Multi-year scholarship option approved by NCAA

Fair enough. Did you know that UConn was one of the first schools to really put a large focus on building facilities and putting staff in place for academic support systems for athletes - initially around basketball? We were.

I'm not going to disagree that scholarship athletes get a hell of a lot more than your average student in the student body. There's also a lot more expected of them too. You can't feel so strongly about one side of this, and not recognize the other.

Marble mouthed Lou Holtz always says it best, when some kind of topic around this comes up, especially when it comes to performance on the field and giving everything they've got. Playing through injury, etc. etc. Lou always simply responds...that's why they've got the scholarship. Being, essentially the definition of tough - that's why you get a scholarship.

Coach P defines tough - as doing the best you possibly can, at everything you do, all the time.

That's tough, and that's what's required of a scholarship athlete - most definitely at an institution that has expectations of top level success at both the student - and athlete - part of the equation. Students that aren't on scholarship, have no such requirement.

Of course more is epected out of the student athletes, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into every one of them. They should have higher expectations and more responsibility.

What does being tough have to do with whether a person with all those added (and deserved) benefits also deserves preferential job treatment (they'll get it) over a person who is $200k in debt for their college education?

Athletes work their way through college on the field and in the classroom. Don't take jobs away from students who work their way through college in the cafeterias, offices, and maintenance buildings so that the athletes can have some pocket change.

I used to prefer allowing athletes to work, but there's too much oversight required and there are too many regular students (who can least afford to lose those jobs) who would suffer. A small stipend is much easier to oversee and regulate. And it doesn't take jobs away from those that tend to need them most.

Hold on. Are you saying that there are jobs on campus that a student can earn enough money to pay for a significant chunk of their own education? The cafeteria jobs when I was there - well that's a joke. If you can earn enough to help significantly pay, or pay for entirely your education by working as a dishwasher on campus? or doing filing / answering phones in somebody's office? Well that's pretty shocking. Why go to school at all?

I'm not in any way suggesting that a scholarship athlete get preferential treatment in job hiring for campus jobs. Of course it's perfectly reasonable to assume that they would get priority. That's where the brain power and effort needs to come in. A football player, can most definitely take a job breaking down and organizing game films, and get paid for it. Back in my day, putting together a game tape was a f*cking nightmare. Talk about literally cut and paste. It's all digital these days, and you can see anything you want with a click of the button, it's a matter of actually looking at stuff that matters now, rather than having anythign to look at all. But I digress,

Are there enough sport specific things to create spending money jobs for 200+ athletes? maybe, maybe not. How many times does the pool need to be vacuumed and cleaned every week?

But - are you really suggesting that a scholarship athlete shouldn't have access to the same work opportunities at a university that exist for regular students? Why?

It seems to me, that the opportunities to work OFF campus, would certainly override that, and I'm saying that it's a bad idea to let scholarship athletes work for a paycheck off campus during the school year, even what's allowed now - they need to be monitored very closely, in the off season when they do work off campus.

I always thought if athletes worked off campus as a waiter or waitress and someone gave them a 10,000 tip, would that be against the rules for outstanding service???

They are monitored tightly and to reduce the temptation to deviate form these rules (trading or selling things, etc) the small stipend should help this. Also I believe income earned from the kids goes against the financial aid correct??? The scholarship amount gets lessened.

Carl--when they are at meetings at 6am, in class all day, in the gym and practicing in the afternoon and studying and watching game film till 10pm, when are they supposed to do these jobs?

That's why I'd do the best I could to figure out a way to get players paid, in each sport, for things they can be doing during those times. It would have been easy, not that long ago. Digital video isn't that old in the grand scheme of things, and with strip film and then video cassette, you could put an entire roster of 85 scholarship players together for a few hours a week, cutting and pasting together actual film, or dubbing video tapes, and have a scouting library that would be absolutely phenomenal. I'm not sure where you'd find weekly work for 85 guys these days, but I"m sure it could be done in the athletic facilities.

As for the other sports, I think there are plenty of ways that you can put those athletes to work., during those hours of the day that they tend to nap, or watch TV, or play video games or cards instead of studying.

Spades was a game that would be played for hours among basketball and football players in the dorms when I was there, and after - well after, into the Calhoun years of the 1990s.

Don't try to tell me they don't have an hour or two a day that they can be doing something other than watching TV or games and earn some coin instead.

I'll grant you, that going off campus to do it, would be very difficult. THis is what I"ve been saying.

Yes, they work hard, but if you're a parent, and your kid is telling you otherwise, you've been snowed. The ones that actually are non-stop from morning to night, are pretty rare, and if you can put together just a copule of them on a team, you're well ahead of the game.

Let me put it this way. I don't know what the undergraduate coursework minimum standards are to graduate these days, but I highly doubt that being in class from 8 am - 4pm every day with a lunch break M/W/F is what's required to graduate in 4 years.

If a student is motivated enough to take a full daily schedule of classes, most of the time, you're going to finish your "4 year" bachelors degree in under 3 years. That's pretty much the case at any university. UConn has had many athletes, in all of our sports programs come through, and take advantage of the fact that they don't pay for those courses, and do load up the schedules and finish early. Emeka Okafor. Outstanding. An example for all scholarship athletes.

Part of the university experience though, the life experience, is the stuff that happens outside of classes though.

Having good academic advisors, that can guage the interests and capabilities of students is essential to any univeristy, whether it be the mathematics department, or athletics.

I don't believe for a second, that the kids out there, that are on scholarship, that need, and want extra spending money, can't find the time to do paid work on campus.

bat-sh1t-crazy.

1) Where the f--- did I suggest someone could pay off their hundred thousand dollar loans working in a cafeteria???? I said the kids working those jobs, need them because most (if not all) are financing a good portion of their college debt and they need the money from that job for expenses. Expenses that scholarship athletes don't have.

2) The players are only allowed so much time by the NCAA (20 hours I think). The "film work" you suggest they get paid to do, could actually be considered an NCAA violation of too much time. Not only would they be going over the alloted time, they'd get paid to do it? You think the NCAA is going to approve that?

3) Yes, I am absolutely suggesting that scholarship athletes shouldn't have access to the same work opportunities. I've been explaining why over and over again. The regular student body is in greater need of those jobs. The vast majority of the regular student body doesn't have (virtually) all expenses paid for them while at school. The majority of the student body will leave school with over six figures worth of debt. And the school doesn't need to create a department (at the very least a team) of compliance people to try and prevent NCAA violations.

You're really suggesting the athletes essentially work for their coaches? You don't think that's a recipe for disaster? Suggesting a $2000/year stipend eliminates amatuerism, but allowing John Calipari, Jim Tressel, and others to hire their star players isn't going to result in a clusterf*ck of NCAA violations?

During the season, they absolutely don't have the time. I had two players complain to me this year that there wasn't enough time to watch (enough) game film during the season. There is NOTHING to do on campus over the summer, so paying them to sweep floors on an empty campus just seems stupid to me. So can they work during spring semester? Sure. But WingU is 1000% correct on this. I worked in the Buckley mailroom while I was at school, and I'd have gone ape$hit if I lost my job to a scholarship athlete.

The reality is this: the school gives a LOT to these players, and in return ASKS a lot. Some of these kids have spending money, and some get NO help from home. What is being proposed with the stipend will merely help the kids with the routine expenses that all college kids have. The kid that is going to "take" thousands from a booster is going to do it anyway, but there is no question that this will help at the margins.

Of course you COULD devise a system where they "worked" for it...but then it needs to be optional because not everyone needs the money. And then, as with "all" jobs, it might make more sense just to take money from somebody rather than work for it. I want the student-athlete to focus on two things: their sport and their academics. Of course they have lives as well, but I'd prefer that we don't try to overcomplicate it.

A stipend isn't a perfect idea, but from where things stand today, it is clearly IMO the best first step to improving life for the student athlete and will have a real impact in people breaking rules at the margins.

I understand all of this. I'll tell you this. Take it for what you will. We clearly will disagree on this, and that's ok. THis is all hypothetical anyway.

I think there is time, to work, if a student wants to. If I had spent half the time I spent playing spades, going to Ted's, walking down to Carriage House and getting rowdy, or sleeping during the day each week that went by...if I had spent half that time studying, scheduling more classes, or working, I'd have either finished my degree much earlier, or been able to make a decent coin. I was a damn good spades player at one time.

Now, I'm not sure how things are now, because I know the program is a hell of alot different now, than it was then. Maybe you are absolutlely right, and that every minute of every day for these kids from 5:30am til 10:30pm is scripted.

I doubt it. Because you know what? The program is light years from where it was back in the day, but 18-22 year old football players, are still 18-22 year old football players. They lift, the go to class, they study, and they want to hang out and chase the tail. If a player can't find time to look at enough film? That means they're sleeping more than they should be sleeping, or doing something else more than they should be doing.

I'll say it again, for the kids out there, that need/want the extra spending money, I see no reason why they can't find themselves work on campus, and there is no need for scholarship athletes to get preferential treatment in hiring for campus jobs AND there are plenty of jobs that can be done for 10-12 hours a week around the athletic facilities, or elsewhere on campus. I see big problems going OFF campus.

All it would take is some dedicated effort and brain power to make it work.

Lastly, nowhere in any of this, did I say that coaches would be hiring players, I'd want the complete opposite. Caoches should have nothign to do with the hiring process. But I am saying that coaches can create student jobs in the athletic facilities, that anyone in the student body can apply for.

Stipend is a terrible idea in my book. Forgot to add that, again. If you provide a stipend for scholarship athletes, you need to provide stipends for not jsut every scholarhips athlete across all sports, but also to every student on campus.

Where in the world do you get that idea from?

Right, that will happen. Jim Calhoun will have no say at all over which of his players are "hired" to "cut game film", and athletes will not get preferential treatment for those jobs over the rest of the student body.

I admire your endless optimism but your idealism on this issue ignores the fact you open up the door for minor and major NCAA violations. I would be stunned if the NCAA allowed athletes to work jobs that are strikingly similar to film study sessions with coaches.

All of this is meaningless and hypothetical. It's not happening, so don't get worked up about it. The stipend is not going to happen, the multi-year scholarships are already in place. As for a stipend, the most important question, is what is the money in a stipend for? Once you answer that question, the issue of a stipend gets pretty clear.

I am against stipends. I am in favor of scholarship athletes being able to work for a paycheck, if they so desire. I think it would be much easier to manage on campus than off - working.

I think multi-year scholarship option, as well as the traditional single year renewal, is fantastic, for both recruits, and for UConn, and I hope we use it smartly.

I've said all I'm going to say on this. Really.