Patience is a virtue
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01Bear
1:12a, 5/14/24
In reply to barsad
barsad said:

Couldn't disagree with you more 01Bear, and it's not just the condescending way you mansplained NIL.
Here's what you might want to consider next time you're drinking the NIL Kool-Aid:
- One Supreme Court case is not the final word on an issue like this. It's never worked that way on any controversial issue I can think of. There will be challenges to it as schools try to control this chaos that has been unleashed, and aa students sue for other problems that arise. The NIL process today is not the one we'll have in 2034.
- There is already precedent in pro sports for governing sports organizations capping payrolls … of course the same would apply, and be perfectly legal, for college.
- Banning colluding restrictions on pay is NOT the same as "you must offer X money for Y service."
- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and non-student athletes. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The students' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers.
- Non-athletes and athletes who get paid to do "work" on university grounds are not different, or should be valued differently, because you cut the check from a different bank account and called the entity a "collective."

I get it… the whole Forum is made up of NIL donors, and you believe you're doing God's work by making Cal competitive. You are, in the short term, I'm just saying it's worth questioning the status quo.

Umm, no. You specifically stated:
Quote:


I've said it elsewhere, Cal should form a no-NIL or NIL-capped conference of like-minded top academic schools. Call it the Pac Clean Conference, the old PCC.

I explained exactly why that wasn't a good idea.

Also, you seem to have a completely mistaken understanding of what NIL is. The schools are not employing the student athletes. Rather, the student athletes are signing contracts with third parties (ostensibly licensing agreements for the use of their names, images, and likenesses). The rest of your arguments are also flawed nonsense.

Schools did not prohibit any student from making money off their names, images, or likenesses unless those students were student athletes. Your example of the student with a beaker is therefore beyond utterly ridiculous as that student never would've been barred from participating in future lab work at the school if he executed a NIL deal.

Also, under the NCAA regulations, pay for play is still not permitted, which is the essentially your "pay for services" argument. As such, NIL agreements are supposed to be for things like the use of an athlete's NIL for marketing purposes (e.g., local ads), licensing for media (e.g., console games), or for content produced by the student online (e.g., Youtube or Tik Tok content). Prior to the new changes, student athletes weren't permitted to profit from any of these revenue streams if they wanted to retain their athletic eligibility. In fact, Colorado had a football player whose athletic eligibility was stripped because he had marketing deals based on his skiing prowess (he was an Olympic level skiier and, IIRC, an actual Olympic skiier.)

If groups collude to cap payment for NIL, it can easily run afoul of laws such as antitrust law at the federal level and California's Unfair Competition Law at the state level. (Keep in mind, the capping of payrolls you mentioned was negotiated by unions with team owners in each sports league. As such, the players agreed to these limits; they weren't imposed by team owners unilaterally in an attempt to stymie competition or pay.) But if you think you have a valid argument to get around these laws, feel free to bring them to the NIL groups. But don't be surprised of they laugh you out of their offices.

Also, the source of payment is very important in the law. Whether this should be the case is a separate argument. However, as the law stands, it's the law. Just so you're clear, so long as someone is employed by a third party to do work at Cal, he's a contractor and not an university employee. This means the person is not eligible to participate in CalPers, receive University health insurance, or receive other benefits open to Cal employees. Similarly, a student athlete who signs a NIL contract with a third party is not a Cal employee.

I get it, you're young and think you have all the answers. Unfortunately, your youth also means you're inexperienced and are missing much of the picture. For starters, you think student athletes are somehow paid by the schools under the NIL rules. Next, you completely misunderstood what's permitted by the NCAA under the NIL rules. Additionally, you assume that other students do not have the right to exercise NIL deals.

Finally, if you want to be taken seriously by other posters in this group, drop the attitude. Your accusation that I'm "mansplaining" was asinine. To begin, I didn't know (and frankly, I don't care) what your sex is before I made my i initial post, let alone this current one. Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, my comments would be the same. While accusing your youthful peers of "mansplaining" may be enough for you to "win an argument," it doesn't work on adults who value facts and rational reasoning and are not interested in playing petty games or "winning an argument."

That said, I do agree with you that the rules of today will likely not be the ones in 2034. As I mentioned in another thread, the NCAA is trying to implement a rule change requiring schools to spend 20% of athletic revenue on student athlete pay. This would mean students would actually become university employees. Not only would this allow student athletes to unionize and negotiate pay, it could also cause all sorts of Title IX problems. (If anything, this change would be more in line with what you misunderstand as the current NIL rules.) But that's an issue for a different day.
concernedparent
9:56a, 5/14/24
In reply to barsad
barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?
01Bear
2:36p, 5/14/24
In reply to concernedparent
concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."
brevity
4:36p, 5/14/24
Spencer Mahoney is a 6-9 forward from Washington State (bio) who redshirted as a freshman and presumably has all 4 years of eligibility. Evidently, Cal must be interested if they've offered him:

From what I can tell, his only other offer so far is from UCF. No college highlight reel, obviously, but someone put together a Spencer Mahoney video from WSU practice footage:

calumnus
7:04p, 5/14/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.
Johnfox
9:11p, 5/14/24
In reply to brevity
From what I watched, he is a really good shooter. At 6-9 and 230, he'd be an interesting piece to our puzzle. Has the ability to shoot over the top on many guys. Able to make shots with little room. Reminds me of Jalen Celestine.
01Bear
11:38p, 5/14/24
In reply to calumnus
calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.

I think we're talking at cross purposes. I was addressing concernedparent's comments implying that a lab worker is unlikely to bring as much value to the school as a student athlete. I pointed out it's technically possible (albeit unlikely) for a lab worker to bring more value to the school than a student athlete.

That said, I agree with you that compensation is not always based on the value an employee brings. As you pointed out, inter alios, teachers bring considerable value but are inadequately compensated for the value they bring. While I'd love to see compensation changed to reflect value brought, that's another case of "ifs and buts." However, that wasn't exactly the point being addressed.

You've lost me as to your point about barsad's thinking. Are you saying that the general understanding of NIL is that it makes the student athletes employees of the university? If so, then it reflects a complete misunderstanding of the facts.

Or are you saying that barsad's position is that student athletes shouldn't receive millions to play ball? Again, that reflects a misunderstanding of how NIL actually works. The student athletes are being paid to license the use of their names, images, and likenesses. Of course, for most football/basketball players, the value of their name, image, or likeness is tied to their success on the field/court.

But that's just how NIL has played out for them. In fact, one of the college athletes who made millions from NIL money was a female gymnast, Olivia Dunne of LSU. She's not the most accomplished female college gymnasts; it's arguable she made so much money because she was pretty and personable on social media. Similarly, the Cavinder sisters who played at Fresno St. before transferring to Miami made millions from NIL. This was, again, not because they were the best at basketball but because they were pretty and personable on social media.

In short, while there will be many collectives that have popped (and will continue to pop) up to steer money towards student athletes, the NIL rules are really intended to help student athletes market their names, image, and likeness and not to serve as pay for play. While barsad does not appear to understand this, that seems more to be a failure to consider what the actual rules allow and say versus what he believes they allow and say.

That said, given the NCAA's move to allow schools to pay student athletes with up to 20% of their athletic department revenue, we will likely move into the realm of actual pay for play. At that point, the game will be heavily skewed in favor of those schools whose athletic departments generate a lot of revenue (e.g., Ohio State, Texas, Bama, Michigan, Georgia, LSU). But as I mentioned before, this will also likely lead to issues with Title IX and unionization. If student athletes do unionize, I really don't see them settling for 20% of the revenue.
BearlyCareAnymore
12:00a, 5/15/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."
There is a lot to unpack in this thread, but let's start with the value that a star player brings to the university. There are a lot of things that people have confused here. First is gross revenues vs. net profits. Cal sports is not a functioning, profit making business. It is, like most college athletics departments, a charity that operates at a substantial loss. You can't look at the dollars a star player brings in without looking at the dollars that go out. In fiscal year 2023 - the last year reported, Cal athletics had a net negative operating revenue of $8.78M. Included in that number is $36.65M that the university paid the athletic department to run athletics. So Cal athletics cost the university $45M in operating losses. For the first time in forever, football had net negative operating revenue. So did men's basketball. I think one could argue that from a financial perspective the beaker holder and every student that does not participate in sports has a higher monetary value to the university then every student that does. Further, much of the other revenue is clear charity. $14.5M is pure donations. A portion of the ticket revenues come from people who are paying way over market value basically because they want to support the athletic program. Calumnus has championed the idea of sports being run by some private group, and I think both his head and heart are in the right place. However, I don't think it is possible because while I think they MAY run it marginally better, and they MAY have marginally more financial success (or less financial failure), the university will still have to pay tens of millions of dollars to keep it afloat and no one will put up with that with an outside entity running the show. There is no business case where Cal athletics breaks even in the near term, medium term, or anything but the longest of long term. (okay, one - find Phil Knight)

Cal, like most universities, is not Texas or Alabama or Michigan. Whatever money athletics takes in gets invested right back into athletics and then more money is put in by the school. A lot more. Far from Cal taking advantage of sweat of athletes, Cal is massively subsidizing them. There is an iron clad case to be made that the bluebloods were taking advantage of the sweat of athletes. But people have got to stop acting like Cal (and most universities) are the same as those schools. When everyone talks about the huge sums of money floating around college revenue sports, they fail to note that for most schools all that money gets plowed right back into the program. Yes, coaches are significantly overpaid but that is largely because athletes select the best coaches, driving up their value.

Quite honestly, the plight of the student athlete outside of the elite programs has been highly overblown. They got a free college education, free room and board all school year, and basically their reasonable expenses paid. They got largely elite training facilities and high priced coaching and a highly visible place to demonstrate their abilities. Compare that to equivalent tennis players who pay a bundle for that package at tennis academies. Or equivalent baseball players who toil in obscurity, get crap facilities, baloney sandwiches, and dive motels and then have to go to work the rest of the year or have families subsidize them. In both tennis and baseball and pretty much everywhere but college sports, the absolute most elite players get paid while the bottom 99% get nothing. Yes, elite college athletes are highly marketable and were getting screwed by the system which limited the money they could earn, but that 99% below them were and are getting a package that was way more than their market value. Frankly, the top players being paid far less than their value has been used as an excuse to pay everyone else far more than their value.

Everything you said about the law here is of course correct. But there is history here. It was never supposed to be this way. You were supposed to play for your college like you played for your high school (and I presume no one things high school players need to be paid). There were reasons the many rules developed and it was not to screw athletes. Back in the day, colleges started bringing in ringers, so academic standards were put in place. The reason why jobs were restricted is because players would go clean out an alums gutters and get a $10K check. Selling your name image and likeness was stopped because players were clearly getting paid more than the value of their name image and likeness. And what has happened with alumni co-ops is exactly what the rules were attempting to stop because these players are getting paid significantly more than the value of their name, image and likeness. If they weren't, these coops wouldn't need to get donations. These coops are generating very little revenue based on the use of the players NIL. The players are getting paid to play, plain and simple and it is being wrapped in NIL to give it legitimacy.

I'm not naive. College sports long ago stopped being amateur sports a long time ago. Basically, it is minor league professional sports that are able to generate more value because people like to root for their school more than a minor league team in Hoboken and because a school with hundreds of thousands of alums has a bigger natural fanbase. I absolutely think the world would be a better place if college athletics had continued to be a place where plain ol' students competed for their school, but that ship sailed long before I was born. So, as far as I'm concerned, if alums want to pay players to play for their school, go ahead. I think we should stop pretending this is noble. I think the backlash we are seeing from many now is that it is pretty much impossible to squint your eyes and believe that players choose a school they love, get filled with school spirit and live or die with their team and school. It is pretty clear that the current system is they play this year, and maybe next year they play for someone else if they like the coach better or they get paid a dollar more.

Given where the system has unfortunately gone, I'm fine with the players getting what they can on the free market. But I question where that market is going. barsad was wrong on the law and the rules you can implement, but I don't know if they are wrong on the practical result. Minor league professional sports suck. The difference in quality between the NBA and college basketball is huge and no one would watch college basketball if it wasn't wrapped in a school veneer. A huge amount of economic value is produced by the naive notion that players play for their school and your school and when you root for those players you are rooting for your school. I don't see how that economic value will not take a hit now that it is extremely clear that many if not most athletes are pretty close to employees that will follow the best deal and it is seeming more an more that you are just rooting for guys that where a jersey.

While you cannot legally set up conferences where NIL is banned by rule as barsad suggests, I wonder if de facto conferences where NIL has minimal impact will be set up. Most schools simply can't compete with the bluebloods. Now that bluebloods' alums can pay as much as they want to players, they most certainly will and they will see that their dollars actually impact their school's success. But most schools are competing for scraps. I wonder how long alum co-ops can stay viable at schools if their money does not seem to make a difference. How long will alums pay salaries to players who are essentially fodder for the elite programs to demonstrate their superiority. And if a school can't compete in their conference in NIL, they won't be able to compete on the field. They'll essentially be a AA team trying to play in the MLB. Then it will make a lot more sense for them to say screw this and join up with programs that have a similar NIL level.
BearlyCareAnymore
12:40a, 5/15/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:

calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.

I think we're talking at cross purposes. I was addressing concernedparent's comments implying that a lab worker is unlikely to bring as much value to the school as a student athlete. I pointed out it's technically possible (albeit unlikely) for a lab worker to bring more value to the school than a student athlete.

That said, I agree with you that compensation is not always based on the value an employee brings. As you pointed out, inter alios, teachers bring considerable value but are inadequately compensated for the value they bring. While I'd love to see compensation changed to reflect value brought, that's another case of "ifs and buts." However, that wasn't exactly the point being addressed.

You've lost me as to your point about barsad's thinking. Are you saying that the general understanding of NIL is that it makes the student athletes employees of the university? If so, then it reflects a complete misunderstanding of the facts.

Or are you saying that barsad's position is that student athletes shouldn't receive millions to play ball? Again, that reflects a misunderstanding of how NIL actually works. The student athletes are being paid to license the use of their names, images, and likenesses. Of course, for most football/basketball players, the value of their name, image, or likeness is tied to their success on the field/court.

But that's just how NIL has played out for them. In fact, one of the college athletes who made millions from NIL money was a female gymnast, Olivia Dunne of LSU. She's not the most accomplished female college gymnasts; it's arguable she made so much money because she was pretty and personable on social media. Similarly, the Cavinder sisters who played at Fresno St. before transferring to Miami made millions from NIL. This was, again, not because they were the best at basketball but because they were pretty and personable on social media.

In short, while there will be many collectives that have popped (and will continue to pop) up to steer money towards student athletes, the NIL rules are really intended to help student athletes market their names, image, and likeness and not to serve as pay for play. While barsad does not appear to understand this, that seems more to be a failure to consider what the actual rules allow and say versus what he believes they allow and say.

That said, given the NCAA's move to allow schools to pay student athletes with up to 20% of their athletic department revenue, we will likely move into the realm of actual pay for play. At that point, the game will be heavily skewed in favor of those schools whose athletic departments generate a lot of revenue (e.g., Ohio State, Texas, Bama, Michigan, Georgia, LSU). But as I mentioned before, this will also likely lead to issues with Title IX and unionization. If student athletes do unionize, I really don't see them settling for 20% of the revenue.
How many unions in the real world can go to a business that is losing millions of dollars and negotiate a higher share of gross revenues?

And the game is already heavily skewed towards athletic departments that generate a lot of revenue because while you are correct that by rule the players are being paid for NIL, the rules are impossible to enforce and are essentially a sham, like the rule that you can't practice offseason but you can do strength and conditioning that entails you taking the playbook and practicing plays every day. When a collective spreads millions of dollars among football players so that they can sell football cards at $100 a set and make revenue of less than 1% of the cost, they aren't paying for NIL. They are paying for that athlete to play on their team.

Dunne and the Cavinder sisters are completely different situations because they are being paid by entities outside their university because they have actually developed the value of their name image and likeness independent of their value as athletes. Very few college athletes would be able to afford a cup of coffee based on selling their name image and likeness without the existence of alumni collectives who are paying without any expectation of a reasonable return on their investment.

BearlyCareAnymore
1:12a, 5/15/24
In reply to calumnus
calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.
See the problem is that famous actors are paid millions per movie because on average the studios make millions IN PROFIT on those movies and much of that profit depends on THOSE actors. If Marvel decided that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were too expensive and cast two actors at scale for Avengers End Game, they would have lost their shirts instead of making about $2B in net profit.

Employees at a company that spends $140M to earn back $95M would expect massive layoffs or, more likely, bankruptcy and everyone out of work. It doesn't matter if they can generate $95M in revenue if their employer has to shell out $140M to get it. In this case, I think you are also having trouble with the value created vs revenues generated because you value the players more than the revenue they generate (which is net negative). If Cal sports were an actual business, it would not be possible for outside individuals to come in and pay valued employees to stay while the overall business loses $45M. They would have to keep the business afloat before they could even think of paying the employees. Cal alums are only able to pay players NIL money because Cal is paying a $45M subsidy for sports.
RedlessWardrobe
7:14a, 5/15/24
Thanks Bearly Care for a well thought out and informative post. My apologies for focusing on one specific issue with a quick and perhaps naive response. I completely understand your point between the difference between revenue and profits, but isn't it true the majority of the expenses that Cal basketball and football incur have always been a constant, past and present, regardless of the new NIL environment? I think that you would have to agree with that, so the fact that these NIL players bring in revenue still becomes a relevant issue, regardless of the profit/loss line that the University ends up with.
HearstMining
8:34a, 5/15/24
In reply to BearlyCareAnymore
BearlyCareAnymore said:

calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.
See the problem is that famous actors are paid millions per movie because on average the studios make millions IN PROFIT on those movies and much of that profit depends on THOSE actors. If Marvel decided that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were too expensive and cast two actors at scale for Avengers End Game, they would have lost their shirts instead of making about $2B in net profit.

Employees at a company that spends $140M to earn back $95M would expect massive layoffs or, more likely, bankruptcy and everyone out of work. It doesn't matter if they can generate $95M in revenue if their employer has to shell out $140M to get it. In this case, I think you are also having trouble with the value created vs revenues generated because you value the players more than the revenue they generate (which is net negative). If Cal sports were an actual business, it would not be possible for outside individuals to come in and pay valued employees to stay while the overall business loses $45M. They would have to keep the business afloat before they could even think of paying the employees. Cal alums are only able to pay players NIL money because Cal is paying a $45M subsidy for sports.
BCA, as usual, your arguments are clear and well thought-out. I suspect the response on the profit/loss issue is that universities get more and larger donations as a whole due to the loyalty that a successful sports (meaning football and to a lesser extent basketball) inspire, so they would count that as hidden income. I think folks on the board have alluded that this phenomenon but I don't know if it's been studied and is quantifiable, Whether you agree with it, or not, I don't think that very many Cal alumni under the age of 70 are wired that way. They may choose to donate because it's more fun to root for a winning team, or for a variety of reasons, but while they may tie their personal success attending Cal, they don't tie it to the success of Cal football as so many followers of teams in the midwest and south do.

BearlyCareAnymore
2:36p, 5/15/24
In reply to RedlessWardrobe
RedlessWardrobe said:

Thanks Bearly Care for a well thought out and informative post. My apologies for focusing on one specific issue with a quick and perhaps naive response. I completely understand your point between the difference between revenue and profits, but isn't it true the majority of the expenses that Cal basketball and football incur have always been a constant, past and present, regardless of the new NIL environment? I think that you would have to agree with that, so the fact that these NIL players bring in revenue still becomes a relevant issue, regardless of the profit/loss line that the University ends up with.
To be clear, I was making an argument as to their value generally, and the argument is the same pre or post NIL. Mostly, NIL doesn't factor in. People can give money to whomever they want. And to be clear I was not making any argument that people should not give to NIL. There are people that work very hard to bring in NIL dollars and I'm not trying to undermine that at all. I'm countering the argument that teachers have value but it isn't financial value while athletes have financial value. Elite athletes have financial value. Most others do not. In fact, when they do get paid it is largely either 1. to help potential elite athletes to train by filling in team rosters; or 2. in an effort to spread the money to a large group of young athletes to capture the handful that will become elite athletes. And in both cases, the money is not normally high.

That said, I do think NIL is relevant to the argument in a couple respects. 1. There have been a lot of arguments here that people should donate to NIL instead of Cal athletics. I don't know if that has made an appreciable impact on Cal's bottom line (the numbers for years with significant NIL contributions are not out yet), but clearly if donations are being diverted from Cal to NIL, that is impacting Cal's bottom line. 2. In the grand scheme of things, the fact that Cal can run athletics at a substantial loss enables people to donate to NIL. If Cal couldn't do this, people would have to donate to athletics to keep them running before they could even think of giving players money. And, in fact, that is the reason donating to NIL is smart as opposed to the "Cal will mismanage your money" argument. Bottom line is that Cal athletics have lost money forever and the Chancellor has always written a check. Occasionally has squawked about it, but ultimately always writes the check. There is no real indication that this will ever stop. So, if you donate $100 to Cal athletics, all you are doing is reducing the amount of the check the Chancellor has to write from the university by $100. If you donate $100 to Legends, $100 goes to sports and the Chancellor now has to write a bigger check to Cal athletics to make up for the donation you shifted. You are essentially forcing the Chancellor to donate indirectly to Legends.

The majority of Cal basketball and football expenses have most definitely not been a constant. They have exploded in the last 10 years. They are also mostly not sunk costs. I think when Cal is losing $45M it is clear that from a FINANCIAL perspective, they would be better off shutting it down. Again, I'm just about the argument here that athletes contribute more financially than teachers or other students. We could definitely say that there is a non-monetary value that makes the cost worth it. However, it is non-monetary. Our athletes are not Robert Downey Jr.

As for the revenue that "NIL players" bring in, Cal brings in revenue no matter what. The appropriate question when valuing players would be revenue over replacement. What is the revenue you can get with player A that you can't get with player B, and how much does it cost to get it. The thing is here, the amount of tangible revenue Cal has gotten in recent history based on success is not that high. Most of Cal's revenue has been coming from the conference in payments that do not change whether or not Cal succeeds. If you look at the line items that are actually impacted by performance, the range from Mark Fox/Sonny Dykes first year suckitude to peak Tedford/Monty is maybe $10M combined. You might be able to swing $15M. But that is two opposite ends of a bell curve. The difference between a bad but not historically bad Cal year and a good but not historically good Cal year is maybe $5M. We already burn through that in increased coaching salaries.

That is not to say that there aren't athletes who bring in the value. Russell White was the most high profile recruit in the country when Cal signed him. Jason Kidd probably in the top 3. But getting the number 150 player vs. the number 250 player is probably not moving the needle financially

But honestly, my argument was less about Cal and more about the average value of a college revenue athlete outside of the elite tier. Most teams are not Alabama. They are losing money and they are losing money mostly to provide resources (coaching, training, facilities, etc.) to players. Most players were getting a fair package based on their value. It was only the top players that were really getting shafted.
BearlyCareAnymore
2:53p, 5/15/24
In reply to HearstMining
HearstMining said:

BearlyCareAnymore said:

calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:


- You must have missed or purposely ignored my argument about all-student equity. I wasn't comparing unpaid students to millionaire coaches (or worse, coaches like Fox who ruin programs, then take the money and run). I was comparing student athletes and regular working students. Does one student expend more "blood, sweat and tears" for the university because he has a basketball in his hand instead of a lab beaker? Making an equity argument for an 18-year-old to make $2 mil is ridiculous. The players' pay scale comps are not coaches, its their non-athletic peers they are sitting next to in class.

You think the undergraduate lab researcher brings the same value to the University as does the star football or basketball player? And that the labor of the star football/basketball player is as fungible as the lab beaker holder?

To be fair, if an undergrad, while working in a Cal lab, were to invent some sort of cheap fuel that was renewable and didn't pollute, it would probably bring lots if money to Cal (much like how CRISPR would've brought a lot of money to Cal had the patent lawsuits come out the other way). Of course, as the saying goes, "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas."


People have trouble with the fact that in this world the value you create is different from the revenues you generate for your organization is different from the amount you are compensated. Teachers have Master's degrees, do incredibly important work and live on a shoestring. Famous "actors" with little talent command $millions per movie. Doctors who save the lives of children make less than doctors who change the shape of rich people's noses. As a consultant I once put together a strategy and made a phone call for a client using my connections that put them on a path to where they are now the second largest shipping line to Hawaii earning $1 billion a year in revenues (about $150 million in annual net profit). I was paid $50 for that as per my contract. It is about negotiating and leverage.

However, barsad's thinking is widespread, and it is one of the reasons I think it makes sense to outsource the revenue sports to an alumni-run organization that takes over the Learfield contract and would pay the athletes as employees. Where this is headed otherwise, with football and basketball players being university employees and salaries subject to the bureaucracy, would be a political morass at Cal.
See the problem is that famous actors are paid millions per movie because on average the studios make millions IN PROFIT on those movies and much of that profit depends on THOSE actors. If Marvel decided that Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were too expensive and cast two actors at scale for Avengers End Game, they would have lost their shirts instead of making about $2B in net profit.

Employees at a company that spends $140M to earn back $95M would expect massive layoffs or, more likely, bankruptcy and everyone out of work. It doesn't matter if they can generate $95M in revenue if their employer has to shell out $140M to get it. In this case, I think you are also having trouble with the value created vs revenues generated because you value the players more than the revenue they generate (which is net negative). If Cal sports were an actual business, it would not be possible for outside individuals to come in and pay valued employees to stay while the overall business loses $45M. They would have to keep the business afloat before they could even think of paying the employees. Cal alums are only able to pay players NIL money because Cal is paying a $45M subsidy for sports.
BCA, as usual, your arguments are clear and well thought-out. I suspect the response on the profit/loss issue is that universities get more and larger donations as a whole due to the loyalty that a successful sports (meaning football and to a lesser extent basketball) inspire, so they would count that as hidden income. I think folks on the board have alluded that this phenomenon but I don't know if it's been studied and is quantifiable, Whether you agree with it, or not, I don't think that very many Cal alumni under the age of 70 are wired that way. They may choose to donate because it's more fun to root for a winning team, or for a variety of reasons, but while they may tie their personal success attending Cal, they don't tie it to the success of Cal football as so many followers of teams in the midwest and south do.


My feeling on the donations argument is that when the department is operating at a $5M loss, you can just say, "yeah, extra donations probably make up for that" without thinking too hard. When it is $45M, I think you need some evidence. Honestly, at Cal, I kind of doubt it based on 2 "data points". 1. Donations to the general fund massively dwarf Cal athletics. If donors cared enough to shift 10%of their donations to Cal to athletics, Cal athletics would be swimming in money. 2. Cal's fundraising numbers have never seemed to correlate to athletic success. That doesn't prove the point, but I don't see anyone making an actual argument that donations make up $45M other than to just state as a truism that donations go up if you succeed at football. I think that clearly Notre Dame has had immense value from football success. I think clearly Harvard wouldn't gain much at all if they suddenly won a national championship. Different schools will have different circumstances.

The issue that I see is that there is zero accountability for the financial results. The money comes from taxpayers and tuition and the chancellor isn't directly beholding to them. No one with a financial stake is directing the chancellor how to spend money or forcing them to prove up the decision. If a CEO had a division that spent $140M to earn $95M, they better have a reason or they'd get fired. Maybe they could demonstrate that the division produced a loss leader product that generated $80M in sales for other divisions. But they better have numbers, not just a general feeling.
BearSD
5:24p, 5/15/24
In reply to BearlyCareAnymore
BearlyCareAnymore said:

HearstMining said:

BearlyCareAnymore said:

calumnus said:

01Bear said:

concernedparent said:

barsad said:















1. Donations to the general fund massively dwarf Cal athletics.
That makes perfect sense, because UC Berkeley is a far more massive operation than the athletic department. The university's annual budget is more than $3 billion, there are more than 9,000 permanent employees and thousands more part-time or temporary employees, well over 100 campus buildings covering 11 million square feet of building space, etc., etc., etc.
barsad
12:39a, 5/16/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:


I get it, you're young and think you have all the answers. Unfortunately, your youth also means you're inexperienced and are missing much of the picture. For starters, you think student athletes are somehow paid by the schools under the NIL rules. Next, you completely misunderstood what's permitted by the NCAA under the NIL rules. Additionally, you assume that other students do not have the right to exercise NIL deals.

Finally, if you want to be taken seriously by other posters in this group, drop the attitude. Your accusation that I'm "mansplaining" was asinine. To begin, I didn't know (and frankly, I don't care) what your sex is before I made my i initial post, let alone this current one. Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, my comments would be the same. While accusing your youthful peers of "mansplaining" may be enough for you to "win an argument," it doesn't work on adults who value facts and rational reasoning and are not interested in playing petty games or "winning an argument."


Well, at least I sparked some solid (if not long-winded) conversation about this, clearly a lot of strong opinions out there.
I love the idea one poster had about an alumni-run (perhaps non-profit) independent athletic dept that's affiliated with Cal but pays players as student-employees. That's where all this is eventually headed. More good ideas for reform, please!

As for 01Bear's presumptions, I can tell you that I'm a 52-year-old male with a Ph.D from Berkeley. Not young unless you're using biblical standards. So I can assure you (and my aching joints and back, too) that I have all the experience, education and reasoning power necessary to understand something like NIL, we just don't happen to agree on the particulars. Please stop telling us that NIL is about marketing and licensing, it's an obvious legal figleaf that enables universities to treat players as a loose group of students who happen to have contracts with schools, instead of regular employees with all the legal rights that entails. We should be honest about it, the money is there so players will sign up for Cal's team and play basketball, not for TikTok marketing ads.
The term "mansplain" has nothing to do with your or my gender, and people of all ages can use it, it's common parlance. It relates to a general condescending attitude, assuming everyone else isn't as informed as you are, and an inability to believe that you could be wrong about something. Look at your quote above, the shoe fits.
01Bear
3:26p, 5/17/24
In reply to barsad
barsad said:

01Bear said:


I get it, you're young and think you have all the answers. Unfortunately, your youth also means you're inexperienced and are missing much of the picture. For starters, you think student athletes are somehow paid by the schools under the NIL rules. Next, you completely misunderstood what's permitted by the NCAA under the NIL rules. Additionally, you assume that other students do not have the right to exercise NIL deals.

Finally, if you want to be taken seriously by other posters in this group, drop the attitude. Your accusation that I'm "mansplaining" was asinine. To begin, I didn't know (and frankly, I don't care) what your sex is before I made my i initial post, let alone this current one. Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, my comments would be the same. While accusing your youthful peers of "mansplaining" may be enough for you to "win an argument," it doesn't work on adults who value facts and rational reasoning and are not interested in playing petty games or "winning an argument."


Well, at least I sparked some solid (if not long-winded) conversation about this, clearly a lot of strong opinions out there.
I love the idea one poster had about an alumni-run (perhaps non-profit) independent athletic dept that's affiliated with Cal but pays players as student-employees. That's where all this is eventually headed. More good ideas for reform, please!

As for 01Bear's presumptions, I can tell you that I'm a 52-year-old male with a Ph.D from Berkeley. Not young unless you're using biblical standards. So I can assure you (and my aching joints and back, too) that I have all the experience, education and reasoning power necessary to understand something like NIL, we just don't happen to agree on the particulars. Please stop telling us that NIL is about marketing and licensing, it's an obvious legal figleaf that enables universities to treat players as a loose group of students who happen to have contracts with schools, instead of regular employees with all the legal rights that entails. We should be honest about it, the money is there so players will sign up for Cal's team and play basketball, not for TikTok marketing ads.
The term "mansplain" has nothing to do with your or my gender, and people of all ages can use it, it's common parlance. It relates to a general condescending attitude, assuming everyone else isn't as informed as you are, and an inability to believe that you could be wrong about something. Look at your quote above, the shoe fits.

Your erroneous understanding of NIL clearly demonstrates that you are not informed as I on how NIL works under the NCAA regulations. So even under your tortured definition of "mansplaining," my prior posts don't qualify. You still think that the NIL deals are with the schools when they are not (and under current NCAA regulations cannot be). It doesn't matter that you think it's just a figleaf, the fact of the matter is that under the current NIL system, student athletes are allowed to be paid by outside entities for the use of their names, images, and likenesses. Furthermore, per current NCAA regulations, schools are not allowed to help student athletes with any aspect of the NIL deals. In fact, Florida State recently got penalized by the NCAA because someone at the school helped connect a student athlete with a FSU NIL organization.

If I was wrong about your age, then I apologize. That said, were I a pentagenarian who uses the term "mansplaining" in an attempt to waive away facts and logical arguments that correct my clearly erroneous understanding about a subject, I'd be embarrassed. Then again, I was wrong to assume that everyone who ages gains maturity and wisdom sufficient to recognize their own shortcomings.
concernedparent
3:55p, 5/17/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:

barsad said:

01Bear said:


I get it, you're young and think you have all the answers. Unfortunately, your youth also means you're inexperienced and are missing much of the picture. For starters, you think student athletes are somehow paid by the schools under the NIL rules. Next, you completely misunderstood what's permitted by the NCAA under the NIL rules. Additionally, you assume that other students do not have the right to exercise NIL deals.

Finally, if you want to be taken seriously by other posters in this group, drop the attitude. Your accusation that I'm "mansplaining" was asinine. To begin, I didn't know (and frankly, I don't care) what your sex is before I made my i initial post, let alone this current one. Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, my comments would be the same. While accusing your youthful peers of "mansplaining" may be enough for you to "win an argument," it doesn't work on adults who value facts and rational reasoning and are not interested in playing petty games or "winning an argument."


Well, at least I sparked some solid (if not long-winded) conversation about this, clearly a lot of strong opinions out there.
I love the idea one poster had about an alumni-run (perhaps non-profit) independent athletic dept that's affiliated with Cal but pays players as student-employees. That's where all this is eventually headed. More good ideas for reform, please!

As for 01Bear's presumptions, I can tell you that I'm a 52-year-old male with a Ph.D from Berkeley. Not young unless you're using biblical standards. So I can assure you (and my aching joints and back, too) that I have all the experience, education and reasoning power necessary to understand something like NIL, we just don't happen to agree on the particulars. Please stop telling us that NIL is about marketing and licensing, it's an obvious legal figleaf that enables universities to treat players as a loose group of students who happen to have contracts with schools, instead of regular employees with all the legal rights that entails. We should be honest about it, the money is there so players will sign up for Cal's team and play basketball, not for TikTok marketing ads.
The term "mansplain" has nothing to do with your or my gender, and people of all ages can use it, it's common parlance. It relates to a general condescending attitude, assuming everyone else isn't as informed as you are, and an inability to believe that you could be wrong about something. Look at your quote above, the shoe fits.

If I was wrong about your age, then I apologize. That said, were I a pentagenarian who uses the term "mansplaining" in an attempt to waive away facts and logical arguments that correct my clearly erroneous understanding about a subject, I'd be embarrassed. Then again, I was wrong to assume that everyone who ages gains maturity and wisdom sufficient to recognize their own shortcomings.
I think Barsad is wrong in thinking that football and basketball is like any other student "job", but you're just telling on yourself with how much you're overreacting to the term "mansplaining" here.
01Bear
5:20p, 5/17/24
In reply to concernedparent
concernedparent said:

01Bear said:

barsad said:

01Bear said:


I get it, you're young and think you have all the answers. Unfortunately, your youth also means you're inexperienced and are missing much of the picture. For starters, you think student athletes are somehow paid by the schools under the NIL rules. Next, you completely misunderstood what's permitted by the NCAA under the NIL rules. Additionally, you assume that other students do not have the right to exercise NIL deals.

Finally, if you want to be taken seriously by other posters in this group, drop the attitude. Your accusation that I'm "mansplaining" was asinine. To begin, I didn't know (and frankly, I don't care) what your sex is before I made my i initial post, let alone this current one. Regardless of whether you're a man or a woman, my comments would be the same. While accusing your youthful peers of "mansplaining" may be enough for you to "win an argument," it doesn't work on adults who value facts and rational reasoning and are not interested in playing petty games or "winning an argument."


Well, at least I sparked some solid (if not long-winded) conversation about this, clearly a lot of strong opinions out there.
I love the idea one poster had about an alumni-run (perhaps non-profit) independent athletic dept that's affiliated with Cal but pays players as student-employees. That's where all this is eventually headed. More good ideas for reform, please!

As for 01Bear's presumptions, I can tell you that I'm a 52-year-old male with a Ph.D from Berkeley. Not young unless you're using biblical standards. So I can assure you (and my aching joints and back, too) that I have all the experience, education and reasoning power necessary to understand something like NIL, we just don't happen to agree on the particulars. Please stop telling us that NIL is about marketing and licensing, it's an obvious legal figleaf that enables universities to treat players as a loose group of students who happen to have contracts with schools, instead of regular employees with all the legal rights that entails. We should be honest about it, the money is there so players will sign up for Cal's team and play basketball, not for TikTok marketing ads.
The term "mansplain" has nothing to do with your or my gender, and people of all ages can use it, it's common parlance. It relates to a general condescending attitude, assuming everyone else isn't as informed as you are, and an inability to believe that you could be wrong about something. Look at your quote above, the shoe fits.

If I was wrong about your age, then I apologize. That said, were I a pentagenarian who uses the term "mansplaining" in an attempt to waive away facts and logical arguments that correct my clearly erroneous understanding about a subject, I'd be embarrassed. Then again, I was wrong to assume that everyone who ages gains maturity and wisdom sufficient to recognize their own shortcomings.
I think Barsad is wrong in thinking that football and basketball is like any other student "job", but you're just telling on yourself with how much you're overreacting to the term "mansplaining" here.

I'm just incredulous that a middle-aged person would throw out that term. I mean, it just reeks of an immature attempt to "score points" without actually addressing the underlying argument; on its face, it's an ad hominem argument. I would imagine that older and wiser heads are mature enough not to have to resort to such (basic) logical fallacies and would instead present facts and reasoned arguments.

Also, as the law stands today, "student athlete" is not a job at Cal not any NCAA university. This applies to the revenue generating sports as well as the non-revenue generating sports. Even were a student to earn NIL money with a collective, that doesn't make him/her an employee of the school. That's just how employment law works in the US. Barsad's continued ignorant diatribes that NIL contracts make student athletes university employees doesn't make it.
barsad
1:31p, 5/18/24
In reply to 01Bear
01Bear said:


If I was wrong about your age, then I apologize.

Apology definitely not accepted, given all of the attacks that came after it.
Like concerned parent said, you're sinking yourself, and your reputation, with these overreactions. I feel sorry for you. Try a little thinking that isn't so literal about everything and you'll be a happier person… my point, one last time, is not what NIL is today, or what the law says at this moment in legal history (it will evolve), but what student compensation should be in the future if we want some kind of real amateur college sports.
This will be the last time I engage with Toxic01Bear, signing off.
Big C
3:24p, 5/18/24

Maybe two posters here should get a room or something and get this all worked out...
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