The Current state of College Basketball: "It’s a f#%king disaster."

[Franisdaman]

John is a FOX College Basketball play x play guy and reporter. He appears on @TheFieldof68

The full text of his tweet:

One high major coach to me on the state of college basketball:

“It’s a f#%king disaster. For us veteran coaches, this is not what we signed up for. I am not mad at the kids one bit. They’re seeking their value and earning money, and I think they should. It’s your right to get paid. I would do the same thing that they’re doing. Anybody mad at the kids is foolish. But shame on the NCAA for not seeing this coming years ago and being proactive. Not having a boundary or a system in place at all, having no regulations to even attempt to find a common playing field is a major miss. These collectives will get coaches fired. We have had no break. Not one coach in the country has had a single day to sit down and breathe. It’s unhealthy. The other issue is you get attrition when you get commitments. Another kid sees someone commit, dislikes the idea of fighting for their role on a team and wants to bolt elsewhere. We can’t do this every single year. Kids should make big dollars. But the way this is set up right now with no contracts or regulations makes it impossible to sustain anything in this sport.”

 

[icwesthawk]

Whoever said it, is f#%king correct

 

[jasonrann]

 

[kzoohawk80]

Why exactly is this anonymous? Why's this coach afraid to put his name behind this?

To me this all just seems new and coaches and players are going to learn how to navigate it properly. I think the extra Covid years has really made everything a mess. The Covid years making players 23-24 years old have made the true freshman irrelevant. That'll all change when the Covid years are gone.

 

[tumorboy]

Read the tweet. Coaches now know how players felt. When they bolted in the middle of the night. Or were constantly negotiating with other teams mid year. A lot of blame points back at themselves.

 

[Rifler]

Problem goes back to the NCAA and their total inability to regulate any aspect of collegiate athletics,.. They operate like a dysfunctional parent attempting to manage a disjointed family..

 

[LaQuintaHawkeye]

the way this is set up right now with no contracts or regulations makes it impossible to sustain anything in this sport.”

BINGO!

...I'll add, it's only going to benefit the schools who were already notorious for paying kids under the table when it was against the rules, or the ones that are absolutely rabid about their sport and fans will actually divvy out of their kids college funds in order to "Roll-Tide!"

Sure, schools like Kentucky, Louisville, Texas, etc. not only thrive in this bidding war environment, they have absolutely no conscience when it comes to "creaning" kids and their boosters are just creepy, slimy, rich sugar daddy's.

 

[the24fan]

At some point there is going to have to be a system in place to regulate NIL
If they don't the college game will be ruined. It's just unsustainable and unfair to colleges that can't compete with millionaire boosters .

 

[Bulldogs1974]

He's not correct. Yes it's a disaster but the NCAA gets way too much crap over this. The NCAA is/was the regulatory body for the colleges and universities.
Colleges want the NCAA to enforce rules for other people just not themselves. They all signed up for the NCAA to rule on matters then they slap the NCAA's hand when they enforce something.
Rules for thee, not for me.

 

[HoustonREDHawk]

I hate NIL and the professionalism of college BB. No such thing as a roster of student athletes on a "successful" program.

 

[HawksRule73]

Something like this was always going to be the end result once we started monetizing college sports about 40 years ago. I find it rich that college coaches are bemoaning the NCAA not putting in guard rails or rules when these same coaches have been flaunting the existing rules for decades. College basketball has always been the worst offender.

The answer is easy, but the schools don't want to do it because it would kill the golden goose. So rather than the presidents and athletic directors getting together and finding a way to pay the players as employees and/or find a way to rev share with the players, they just turn to the fans and boosters to do it. Sorry, but that's bull$hit. This isn't an NCAA issue (the NCAA is merely an extension of the universities anyway), this is an institutional issue that the institutions just don't want to tackle because it means less money for their friends and family in administration making huge money doing next to nothing while the players were barely getting cost of attendance until fairly recently.

Part of me hopes the whole thing just crumbles so we can start all over with a clean slate.

 

[icwesthawk]

Part of me hopes the whole thing just crumbles so we can start all over with a clean slate.

I think most don't believe you can go back and get a clean slate once it crumbles.

 

[Beattheohiostate]

It is both institutional and NCAA failure. And I think the system has already crumbled. The questions remaining are these: who cleans up the mess, when do they do it, and what does that ultimately look like?

 

[TheRealHerky]

The “student athlete” is all but a fond memory in D1 revenue sports. Sad.

 

[Bearhawk0505]

I have no sympathy for these coaches. They have been making massive amounts of money from these kids for years. They have to adjust.

 

[shrinkhawk]

Exactly... i just saw an article that Tom Davis' base salary was $75k in 1986, which wld be the inflationary equivalent of 214k in 2024.

 

[cmhawks99]

I guess I have a different take. We caused the problem. We are so Gaga over sports and winning and our favorite team being talked about….

The money is ENORMOUS, and we sustain it…🤷‍♂️ pretty simple really.

 

[nu2u]

I guess I have a different take. We caused the problem. We are so Gaga over sports and winning and our favorite team being talked about….

The money is ENORMOUS, and we sustain it…🤷‍♂️ pretty simple really.

The US Supreme Court is right - the colleges run their athletic departments as a big business; they are subject to anti-trust laws. Sooner or later they will share a portion of their billions in revenue with the athletes who generate the massive haul.

 

[Fan In Black]

what we have now is the equivalent of pro athletes all being free agents after every season and no draft or salary cap. If that was the case fans of pro teams would riot.

 

[citizenHawk]

what we have now is the equivalent of pro athletes all being free agents after every season and no draft or salary cap. If that was the case fans of pro teams would riot.

Yep. This will kill college athletics unless they find a way out of it. Interest will die when fans can't follow a steady/growing roster. It will kill the new popularity of the women's game before it ever takes hold.

 

[amahawk]

The US Supreme Court is right - the colleges run their athletic departments as a big business; they are subject to anti-trust laws. Sooner or later they will share a portion of their billions in revenue with the athletes who generate the massive haul.

What about taxes?

 

[Hawk_4shur]

He's not correct. Yes it's a disaster but the NCAA gets way too much crap over this. The NCAA is/was the regulatory body for the colleges and universities.
Colleges want the NCAA to enforce rules for other people just not themselves. They all signed up for the NCAA to rule on matters then they slap the NCAA's hand when they enforce something.
Rules for thee, not for me.

I completely agree. The NCAA enforces the rules they are told to enforce.

The universities (Presidents and AD's) have to get way more involved in this mess and fix it.

 

[BirdistheWord]

BINGO!

...I'll add, it's only going to benefit the schools who were already notorious for paying kids under the table when it was against the rules, or the ones that are absolutely rabid about their sport and fans will actually divvy out of their kids college funds in order to "Roll-Tide!"

Sure, schools like Kentucky, Louisville, Texas, etc. not only thrive in this bidding war environment, they have absolutely no conscience when it comes to "creaning" kids and their boosters are just creepy, slimy, rich sugar daddy's.

I was with you until your last paragraph. The schools you listed are always in on the most elite talent and have the support/ resources to continue that via NIL. Kids will be moving around at a high rate on their own more than there will be “creaning” or just going into the NBA. Why is a booster from university of Texas “slimy” yet one from Iowa is not?

 

[DewHawk]

what we have now is the equivalent of pro athletes all being free agents after every season and no draft or salary cap. If that was the case fans of pro teams would riot.

agreed

 

[LaQuintaHawkeye]

I was with you until your last paragraph. The schools you listed are always in on the most elite talent and have the support/ resources to continue that via NIL. Kids will be moving around at a high rate on their own more than there will be “creaning” or just going into the NBA. Why is a booster from university of Texas “slimy” yet one from Iowa is not?

I think you missed my point. Those Texas boosters have been passing around envelopes full of cash long before NIL. They are slimy and creepy to be so invested psychologically and emotionally in a school winning that they’d rather give mounds of cash to a football program via player bribes (which is what they basically are) with the expectation they’ll get exclusive personal interaction with the coaches and players. It’s creepy.

Now that NIL is a thing, it’s less slimy I suppose, but still a little creepy…especially if they expect those same contact perks.

For some reason I just picture all the recruits and players partying with strippers and middle age businessmen on some sports agents yacht down in south Florida. They all walk off the boat with a bag of cash. Pretty sure that’s still supposed to be against the rules, but do you really think anyone is enforcing it if it is?

 

[nu2u]

What about taxes?

Distributed revenue is taxable as income.

 

[IamHawkeye]

Distributed revenue is taxable as income.

Who will be the first NIL recipient to get into tax trouble.?

 

[amahawk]

Distributed revenue is taxable as income.

I was wondering about the athletic department. Play for pay for athletes, schools making millions off them. Is it really non-profit anymore? It is not like Johnny and Cindy are playing to be able to go to school and give it the old college try.

 

[BirdistheWord]

I think you missed my point. Those Texas boosters have been passing around envelopes full of cash long before NIL. They are slimy and creepy to be so invested psychologically and emotionally in a school winning that they’d rather give mounds of cash to a football program via player bribes (which is what they basically are) with the expectation they’ll get exclusive personal interaction with the coaches and players. It’s creepy.

Now that NIL is a thing, it’s less slimy I suppose, but still a little creepy…especially if they expect those same contact perks.

For some reason I just picture all the recruits and players partying with strippers and middle age businessmen on some sports agents yacht down in south Florida. They all walk off the boat with a bag of cash. Pretty sure that’s still supposed to be against the rules, but do you really think anyone is enforcing it if it is?

That’s fair, it has been going on under the table for a while and more heavily in places like Texas (I live in Dallas area ), where football is beyond crazy.

I am a little biased with kids at aTm but would agree there are SOME creepy boosters but unfair to paint them with one broad stroke. There are also donors who just want to help programs and don’t hang out at strip clubs with the recruits or similar.

The NCAA is a nimrod organization (I have actually worked with them, so have seen it first hand) akin to a lazy, unaccountable government entity. Something needs to be done quickly put some guardrails in place or this train is going over the cliff.

 

[icwesthawk]

akin to a lazy, unaccountable government entity

You make it sound like there is any other kind

 

[Fan In Black]

Who will be the first NIL recipient to get into tax trouble.?

Noah Shannon

 

[sober_teacher]

Why exactly is this anonymous? Why's this coach afraid to put his name behind this?

To me this all just seems new and coaches and players are going to learn how to navigate it properly. I think the extra Covid years has really made everything a mess. The Covid years making players 23-24 years old have made the true freshman irrelevant. That'll all change when the Covid years are gone.

Only thing I disagree with at here, is that with coaches you at least have signed contracts with buyouts and release clauses, etc if they want to go elsewhere. There’s nothing like that for players. As Iowa fans found out with proctor, there’s no rules, contracts regarding NIL. Just take money and leave the moment they want to with zero repercussions.

It might get a little better when the Covid players are gone, but I’m not sure it will improve all that much.

 

[ichawk24]

Coaches have been making millions for years and now they're whining about players having some agency. These same coaches could have pushed for rule changes to pay players, instead they got fat and rich and didn't give a **** until the rules were forced upon them.

Whiny anonymous coaches. What a ****.

 

[BirdistheWord]

Coaches have been making millions for years and now they're whining about players having some agency. These same coaches could have pushed for rule changes to pay players, instead they got fat and rich and didn't give a **** until the rules were forced upon them.

Whiny anonymous coaches. What a ****.

Good point. It still needs to be fixed moving forward though

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Only thing they can do is maybe limit transfers and maybe force kids to sit out a year.

If anybody thinks thhe ncaa will be able to limit the NIL you are kidding yourselves. That loses in court so damn fast nobody with a brain will even attempt to regulate it.

 

[sober_teacher]

Only thing they can do is maybe limit transfers and maybe force kids to sit out a year.

If anybody thinks thhe ncaa will be able to limit the NIL you are kidding yourselves. That loses in court so damn fast nobody with a brain will even attempt to regulate it.

I feel like at least one reform would be to have enforceable contracts - like if a player receives money from an NIL sponsor, they have to return a percentage if they leave.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

I guess I have a different take. We caused the problem. We are so Gaga over sports and winning and our favorite team being talked about….

The money is ENORMOUS, and we sustain it…🤷‍♂️ pretty simple really.

So what you're saying is we need to take out the fans?

 

[ketelmeister]

How is Iowa State navigating their way through?

 

[CarterHall]

So what you're saying is we need to take out the fans?

Iowa men are at the forefront of taking out the fans.

 

[LaQuintaHawkeye]

Only thing they can do is maybe limit transfers and maybe force kids to sit out a year.

If anybody thinks thhe ncaa will be able to limit the NIL you are kidding yourselves. That loses in court so damn fast nobody with a brain will even attempt to regulate it.

I sincerely hope there is some recourse with instituting a "salary cap" type of scenario per program, if not per school.

The kids have to report their income, so there will be official records on how much each program/school is allocating in total. Right?

It's beyond ridiculous to allow a few schools to spend $20M for their football program, while other schools have less than half that available. That has to be addressed.

The courts may give the NCAA the power to at least negotiate this part of NIL.

If they don't, and simply say, "Nope. Kids should make as much as they want without any restrictions." ...then as I've stated before, CFB as we know it and love it will die.

Free market was never intended to be applied to college sports to this degree. I fully support players making $$, but when some schools have virtually unlimited funds while their competition are severely hamstrung, it will inevitably destroy what has made college sports great. It is already too top heavy, and the stocking of elite talent in just a handful of programs will only get worse.

The overwhelming majority of current CFB fans will stop contributing altogether, since it's "no win" situation for their school and they will just start spending their money elsewhere.

It's already tilted towards the blue bloods every year without factoring in NIL, this will only widen the gap...although you will get a few non-blue blood programs who can still spend gobs of $$$. Oregon immediately comes to mind.

Iowa will slide down the list significantly within the next 5-10 years...probably sooner. They will go from a pretty consistent T25 program to a T50 or lower program.