NCAA Violation

[DenverSooner]

Did you not see their house? It was nice and had a pool in the back yard. The Grand Bahama is not very big. You can walk to the ocean from anywhere on the Island as I recall it. A pool is not something that is necessary.

 

[DenverSooner]

The players don't drive the revenue, the brand does. For instance, you people were here watching OU games when Nick Thompson was starting games because of the OU on the front of the jersey, not the Thompson on the back. The difference in revenue between the really good OU teams and the really bad OU teams is nominal. Very few OU players actually add revenue. If an athletic scholarship to attend The University of Oklahoma is exploitation, please exploit both of my boys, I beg you. Or better yet, Stanford please call me.

How many highly recruited players have turned down scholarship offers? The answer to that question should tell you just how exploited these players really are. I simply cannot understand how an intellectually honest person can even remotely believe the players are being exploited.

Exactly.

 

[SoonerSpock]

]ou basketball doesnt make "millions"[/B]

2010 6,753,149 5,409,808 1,343,341 19.9%

Per the 2013-14 Oklahoma Athletic Department the men's basketball expenses were about three times as high at was men's basketball revenue. Athletic Department revenue was $111,000,000 men's basketball was 2% of the revenue or approximately $2,220,000. Department expenses were $110,950,000 with men's basketball expenses were 6% or approximately $6,657,000. That is a loss of approximately $4,437,000.

These figures do not include conference distributions which would include TV contract revenue and probably bowl partipation revenue (would include 1/12 of all B12 bowl games net revenue)

 

[DenverSooner]

The argument for giving players a stipend is a good one. I don't like the fact that some of these kids, especially those from dirt poor environments, don't have enough money to enjoy their campus experience more, or to go home for a long weekend or a holiday.

these kids are not dirt poor. Virtually no one in the United States is dirt poor. Y'all need to travel more.

Calling these kids dirt poor is extremely disrespectful to their families. Why are the Woodards dirt poor? They have enough money to drive to Norman to watch games. They have enough money to live in the Edmond School District. They have enough money to travel to tournaments to watch James and Jrdan pay basketball. We can say the same thing about most of these kids families


I am all for them getting some money but I am not going to disrespect their parents saying they are dirt poor

 

[IndySooner]

I do. I responded to work emails from my bed in Cabo a few years ago every night I was there. I suspect a lot of people that have professional jobs do the very same. Those types of jobs are nearly impossible to "leave at the office".



How is that any different from a regular college student that needs money? Even if that college student manages to find/hold a part time job, sometimes the funds still aren't there. The answer? Take out relatively small student loans to cover those extra living expenses. I was lucky enough to not have to do that, but I know tons of folks that did that very thing.

Except athletes aren't allowed to take out student loans.

 

[WTSooner]

Except athletes aren't allowed to take out student loans.

That is not true. It may be semantics in the words I used, but there is "aid" available to them.

 

[sooner333]

Lots of assumptions in this thread. Sure the players played games and had other responsibilities on the trip. They also had time to go to the club in the evening. Fraschilla was on the radio saying he swam in the shark tank. Wisconsin players were playing video roulette too and going in the lazy river. It was a great experience for all involved and is easily better than any trip I took in undergrad.

Also, living in the Edmond school district is not a guarantee of money. I don't know the Woodard's situation, but they live in Arcadia. The town proper is in Edmond schools (for high school at least), and is not plush with mansions or even what we call "middle class homes". Arcadia includes some nicer areas and rural areas too, so I don't know what their earnings are. But to surmise that Edmond schools equals well off is not necessarily on target.

 

[skyvue]

Virtually no one in the United States is dirt poor. Y'all need to travel more.

I agree that no assumptions should be made about any player's family, but if you think people don't live in extreme poverty in the US, you're living in a dream world.

Is a family dirt poor if the father or mother has to work two or three jobs just to pay the bills and thereby spends almost no time at home with his or her family and isn't the parent he or she might be if they weren't working so much?

 

[BanjoCharley]

Trouble is folk don't "travel" to where the dirt poor live.

 

[IndySooner]

That is not true. It may be semantics in the words I used, but there is "aid" available to them.

If you're going to follow the rules, it's VERY restrictive.

 

[AdaSooner]

these kids are not dirt poor. Virtually no one in the United States is dirt poor. Y'all need to travel more.

Calling these kids dirt poor is extremely disrespectful to their families. Why are the Woodards dirt poor? They have enough money to drive to Norman to watch games. They have enough money to live in the Edmond School District. They have enough money to travel to tournaments to watch James and Jrdan pay basketball. We can say the same thing about most of these kids families


I am all for them getting some money but I am not going to disrespect their parents saying they are dirt poor

If you'll read my post again, you'll see that I said "some of these kids, especially those from dirt poor environments..."

I never said anything about the Woodards. Fact is, my personal feelings about paying these kids some kind of allowance has very little to do with OU's players. If the NCAA gives their approval to pay student athletes someday, it will be for everyone, and that will most certainly include kids from poor backgrounds who would never have had a chance to get a college education if not for their athletic talent and skills.

 

[campbest]

these kids are not dirt poor. Virtually no one in the United States is dirt poor. Y'all need to travel more.

Calling these kids dirt poor is extremely disrespectful to their families. Why are the Woodards dirt poor? They have enough money to drive to Norman to watch games. They have enough money to live in the Edmond School District. They have enough money to travel to tournaments to watch James and Jrdan pay basketball. We can say the same thing about most of these kids families


I am all for them getting some money but I am not going to disrespect their parents saying they are dirt poor

You need to travel more...start in Shreveport, Rural Mississippi or the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

 

[DenverSooner]

I agree that no assumptions should be made about any player's family, but if you think people don't live in extreme poverty in the US, you're living in a dream world.

Is a family dirt poor if the father or mother has to work two or three jobs just to pay the bills and thereby spends almost no time at home with his or her family and isn't the parent he or she might be if they weren't working so much?

It is all relative and the homeless certainly have very little but most poor people in the US live quite well compared to the poor in the world.

I would not call your example dirt poor. I have family tat lives like this.

 

[DenverSooner]

If you'll read my post again, you'll see that I said "some of these kids, especially those from dirt poor environments..."

I never said anything about the Woodards. Fact is, my personal feelings about paying these kids some kind of allowance has very little to do with OU's players. If the NCAA gives their approval to pay student athletes someday, it will be for everyone, and that will most certainly include kids from poor backgrounds who would never have had a chance to get a college education if not for their athletic talent and skills.

I didn't mean to insult or offend you. I just think some of our fas are disrespectful to the payers and their families by assuming they are poor or worse dirt poor. Thes are good kids from good families.

 

[DenverSooner]

You need to travel more...start in Shreveport, Rural Mississippi or the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

Give m e a break. I have been to Shreveport. I am familiar with rural Mississippi and Eastern Kentucky. You shoul look for the shanty town just outside of the next Mexican resort you visit or better yet actually travl to a truly poor country.

 

[AdaSooner]

I didn't mean to insult or offend you. I just think some of our fas are disrespectful to the payers and their families by assuming they are poor or worse dirt poor. Thes are good kids from good families.

Don't worry, you didn't insult me. I was just pointing out that my observations were more about college athletes as a whole, not the socioeconomic status of OU's players and their families.

"Dirt poor" is the expression I used, but I'm not really sure how to define it in simple terms. Abject poverty does indeed exist in this country on several levels. I grew up poor, but it was nothing like some of the heartbreaking experiences myself and other members of my family have been exposed to over the years. I'm betting other posters on this board could say the same thing.

I don't know what the answer is for some of these kids who truly do need help on occasion? I agree that a college education should be sufficient for those who don't struggle financially. That doesn't mean everyone is fortunate enough to come from a family that can afford to give them a little extra money to meet basic needs from time to time.

 

[CoachTalk]

CoachTalk, 99% of the time I agree with you, but on this topic I can't. Don't know if you have ever played college sports or if you have ever had a son or daughter ever play, but I have both experiences. To say that athletes get "Free Vacations" is not so. These are not vacations, sure they get to travel to different places, to play, this is not a vacation. I know I don't, and I am sure you don't work when you go on vacations, they do. As far as the Dr.'s and medicine, if the parents have insurance, they use that just like they would if they where still at home. Athletes that their parents have no insurance, get treatment free, just like if someone was not in college.

As far as future jobs, I am very sure it does not hurt being an athlete, this probably does help in openeing doors. These athletes scholarships basically covers their rent and bills for the ones that live off campus and the ones that live in the dorm, primarily get no money, just room and bored. The problem is, these athletes need spending money, for things like going to a movie, etc. Their schedule throughout the year and summers won't allow them to have job to earn this extra money for spending.

Come on man!!

 

[euphguy]

I bet it was Fraschilla[/B].

+1

 

[euphguy]

these kids are not dirt poor. Virtually no one in the United States is dirt poor. Y'all need to travel more.

Calling these kids dirt poor is extremely disrespectful to their families. Why are the Woodards dirt poor? They have enough money to drive to Norman to watch games. They have enough money to live in the Edmond School District. They have enough money to travel to tournaments to watch James and Jrdan pay basketball. We can say the same thing about most of these kids families


I am all for them getting some money but I am not going to disrespect their parents saying they are dirt poor

To use a phrase like "intellectually honest" in one post and then state that "virtually no one in the U.S. is dirt poor" is laughable. As a sociologist (PhD), I can attest that there are several points throughout the US with groups of people who are "dirt poor." What little government assistance they get doesn't even come close to getting them out of extreme poverty. The US is among the worst of industrialized countries (and close to some "third world" countries) in income and wealth inequality, so just as you see millionaires thriving, you are apt to see people desperately poor. Yes, there is such a thing as relative poverty, but there's also absolute poverty.

 

[JBaker]

I, for one, am proud of whoever the walk-on is that turned it in.
It's not always popular or easy to do the right thing.