calumnus said:
atoms said:
socaltownie said:
Add in the hail mary ncaa petition from chris bell. Would be huge if granted.
Can someone explain to me what the basis for this would be? He played in 30+ games every year for 4 years. So how could he not have used up his eligibility?
Maybe it is a groundbreaking challenge to the 4 year rule? Maybe not all of his Syracuse credits transferred and he is still working on his Cal degree. Argument would be the NCAA is illegally and arbitrarily restricting his abilty to earn scholarship and NIL money?
Here's my question for the group.
If players can and do choose a new team every year
If players have zero allegiance to your school
If players aren't expected to have allegiance to your school
If players for the most part play for the school that gives them the best contract.
If the academic requirement of going to school is laughably enforced, and frankly at some point these guys are going to challenge the requirement altogether unless it is so laughable they don't care because no one makes them do it.
If there are basically no limits on how many years you can play as we seem to be heading to.
If there are no limits to professionals returning to college play as we seem to be heading to.
If someone rolls out 48 year old Lebron James because an alum can, because it is a ticket draw, and because 48 year old Lebron James is better than almost all 18 year olds.
If this truly becomes a league of semi-pro has beens, never wases, and a few not yets because they can all make more doing this than toting a lunch pail.
If this is just a league of employees who play a completely crap brand of basketball compared to the NBA (and it is a crap brand of basketball compared to the NBA)
If we aren't watching 18 year olds who may develop into the next stars, if we aren't watching fellow students of our university play hard FOR our university instead of for themselves and their next contract.
If we really just root for laundry.
At what point does this cross the line for you? At what point is this just stupidly giving your money for a nostalgia play so you can sorta remember what was awesome 30 years ago?
I'm not talking about what Cal should do or arguing for dropping basketball. I am saying this is *****ed up. Money and corporations, and apparel companies and media companies and wealthy alums trying to measure their anatomy have wrecked what was a natural and fun activity where we bonded over our students and classmates competing for our schools. Where the most important spectators were the ones in the stadium or gym, (yes I said gym) not the ones on their couches, where schools got a reasonable return that mostly covered expenses, where coaches made a nice living as SCHOOL coaches earning salaries that were far lower than professional teams.
I'm not naive. Money has always infected college revenue sports. There were always ringers. Academics was frequently questionable. But most of the guys were high school graduates with dreams who played 4 years and only 4 years for their school for a scholarship and walked around campus with their classmates.
I'd really like to know, without nostalgia, why should we watch this over the 49ers and Warriors?. And to that point, why, without that nostalgia, anyone should be surprised that Gen Z is not buying in with nearly the niumbers of their predecessors? Are new fans really coming to replace the old ones?
I'm sorry, but this product sucks. Not Cal, the whole college revenue sports thing. It is becoming stale and devoid of any character or meaning. Sooner or later, we are going to see the money dry up because the appeal is waning . Unfortunately, I think that is going to happen slowly as those with nostalgia and those with monetary interest in keeping it going keep this alive to die a slow, agonizing death. Frankly, I'm rooting for a quick crash and burn. And the reason I'm hoping for that, is it would allow for us to go back to a system where we root for students whose connection to and loyalty and emotion for our universities leads them to compete for schools they hope to graduate from and where, even if they are slightly not as good as the semi-pros that infect the sport now, they are a lot more fun to watch. Maybe that is anachronistic in today's age, but I'd much rather have 6600 seat Harmon Gym back and watch guys like Keith Smith play to mostly excited crowds than the bullshyte we have now. I fear that the system we have now is not only going to wreck the magic of college sports (which it has already done), but it will end in total death where, like most countries, sports will not be something that is attached to universities in a meaningful way.
