College "Amateurism" is Dead

[chasfh]

Next up: arbitration, free agency, and agent-brokered multiyear contracts?

 

[CMRivdogs]

Very telling about the state of the sport....UVa Basketball Coach Tony Bennett stepping down.  It was an emotional press conference
 

Just wondering how many other "old school" coaches are considering the same

[CMRivdogs]

A couple of key quotes from Bennett's press conference.

 

[Deleterious]

No respect for people that quit 30 seconds before the curtain goes up. 

I'm sure he has freshman he recruited and he quit before they played their first game. 

He should have just said it's his final season and finish things up.

[buddha]

of course there will be collective bargaining.  

i wonder if one of the terms will be you have to go to x amount of classes per year?

maybe....if x = 0....

[CMRivdogs]

4 hours ago, Deleterious said:

No respect for people that quit 30 seconds before the curtain goes up. 

I'm sure he has freshman he recruited and he quit before they played their first game. 

He should have just said it's his final season and finish things up.

Not going to argue with that. But, who knows what may have transpired in talks with the University. Bennett said the decision came about following a weekend vacation with his wife. He just signed an extension to his contract this past Spring and intended to fulfill his obligation at the time. 
It's possible he went back to work Monday and asked that the extension be removed. The University may have balked at the negotiations and allowed him to announce his resignation rather than firing him. Stranger things have happened.

[gehringer_2]

Op-Ed by the President of St. Francis U about their decision to leave Div1.

tl,dr form if you don't have access is: the costs got too high, all their good athletes bailed on them anyway, and in the end the life of a D1 revenue sport athlete had  become incompatible with being a student. And did I mention the costs got too high?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/28/saint-francis-division-iii-march-madness/

[buddha]

oh no!  not st francis u!

some will compete and some wont.

but it aint amateurism.  not that it has been for a long time.

[Adullin]

Agree and think about this. The NCAA has no control over the alumni money.  Meaning cutting scholarships is pointless when you pay someone millions to play football.  

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Adullin said:

Agree and think about this. The NCAA has no control over the alumni money.  Meaning cutting scholarships is pointless when you pay someone millions to play football.  

the whole thing is getting more malignant by the day. I don't know where it all ends  - it's already gone way past where I ever thought it would before Congress stepped in to ordain a new set of rules. This isn't the thread for national political discussion but it's fair enough to say that the situation in college athletics is just one of many symptoms of a multi-decade long deterioration in useful national government.