coach Tarleton State, Whitten led the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks to a 42-12 drubbing of the Alcorn State Braves on Sept. 28, 1985. He ran for one touchdown and threw for two more, one to future NFL wide receiver Floyd Dixon. After the game I stopped walking back to the dorms and got to first base on a hill near the stadium. She and I never spoke of it again. In hindsight I shouldn't have eaten Corn Nuts at the game.

I don't think the current status quo in the transfer portal and NIL is how things are always going to be. It's too much of a trainwreck. Either the Wild West will be tamed or it will be replaced with a bigger trainwreck. In the meantime a good coach can still put a winning team on the field even if there's no multi-year continuity. Maybe Morris will show that he can take advantage of the chaos. Some coaches at our level will figure it out.

As someone who was attending UNT when we went into the season ranked No. 1 in I-AA under the late great Corky Nelson, I think you overestimate the joys of life in college football's second tier. Let's say we drop a level, hire Jerry Moore and have the same juggernaut run that his App State team did -- three national titles, Michigan upset and all the rest. What did App State do after 13 years of FCS greatness? They moved up. Even with that incredible fan support in Boone, they said goodbye FCS hello Sun Belt. Would anyone there go back down even with today's madness?

My guess would be zero. Being an FBS head coach is worth more than any OC job he could get after going 5-7 in one season at UNT. When we go undefeated next season he will be running out to his mailbox each day to see what Power 4/3/2 schools are contacting him.

I don't understand why NIL collectives aren't putting athletes in billboards and other ads. It would make the process look less like a farce if they found companies and products willing to be promoted as part of the NIL deals they are putting together.

I like the sound of that.

Hope he gets to play as much for the Raiders as he did in 2020-21 for the Chargers. Six years in the NFL is impressive for an undrafted free agent. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GuytJa01.htm

My Denton is so old I was around when Sigma Alpha Mu became Delta Lodge. Fry Street Fair just returned after 17 years under new management. https://www.ntdaily.com/news/new-fry-street-fair-to-return-this-weekend-after-long-hiatus/article_dda99a8e-0423-11ef-9529-7b950b95b3b7.html Anyone go?

Too warlike. Try this instead. EPP 'EM!

I am glad the athletes are making money but there has to be a better way to do it. The current NIL and transfer portal are bonkers. They're taking a jackhammer to the foundation of the sport.

Yes. You must take at least 12 credit hours a semester and pass 9 credit hours with a 1.8 GPA (year 2), 1.9 GPA (year 3) or 2.0 GPA (year 4-5). Or someone who looks like you and can fake your signature must meet those requirements.

Athletes are the only college students who had to overcome a presumption that it's wrong for them to make money while in school. Everyone else -- like the dot-com types -- didn't have the NCAA blocking them from income. When I was in college in the 1980s, Michael Dell was running a computer business out of his dorm room at UT-Austin. He made $200,000 profit his first year. I don't think it's insane for college athletes to want some of that sweet green cheese. A lot of them won't make the NFL or will only be there for a short time on cheap rookie deals. When the money truck arrived on campus of course everybody got in line.

How does this topic make someone barf? It's one of the only things about the NIL that isn't bad for fans!

I heard this during the NFL Draft over the weekend: Only 58 underclassmen declared for this year's draft, the lowest since 2011. https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2024/1/19/24044307/2024-nfl-draft-fewest-underclassmen-declare-in-over-a-decade This is way down from a peak of 130 in 2021. The chance to earn serious NIL money in college is keeping more athletes from shortening their college careers. One pundit said this trend meant there were a lot fewer NFL-ready players available during the final day of the draft. I don't know if that's true since the team here in Jacksonville has a long tradition of avoiding NFL-ready players.

Encouraged by head coach Trent Dilfer, the entire University of Alabama at Birmingham football team has joined Athletes.org, one of several players associations attempting to organize players ahead of the anticipated future where they can collectively bargain for a slice of the sport's revenue. "I wanted to make sure I helped pour gasoline on something that is going to happen no matter what," said Dilfer, who was paid zero dollars and zero cents playing for the Fresno State Bulldogs from 1990-93. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40024327/uab-becomes-1st-d-football-team-join-players-association