2012 Olympic Trials USA Swimming

Ryan Lochte loves racing Michael Phelps, ready for challenge

A nice article...but I am really growing to hate the NCAA for its idiotic rules and stunning hypocrisy while colleges (and others) make huge piles of money from NCAA sports (mostly football and basketball, or course). This past college football season I found myself checking the latest news almost every day. I did this not out of particular interest for the games but to follow the drama around the conference moves. For each school to get teevee megabucks, they need to be in a major conference. For each conference to be major, they need as many competitive programs as possible. So for everyone to get the most money, they need an infinite number of participants. Sound familiar? A pyramid scheme fails for the same exact reason. So while the pundits, sportswriters, and so on bluster about the administrators' greed, the plight of the student-athletes, etc., I'm actually rooting for the conference pyramid scheme to play out, all the way out, resulting in the deletion of the NCAA. "Greed is good. Greed works." :lmao:

Whatever she does hopefully she won't come derailed like Knutson did. I don't really care one way or the other about kids getting paid and going to college but we should remember that there is a definite value to a college degree that should be factored in, even if you went to Texas or Auburn or Cal.

Or UNC. If ya'll would actually pay your players(cough cough...auburn) you might get out of the acc sewer. We tried, didn't help.

we should remember that there is a definite value to a college degree that should be factored in, even if you went to Texas or Auburn or Cal. Athletic scholarships are not nothing, sure. The money Franklin would have earned already would pay for 4 years at most schools, though. But for the NCAA to wax piously about the need for college athletes to be amateurs while making piles of money off their efforts is nauseating.

How much is a full ride at a major university these days worth? Depends on the school, of course. At University of Virginia, for example, tuition for out-of-state residents is almost 17k$ per semester; athletes also get room & board, books and food (at least, they used to...). If we are talking UNC, of course the answer is: priceless. (While diplomas from Dook aren't worth the paper they are printed on.)

for the NCAA to wax piously about the need for college athletes to be amateurs while making piles of money off their efforts is nauseating.Agreed.

I don't necessarily agree with everything in this article -- and I don't think that a university will gain a lot of money from Missy Franklin matriculating there -- but it is definitely worth a read. A worthy question: Stanford turns down thousands of applicants per year. If you believe them, it is not because they don't have the room, but rather because they only accept worthy candidates. In fact there is always room for more worthy candidates. If you think Missy Franklin would increase worthy candidates who apply to Stanford by 2 or so per year (non-swimmers) then she is bringing $100,000 of tuition (for 4 years) to the school that they otherwise would not have. And the majority of the costs for a school are fixed so there would not be much impact on expenses by the 2 additional students. This is essentially the argument I made to my college when we were trying to get the pool expanded.

Missy Franklin WSJ article online.wsj.com/.../SB10001424052970204257504577153054136465114.html

How much is a full ride at a major university these days worth? And if Franklin were to turn pro tomorrow, how much could she potentially earn? Let's say she wins 7 medals in London.