Iceland12
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Here a take on the discussion of the role of College Sports versus Minor leagues.
With so much cash flowing into college sports and so little protection afforded to the athletes who help produce all that cash — bear in mind the NCAA claims zero responsibility for brain trauma suffered by college football players — it’s no surprise that college athletes would take it upon themselves to organize. It also begs the question: just why is so much money flowing into college football and basketball?
The short answer: millions of fans are watching.
Right. So why are they watching?
Is it because the schools at the top college conferences get the best players? Sure, that’s part of it. Wouldn’t it stand to reason, then, that fans of football and basketball would watch those players play in professional leagues, where the players are getting paid for their work?
Here’s where we get to the heart of the problem. The American sporting landscape is littered with failed attempts at starting alternative professional leagues for football and basketball. The World Football League? The United States Football League? The XFL? The United Football League? They all failed within five years of their launch..
This is where we begin to understand the status quo. What we have here is an issue of branding. Minor league football and basketball have no traction in America, because fans have declared their loyalty to the brands of college football and basketball teams. College football, in particular, has a century’s worth of rich history in America. College students attach themselves to their schools’ teams, remain attached through adulthood, and spread those attachments to children and other family members. You can’t sell the Omaha Nighthawks to an army of die-hard Cornhuskers fans. They’ve spent decades engrossed in the University of Nebraska’s football team and all of its traditions. Supporting a group of guys trying to play their way into the NFL is not enough. These people demand Nebraska football..
What the people want, however, no longer jibes with what football players need now. Times change, but the NCAA has steadfastly refused to change with the times, making 2014 money from TV deals while forcing players to adhere to 1954 ideals. The amount of money changing hands — Big Ten schools like Nebraska, for example, will get between $23 and $25 million each per year from multiple TV deals — exposes the hypocrisy within big-time college sports. The powers that be collect billions of dollars from TV networks, while the players that fans tune in to watch are systematically denied the opportunity to profit from their endeavors.
Of course, this is not a issue for the game of baseball. Minor league baseball has been a staple in this country since the late 19th century. The NFL never developed the kind of minor league system that baseball did — largely because, up until the Super Bowl era, college football was far more important than pro football. The NFL spent much of the first half of the 20th century struggling to stay afloat, while college football and Major League Baseball dominated the sports pages, and baseball built a player development system that now has long-established brands. The Reserve Clause might have limited the fair market value of many baseball players, but the players were still paid as professionals and still free to profit from commercial endorsements.
It’s also not an issue for international soccer, which abolished maximum salary rules in 1961. Southampton FC runs an exceptional youth academy that has produced quite a few world-class players, and larger clubs have paid Southampton millions of pounds to acquire the contracts of teenagers in the Saints Academy. Arsenal paid £5 million up front for 16-year-old Theo Walcott in 2006, then paid £12 million up front for 17-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011. Tottenham Hotspur also paid Southampton £5 million up front for a certain Welsh 17-year-old now plying his trade in Madrid..
http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2014...prevail-over-minor-leagues-brands-matter.html
With so much cash flowing into college sports and so little protection afforded to the athletes who help produce all that cash — bear in mind the NCAA claims zero responsibility for brain trauma suffered by college football players — it’s no surprise that college athletes would take it upon themselves to organize. It also begs the question: just why is so much money flowing into college football and basketball?
The short answer: millions of fans are watching.
Right. So why are they watching?
Is it because the schools at the top college conferences get the best players? Sure, that’s part of it. Wouldn’t it stand to reason, then, that fans of football and basketball would watch those players play in professional leagues, where the players are getting paid for their work?
Here’s where we get to the heart of the problem. The American sporting landscape is littered with failed attempts at starting alternative professional leagues for football and basketball. The World Football League? The United States Football League? The XFL? The United Football League? They all failed within five years of their launch..
This is where we begin to understand the status quo. What we have here is an issue of branding. Minor league football and basketball have no traction in America, because fans have declared their loyalty to the brands of college football and basketball teams. College football, in particular, has a century’s worth of rich history in America. College students attach themselves to their schools’ teams, remain attached through adulthood, and spread those attachments to children and other family members. You can’t sell the Omaha Nighthawks to an army of die-hard Cornhuskers fans. They’ve spent decades engrossed in the University of Nebraska’s football team and all of its traditions. Supporting a group of guys trying to play their way into the NFL is not enough. These people demand Nebraska football..
What the people want, however, no longer jibes with what football players need now. Times change, but the NCAA has steadfastly refused to change with the times, making 2014 money from TV deals while forcing players to adhere to 1954 ideals. The amount of money changing hands — Big Ten schools like Nebraska, for example, will get between $23 and $25 million each per year from multiple TV deals — exposes the hypocrisy within big-time college sports. The powers that be collect billions of dollars from TV networks, while the players that fans tune in to watch are systematically denied the opportunity to profit from their endeavors.
Of course, this is not a issue for the game of baseball. Minor league baseball has been a staple in this country since the late 19th century. The NFL never developed the kind of minor league system that baseball did — largely because, up until the Super Bowl era, college football was far more important than pro football. The NFL spent much of the first half of the 20th century struggling to stay afloat, while college football and Major League Baseball dominated the sports pages, and baseball built a player development system that now has long-established brands. The Reserve Clause might have limited the fair market value of many baseball players, but the players were still paid as professionals and still free to profit from commercial endorsements.
It’s also not an issue for international soccer, which abolished maximum salary rules in 1961. Southampton FC runs an exceptional youth academy that has produced quite a few world-class players, and larger clubs have paid Southampton millions of pounds to acquire the contracts of teenagers in the Saints Academy. Arsenal paid £5 million up front for 16-year-old Theo Walcott in 2006, then paid £12 million up front for 17-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011. Tottenham Hotspur also paid Southampton £5 million up front for a certain Welsh 17-year-old now plying his trade in Madrid..
http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2014...prevail-over-minor-leagues-brands-matter.html