Judge Nixes NCAA Players Antitrust Claims -- Case Not Over...Yet

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by UniversityofArizona

Well then show me the developmental league that the NFL is too lazy to create to bring up their own talent. The athletes shouldn't have to do the whole shebang to play football in this monopolized to the limit sport. We don't require coaches to be taking classes at a university to coach there do we? The athletes are just as capable of playing for the university and representing the university regardless of their ability to take classes at the university. Requiring someone who is being brought into a university to play football to also attend class is like forcing somebody you brought in on an academic scholarship to also play sports.

It's not even close to that. Playing football at a university is not a right, it is an honor and a privilege. To earn the ability to play a sport at a university you must attend that university.

Also, if universities played players in cash and did not require them to attend classes there, wouldn't that make them professional athletes?

[UniversityofArizona]

Let them be professional athletes I could care less, and while playing for a university may be a right and a privilege to you where else can somebody with the talent to play actually play? Oh yea...the NCAA controls the whole industry up until you make it or don't make it to the NFL, and if you fall afoul of the NCAA you are pretty much screwed. By the way just about everything else seems professional to me from the ridiculous 100,000 person stadiums to the millionaire coaches and 50 million dollar plus athletic budgets and gaudy bowl championships. By the way I don't understand this obsession with amateurism when most people can become working professionals between the ages of 16-18 years of age.

Goodness I think Europe got it right with their league system for soccer, and that lets their universities teach people who want to learn rather than shoving unwanted educations down the throats of athletes that may not want them.

[canes21]

If you have the talent to play Div I football, but aren't smart enough to make it into a university, then join the Canadian league, UFL, or Arena league. Make a big enough impact there and you will get you shot at the NFL.

And if you aren't smart enough to make it to one of these colleges in the first place, then I doubt many NFL teams will be interested anyways.

[UniversityofArizona]

Requiring people to move to new countries to take part in a viable alternative is not really an alternative at all. The UFL will also be bankrupt in the next year or two anyways because they decided it is a great idea to play in the fall. Also, I don't see how football smarts, or practice and time spent learning the ins and outs of football are directly proportional to how well you do in classes that you may have less interest in such as calculus or even algebra for that matter nor do I feel it is necessarily a completely accurate representation of how smart an individual is. If someone is brilliant and talented on the football field, but can't motivate themselves enough to understand chemistry why would an NFL coach look down on them? What relevance does your ability to learn chemistry have on your ability to play football.

Arguing that people are simply too stupid to make it into college is a statement I flat out disagree with since I feel any individual with the proper motivation, quality instruction, and good study environment can make it to at the very least one of the bottom tier academic institutions.

The Arena Football League is a nice alternative, but is a different kind of football entirely and carries small rosters. It would need to be significantly expanded for me to consider it to be a viable alternative for players straight out of high school.

[canes21]

I am not disagreeing with you about needing D-Leagues, Rookie Leagues, etc., but I am going to completely disagree with you on the idea of playing for a university, but not attending there. And I feel a player should qualify academically if they want to play football on the next level(DIV I).

Also, I am not saying a coach is not going to take an athlete who just isn't motivated in the classroom, but if a player tries and still can't get that 18 on the ACT, then chances are the NFL schemes, and even the college schemes, are going to be too difficult for them to understand.

[UniversityofArizona]

The problem right now though is that the NCAA is the functioning development league and the only real option for high school players. Thus, just because you went to a garbage high school or you were not motivated enough and failed to pass the ACT you will no longer even have the opportunity to try and learn college or NFL schemes even if you have shown a wonderful history of learning them at the high school level up until that point. Judging 17 and 18 year olds who may have plenty of football talent with tests that aren't even football related is a lame way of going about things. If I were to use your chemistry scores as a means of judging your ability to paint what would that make me? That is the problem with the NCAA. They are the development league, but they restrict individuals ability to participate based on academic side requirements. This is why I feel like the NCAA is such a malicious trust when it comes to hundreds of athletes who get locked out of the system who otherwise would be given a shot if a real development league were in place. While it is a bad analogy I feel restricting otherwise talented and qualified athletes from taking part at the college level because of test scores is no different than giving citizens voting tests to determine if they are smart enough to vote and exercise their rights as a citizen. Alright, thanks for the wonderful discussion during the boring months in-between football seasons that I wish the UFL played during! I have to head out but will be back later if you want to keep debating Throw in the last word and take care friend!

[canes21]

So...

We both agree that there should be a developmental league for players who don't want to attend college.

We disagree on having to meet academic standards to play at the D1 level.

Can we leave it at that and ?

[agte]

Quote: Originally Posted by SECElite3

It is my understanding from reading posts of ex-NCAA players, they sign an agreement which protects the NCAA from lawsuits like this.

I haven't read this whole thing, but even when I signed my letter of intent to run track at a local NAIA school, there was a part in the letter that said the school could use my likeness (photos, videos, billboards, anything, etc.) for anything they wanted, or something along those lines....

That's part of why you should always read everything you sign