Texas AD says they will pay 10,000 per player

[nd73]

WASHINGTON — The University of Texas will spend nearly $6 million a year to comply with a string of recent legal rulings requiring colleges to be more generous to their scholarship athletes.

That won’t break the bank, Athletic Director Steve Patterson said Tuesday at a forum on the fast-changing business of college sports. But even rich programs like UT’s will be forced to make tough choices in the future if momentum in the courts continues to push colleges to treat their players like employees or semi-pros, he said.

Chris Plonsky, director for women’s sports at Texas, said the school already employs 350 workers to coach and care for the students who play in Austin. The money for all of those jobs, she said, comes from just two sports, football and men’s basketball.

“If we begin to [further] remunerate the participants, that’s going to break that model,” Plonsky said.

Patterson said UT won’t have problems paying the extra $6 million to its players. That money will break down to about $10,000 for each player. The money will cover college expenses that aren’t covered by a traditional full scholarship and give each player $5,000 in compensation for the university’s use of his image.

Colleges will soon be asked to do even more, and they ought to prepare for that, some on the panels argued. Former U.S. Rep. Tom McMillen of Maryland said colleges should brace for profound challenges to their business models in the near future.

“We’re in for a period of dynamic change,” said McMillen, an All-America basketball player for the University of Maryland who also played for the United States in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. “The system has to change. The money needs to be handled differently.”

Other panelists argued that so much is changing in college sports that a stronger governing hand is needed.

“Everybody is in charge and nobody is,” said Lisa Love, former Athletic Director at Arizona State.

McMillen added: “What I’m looking for is a benevolent dictator for college sports.”

USA Today sportswriter Steve Berkowitz said he worries that the price of keeping a program in contention for championships is driving some schools to spend too much. That can put students and taxpayers on the hook for debt or higher fees, all in a gamble that teams will be successful.

Chris Del Conte, Athletic Director at Texas Christian University, didn’t disagree with that. But he and Patterson both said schools should set their own priorities. Those that invest in top-flight athletics should be rewarded, they said.

Del Conte said TCU decided it would make the investments necessary to compete nationally, and ultimately joined a major conference, the Big 12.

“We invested, even back when we didn’t know the future of that investment,” he said. “We decided, and our alumni had decided, that we were going to compete.”

It wasn’t cheap. To renovate its 45,000-seat football stadium, TCU raised $15 million each from five wealthy donors, he said, and added that they had “nickel-and-dimed our way to the rest [of the $164 million bill], with a million here and $5 million there.”

The payoff? Applications to TCU surged to 20,000 a year for its 1,600 spots.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/co...e?hootPostID=849b8044b24c96ff89357a45ba53a385

 

[noeynox]

So I guess the question to the TCU guys is, what happens to the school who has invested tremendously in athletics, and has won at ridiculous levels nationally, and isn't "lucky enough" to get a P5, invite? Are they simply sheet out of luck, "them are the breaks"?

Shouldn't they be rewarded the same way you were?

 

[whaler11]

So I guess the question to the TCU guys is, what happens to the school who has invested tremendously in athletics, and has won at ridiculous levels nationally, and isn't "lucky enough" to get a P5, invite? Are they simply sheet out of luck, "them are the breaks"?

Shouldn't they be rewarded the same way you were?

Maybe instead of asking TCU about luck maybe ask them how to raise $164 million. Make sure to mention that you can't ask your wealthiest athletic alumni.

 

[noeynox]

That is question better answered by Jim Calhoun.

Whether it came from donations or state money, UConn has poured what, 200 million dollars into its upgrade. TCU people are the ones saying if you invest you should be rewarded. UConn has invested, why shouldn't they be rewarded? Or anyone else that has invested in football to that level.

 

[whaler11]

That is question better answered by Jim Calhoun.

Whether it came from donations or state money, UConn has poured what, 200 million dollars into its upgrade. TCU people are the ones saying if you invest you should be rewarded. UConn has invested, why shouldn't they be rewarded? Or anyone else that has invested in football to that level.

We know Calhoun's answer.

UConn should be in a legitimate league - but we know the reasons they aren't. The world isn't fair.

If you want to hold TCU to that comment that's fair but they don't hold the keys to a league for UConn. I'm just impressed they put together that much private money.

 

[noeynox]

It's impressive. Its also impressive how they won. Northern Illinois and Boise won big also, so yeah life ain't fair.

The thing with Calhoun, he has clearly convinced the players they have given enough. That was evident from Ray Allen's comments after First Night. If anyone wants the players to give $, they need to convince Calhoun, one word from him to the players and you'll see how much they give.

 

[Jimdish255]

The University of Texas will spend nearly $6 million a year to comply with a string of recent legal rulings requiring colleges to be more generous to their scholarship athletes.

I don't buy that whatever number Texas settles on is the fault of the courts. It's an arms race plain and simple and the P5 cartel will break the banks trying to buy athletic success at the expense of academics in order to marginalize the competition. They're going fight over the pie they conspired to shrink and end up wringing their hands of the mess and the empty seats of the have-nots.

 

[whaler11]

I don't buy that whatever number Texas settles on is the fault of the courts. It's an arms race plain and simple and the P5 cartel will break the banks trying to buy athletic success at the expense of academics in order to marginalize the competition. They're going fight over the pie they conspired to shrink and end up wringing their hands of the mess and the empty seats of the have-nots.

Yes, they made the numbers up.

 

[Fishy]

The original article was a little inaccurate - the Texas AD was responding to a hypothetical question.

They're not actually planning on paying players $10k.

 

[upstater]

The true cost of attending school is actually a federally mandated amount that all schools must declare to the DOE. In other words, you can't just make this number up out of thin air. Schools have been mandated to report true costs above fees and tuition for a few years now.

Any amount given to students over and above that declared "true costs" amount should be considered income for employees.

 

[gioff23]

10K? Who is going to explain to the UT football players that they have to take a pay cut next year?

 

[TRest]

I believe the court ruling was paying up to $5,000 a year to Division 1 football and men's basketball players for use of their likenesses by gaming companies like EA. He seems to be extrapolating it to all scholarship athletes, which is probably bullshat.

 

[Kolumbo]

UTC has invested and should continue to invest. Increase investment. Pass the additional cost onto the U.S. Government until the dividends start paying back.