State of California and NCAA may reach tipping point

[muskiefan82]

Oh, there will likely be a union someday, but the college athlete is truly temporary. The GM workers aren't really temporary. GM just treats them that way to avoid other issues which will likely be found to be illegal

[xubrew]

The NCAA would be much better served by bypassing the employee argument and having student athletes enter into a contract agreement for four years. Just like when you hire a contractor. They aren't your employees. They work for you, but under the rules set forth in the contract. Just get the contract language right and this all goes away.

This is a very plausible end result to all of this. Players enter into a contract with the schools with the schools being able offer far more in the contract than what they currently can with the scholarship.

This would be a disaster. Just look at all the businesses now trying to say people in the gig economy aren't employees. It's falling apart for them little by little. GM is suffering a strike because they won't move temp workers to full time out of fear they'll join a union.

Yeah, probably. I have almost no confidence that this does not end in some sort of a disaster.

[scoscox]

Oh, there will likely be a union someday, but the college athlete is truly temporary. The GM workers aren't really temporary. GM just treats them that way to avoid other issues which will likely be found to be illegal

It amazes me and is sort of disheartening to see the uaw strikes. You’d think it would be obvious this is the very reason all the jobs in the industry have been lost offshore. I realize this is off topic but its just maddening.

[muskiefan82]

It amazes me and is sort of disheartening to see the uaw strikes. You’d think it would be obvious this is the very reason all the jobs in the industry have been lost offshore. I realize this is off topic but its just maddening.

it's an interesting dilemma if you are outside of it. The fault lies with both management and the union. There is rarely any actual review of the impact of whatever is being bargained on the long term stability of the industry. Union asks, management says no, union strikes, management folds and gives concessions, concessions cause loss of profit, management cuts employees or benefits, etc., union complains, management says too bad, union strikes, management folds and gives concessions, and on and on it goes until the entire business goes under and no one has jobs or all of the jobs are moved overseas and the union employees are out of work. The union can't just take and take and management has to know when to say no and mean it and stick to it even if it means a strike. If BOTH entities really entered into a discussion that focused on the overall health of the business while also doing the best for the employees, it would work. Instead, it's more like Congress and this is what happens.

[scoscox]

yes. it's a terrible cycle that needs to be stopped and it's really disheartening to see. it is, in a nutshell, the downfall of the rust belt.

[noteggs]

I think it’s usually cited as a sort of financial aid program/part of the scholarship and that’s how they get around it

You are correct. Stipends are not wages and do not have FICA withdrawn. Therefore they can be used by interns or student athletes to offset expenses.

Which brings me to a sore subject. If student athletes can receive stipends, why can’t students who are doing their student teaching rotation be eligible? Sounds like they have similar burdens and time constraints as student athletes and are still financially responsible for their tuition. Asking for a friend’s daughter who’s going through this right now.

[scoscox]

You are correct. Stipends are not wages and do not have FICA withdrawn. Therefore they can be used by interns or student athletes to offset expenses.

Which brings me to a sore subject. If student athletes can receive stipends, why can’t students who are doing their student teaching rotation be eligible? Sounds like they have similar burdens and time constraints as student athletes and are still financially responsible for their tuition. Asking for a friend’s daughter who’s going through this right now.

just a guess here but i'm thinking it probably has something to do with the difference in how the school values each position respectively

[xubrew]

You are correct. Stipends are not wages and do not have FICA withdrawn. Therefore they can be used by interns or student athletes to offset expenses.

Which brings me to a sore subject. If student athletes can receive stipends, why can’t students who are doing their student teaching rotation be eligible? Sounds like they have similar burdens and time constraints as student athletes and are still financially responsible for their tuition. Asking for a friend’s daughter who’s going through this right now.

I'm guessing it's an institutional decision. I'm not aware of any rules that would prevent a university from paying a student teacher if they chose to. Granted, I don't know of any schools that do pay student teachers, but I don't think there is anything from stopping a school that decides they want to pay them from doing it.

[xubrew]

I don't THINK this one will pass. It seems to me that allowing schools to pay players if they choose to do so is within the limits of the law, but dictating how much schools have to pay them is not. But who knows?? New York wants to make it the law that student-athletes get a percentage of the revenue that athletics makes. I'm fairly certain that if this passes Fordham will still suck, though.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...llege-athletes

Whether it passes or not almost doesn't matter. The issue is that one state after another is proposing legislation to pay college athletes, and it seems as though each new proposal plans to provide more for the athletes than the one that came before it. By the time this is over, California only offering athletes the right to profit of their NILs may seem like almost nothing.

Yet, the NCAA will probably just continue to sit there, say that they aren't employees and that amateurism is vital, and simply do nothing because they don't think there is anything to be worried about.

[xubrew]

Okay.....

Well, not okay.....

This is why I think the NCAA is going to get absolutely creamed. Three members of the Board of Governors just released this statement. It says nothing more than that they don't like the law, and that it creates a competitive imbalance. They seem to think that formulating an actual legal argument is not necessary. They merely need to say that they don't like it and that they feel it messes things up for them.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...college-sports

That's not good enough. That's not even close. They better have A LOT more than that. The problem is that I'm not sure that they do, nor am I sure that they even realize just how much more they need.