Tag Archives: basketball

Smerls31’s Quick Hitters

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  • The NCAA as we have known it is going away, traditionalists be damned. College athletics has a system that has long outgrown its funtionality and it’s time for a change. Everything about college athletics has changed. The requirements to earn a scholarship have changed, the number of student athletes has increased, the age kids get recruited has gottten younger, the money the universities and the NCAA make has increased, the hours the athletes put in have increased…but the antiquated NCAA Rule Book remains the same. The recent ruling by the NLRB agreeing that athletes are employees, suggests that certain other things will be changing soon…like that rule book.
  • If you defended the character assassination of Richard Sherman by the media, then you should defend Johnny Manziel as well. He’s suffering from the same misguided character assassination by the media albeit for different reasons. I guess to the media everyone they don’t like is a punk.
  •  A lot of time is spent lauding the benefits of a college education when it applies to college basketbal players. I never hear this discussed much amongst the other major sports. The NFL is understandable because players cannot exit before their 3rd year out of high school. Approximately 47% of NFL players have 4 year degrees. Much to my surprise 21% of NBA players have 4 year degrees as of 2012 according to the New York Times. That brings me to MLB. According to STATS LLC. In 2012 out of 917 players on baseball rosters, only 39 had 4 year degrees. That’s 4%. I wonder why we don’t hear more about that.
  • Carmelo Anthony? Why not? All he’s done is lead his team to the playoffs every year in his career (2003-Current) except this one with the disfunctional Knicks including a 54 win season just last year. Oh and he averages 25ppg for his career. You don’t find guys like that everyday.
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Top 5 Things We Know About NCAA Sports

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1. March Madness is the most exciting time of the year.

People who don’t watch college basketball or sports in general, show up at tournament time. Brackets are filled out in offices around the country and every underdog in the country takes center stage. This time of year puts a dollar value on the term “longshot”.

2. College baseball and college hockey don’t matter.

ESPN can televise the College World Series and the Frozen Four til the cows come home. No one cares. That is all.

3. The Fighting Irish will be overrated.

I’m an Irish fan and even I know the football team won’t be at the top consistently ever again. Other schools have more to offer now than just tradition. TV deals, elaborate facilities,  fancy uniforms…and better weather for starters.

4.  The head coach will leave.

Why wouldn’t he? Millions of dollars being thrown at you to upgrade. No penalty for lying to recruits. Integrity not a requirement for the job. There’s always someone better lookin than the one you’re with I guess.

5. The NCAA will NEVER be about the student athlete.

So much to say here. But look, just a few things Mark Emmert and the NCAA could do to give the impression that they care about kids.
– lift the transfer requirement that scholarship athletes must sit out a year.
– pay lifetime medical if an athlete is injured in sport.
– allow scholarship athletes to work
– make conferences align regionally to cut down travel time.
– let all athletes return to scholarship play if they declare and enter the draft….even if they get drafted. (As baseball does)

ESPN’s Jay Bilas Is the NCAA’s Biggest Critic | New Republic

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If you ever believed that the NCAA was in it for “the student athlete” or if you’re one of the idiots who say that the free school is enough payment…then you should read this and EVERYTHING Jay Bilas ever has to say on this subject.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117079/espns-jay-bilas-ncaas-biggest-critic

Jay Bilas argues for colleges to pay student athletes | The Chronicle

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Jay Bilas, ESPN Analyst and former Duke Blue Devil, says flat out pay college athletes. I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far, but here are 5 things I would do:

1. Pay athletes a percentage of jersey and t shirt sales, not individually, but across the board.

2. Allow athletes to profit from their own likeness individually,  i. e. endorsements, autographs, appearances…etc.

3. Waive the ridiculous rule forcing athletes who transfer to sit out a year. Coaches do it regularly without consequence.

4. Pay lifetime medical expenses for athletes when their injuries occurred while participating in sport during their college career.

5. Allow athletes to retain eligibility should they enter the draft and are either unhappy with their draft position or fail to get drafted.

That’s my take. Below is a link to a Jay Bilas article with his take.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/10/08/jay-bilas-argues-colleges-pay-student-athletes