Mizzou Links, 1-12-12

We’ve built up all this angst that universities are profiting from the student athlete but we like to completely ignore the fact that the same can be said for the grad students slaving away in a lab for projects that millions of dollars in income for the school.

I’d have a lot more respect for this subject if the people calling for paying students weren’t simply using it as a way of ‘fixing’ the corruption issues that exist in college sports. As long as human nature remains the same (it will) that stipend is a joke that will do nothing to combat the issue of players selling gear and autographs for those things they want be they cash, cars or tattoos.

He’s my hero too. That flagrant 2 woke up the Jayhawks and turned a close game into a rout. If any MU players want to take a swing at Teahan in Columbia, they shouldn’t hold back.

In overland park the highways are dry, primary roads are wet, residential streets are barely slick. All had been treated by 6:30am

On one hand we like to color the schools as being opportunists because they are making a profit on their sports and some feel that the scholarship isn’t enough. I take issue with that at a basic level simply because I don’t hear those same voices speaking out for the kid on an academic scholarship that is scraping by and could use a pay increase. I also don’t hear a lot of calls to take care of the athlete’s in non-revenue sports, for that matter. Does a football player have it worse than a kid on the track team or a girl playing tennis? No, the difference is only that football brings in money and diving, softball, lacrosse and their ilk do not. Until these students are included this has nothing to do with players who are scraping by because we’re only talking about those students playing revenue sports.

Now, to be fair, that comparison between the football player and an academic student isn’t exactly equal. The athlete has NCAA regs to follow and some of those are huge hindrances. Jobs are a problem between practice and studying and those regs can be a problem here. But let us remember that the regs came into effect because boosters and schools tried to game the system. In the end this all comes back to a ridiculous attempt to solve the corruption problem and that is going to continue as long as one player is considered more valuable than another. This is an economic certainty and well-wishing and a laughable payment isn’t going to change that.

What I take umbrage over is the fact that so many people act as if it is unfair and that the universities are holding a gun to the athlete’s head. If an athlete doesn’t want to play, he doesn’t have to. I know, “If they want to play football its the only real option!” If that is your complaint I direct your complaints to the NFL who, as far as I am concerned, has the largest share of the blame in this situation.