Sure, I guess in a crazy system where universities pay students to play football for them, this story makes sense, sort of.
The star starting quarterback for UNLV, Matthew Sluka is quitting the team after UNLV’s first 3-0 start in 40 years. He says he will sit out the rest of the season because the school hasn’t ponied up the $100,000 he says he was promised by an assistant coach before committing to the school this offseason.
Ah, remember those quaint old days when college football heroes devoted their passion and athletic talents to winning for team, the school, and fellow students? Today instead of “Win one for the Gipper,” it’s “Show me the money.” Tell me again why we let educational institutions run professional football and basketball teams stocked with phony students who usually graduate, if they graduate, having learned nothing but how to talk to their accountants?
At least it’s for a good cause! Tommy Kramer, a star quarterback with the Minnesota Vikings in the ’80s, announced today that he was diagnosed with dementia a year ago, and may have as little as two years to live. Kramer said he decided to go public after former superstar quarterback Brett Favre told Congress that he had Parkinson’s disease. In a recent survey, more than a third of retired NFL players said they thought they probably had CTE, the deadly brain condition that results from repeated concussions.
What a world, what a world…..
Ethics Alarms 
So far I’m with the kid on this one. If that’s what was promised, I’d be pretty mad too if I had it pulled away from me. You’re points may be valid, but the school has an obligation too keep what they promised. My guess is that’s the only reason he’s at that particular one in the first place. If they had no intention to pay him, then they lured him there under false pretenses.
Did you read the study by the NLRB on Northwestern’s football team? An NLRB representative shadowed the team and players for a season. He was shocked by the level of control the coaches have over the players. The coaches determine: the classes, the major, where the players live, 20 hours of NCAA team activity, 20-40 hours of non-team activity (running, weight training, video reviews, team meetings, etc). He found that when the team goes on the road for 4 days, only the time on the field counts as time they ‘spent on team activities’ despite the fact that they might be confined to their hotel rooms by the coaches. They missed finals week and had to take all their finals a week or two early. That is why the NLRB representative said they definitely were employees, not students and should be paid. Jim Harbaugh was banned from the Michigan campus under threat of arrest for many years when he said that the ‘education’ aspect for NCAA football players was a joke in an interview. He said that his classes were jokes or fake, that he didn’t get to choose his major, etc and that the players just needed to be paid.
Just yesterday, I had a prospective student ask me “If I come here to play football, do I have to take any other classes?”
Yeah, I don’t blame them for waiting to be paid. It’s terrible what some of these athletes go through just to be exploited.
Jack brings up a lot of valid points. Sports shouldn’t be the way they are now. Both the schools and the NCAA made it this way, not the kids themselves. I see nothing wrong with the kids taking advantage of what is offered to them, especially given the fact he’s likely to need that money for any medical problems he will have in the future.
I wonder if it’s like this for all college sports, or is it confined to the big three (football, basketball, and baseball), or is this strictly football.
Oh, football and basketball for sure. It also depends on the school. Michigan has sacrificed their basketball program to NCAA sanctions to protect football. UNC does the opposite. Lesser sports get some perks, but the students mainly get the detriment. Those students don’t get the fame, the endorsements, the possibility of a pro career, but they still lose out on their education.
Yes, the purpose of collegiate sports has long fallen by the wayside.
My alma mater had a single intercollegiate sporting event and even that is becoming commercialized (though I doubt it will ever run into any Name Image Likeness problems):
https://www.sjc.edu/annapolis/events/croquet#:~:text=A%20friendly%20rivalry%20between%20St.%20John's
-Jut
Well, the universities have been showing us for decades that they only care about the money. What’s good for the goose?