NCAA Will Not Renew EA Sports Contract, NCAA Football Series is Dead in Name Only

[BenGerman]

I've had this discussion a million times with other people, and there is a lot to talk and think about. I think athletes should be given a stipend of about fifty bucks a week. I have a ton of friends involved in college athletics right now, and while they all have some time to socialize, it's pretty much impossible to work and play a sport at the same time. So when my friends and I all go eat on Friday nights or whatever, they get the shaft because they don't have a little extra spending money like we do.

That also prevents smaller schools from being able to pay their student athletes (if you have 20,000 students, and 200 student athletes, that's a $16 hike in tuition a year). It also prevents choosing which school you're going to go to as an athlete into and turning it into a business decision. If players get paid for their likeness in school, they are going to pick whichever school can sell their likeness best, and education gets thrown by the wayside. Schools could choose to up tuition or the athletic programs could pay for it.

I wonder how something like that would figure into this stuff going on with EA? If players are getting some kind of stipend (as Spurrier suggested the other day), would people be able to use their likeness? I'd guess no, but I'm sure it blurs the line a little bit.

[killrnut]

I am so sick of this argument that college athletes don't get paid. They DO!!!! Far more than you might realize or think about. Beyond full ride or partial scholarships.

Think of a player for your favorite school that was average. Not great, never lived up to expectations, just average. If that guy stays out of trouble and doesn't put his foot in his mouth, he will NEVER have trouble putting food on the table, assuming he stays in that area.

A company in Ann Arbor, MI is hiring for some position. Doesn't matter what. There are two leading candidates. One played football at Michigan. One didn't. All, or most else being equal, who do you think is gonna get hired??? And I use Michigan strictly as an example. It happens everywhere.

Another problem is that once you start paying the Football, or Basketball players, you have to pay EVERYONE, all the way down to Women's swimming and other sports no one cares about. As an example, the University of Akron, where the football team sucks and wins but one game a year, and the Soccer team is awesome and won the national championship a few years ago. I want to hear that conversation where the soccer team finds out they aren't being paid but the football team is. Or at Iowa where the wrestling team that's been national champs 4 times since 2000 isn't being paid but other sports are. and so on....

Keeping with Akron soccer as an example, once enough of a crapstorm is raised about it and they start getting paid, you then obviously have to start paying players on ALL NCAA soccer teams, for the sake of maintaining competitive balance in both the MAC and NCAA. This trickle down effect will make its way to all NCAA sports given enough time. The problem then, is how do you determine which sports get paid more? You could pay all scholarship athletes equally, but I really don't see this happening, considering this isn't what happens under the current model of granting scholarships. Some sports are given enough scholarships to cover a whole roster, while lesser followed sports are only given a few scholarships for coaches to slice and dice as they see fit. Like reflected in the current schlarship model, the NCAA isn't going to want to pay full rosters of teams in sports that generate no revenue, or operate at a loss. Which leads to the next option.... You could do it based on revenue generated by the programs, but then we're back to complaints by Akron Soccer and Iowa Wrestling and other dominant programs of less popular sports. You could do it based on winning within the sport, but that would piss off most of the small schools, as well as simply creating an even bigger gap in recruiting between the haves and have nots of each sport. The point? I don't see how you pay players and have it be balanced fairly for all involved in college athletics.

TL;DR- College athletes are already paid in more ways than once, and if you start paying players $$$, good luck trying to balance it fairly.

[Retropyro]

If the player likeness in NCAA Football is as real as the lawsuit say's, why does it take so much time to go through every team and edit the entire roster? I'm thinking because the "likeness" is not really close at all.

[GisherJohn24]

Quote: Originally Posted by Retropyro

If the player likeness in NCAA Football is as real as the lawsuit say's, why does it take so much time to go through every team and edit the entire roster? I'm thinking because the "likeness" is not really close at all.

i think in the earlier NCAA games before you could change them yourselves, they look similar to the real college guys right out of the box without any modifications necessary. I think those are the games they are pissed at, not so much the current ones. Someone else might correct me ,but I think this is for past NCAA games. Maybe on PS2 and XBOX...

[BenGerman]

Quote:

TL;DR- College athletes are already paid in more ways than once, and if you start paying players $$$, good luck trying to balance it fairly.

Unfortunately, your whole argument is based on the notion that most student athletes are well renowned in their area. A lot of sports don't get the attention that football and basketball do. Like I said, all student athletes should be given a stipend (think allowance), because they aren't able to get a job and have extra cash to spend. What if they want to go out to dinner with friends? It's not like the university pays for that.

Another thing, if football athletes are getting paid, why shouldn't other student athletes be paid? That's ridiculous. They all put in similar work loads for their university.

[bigbob]

Quote: Originally Posted by Retropyro

If the player likeness in NCAA Football is as real as the lawsuit say's, why does it take so much time to go through every team and edit the entire roster? I'm thinking because the "likeness" is not really close at all.

Because EA doesn't have the most up-to-date information before they release the game. The rosters are set at least a month in advance, and that's probably an understatement.

Every single freshman in the game is taken directly from websites like Rivals, Scout etc.

It takes a lot of time to edit the entire roster because it takes a lot of time to edit the names. Numbers change, players get suspended, hurt etc.

[Old School SD Fan]

Quote: Originally Posted by killrnut

I am so sick of this argument that college athletes don't get paid. They DO!!!! Far more than you might realize or think about. Beyond full ride or partial scholarships. Think of a player for your favorite school that was average. Not great, never lived up to expectations, just average. If that guy stays out of trouble and doesn't put his foot in his mouth, he will NEVER have trouble putting food on the table, assuming he stays in that area. A company in Ann Arbor, MI is hiring for some position. Doesn't matter what. There are two leading candidates. One played football at Michigan. One didn't. All, or most else being equal, who do you think is gonna get hired??? And I use Michigan strictly as an example. It happens everywhere. Another problem is that once you start paying the Football, or Basketball players, you have to pay EVERYONE, all the way down to Women's swimming and other sports no one cares about. As an example, the University of Akron, where the football team sucks and wins but one game a year, and the Soccer team is awesome and won the national championship a few years ago. I want to hear that conversation where the soccer team finds out they aren't being paid but the football team is. Or at Iowa where the wrestling team that's been national champs 4 times since 2000 isn't being paid but other sports are. and so on.... Keeping with Akron soccer as an example, once enough of a crapstorm is raised about it and they start getting paid, you then obviously have to start paying players on ALL NCAA soccer teams, for the sake of maintaining competitive balance in both the MAC and NCAA. This trickle down effect will make its way to all NCAA sports given enough time. The problem then, is how do you determine which sports get paid more? You could pay all scholarship athletes equally, but I really don't see this happening, considering this isn't what happens under the current model of granting scholarships. Some sports are given enough scholarships to cover a whole roster, while lesser followed sports are only given a few scholarships for coaches to slice and dice as they see fit. Like reflected in the current schlarship model, the NCAA isn't going to want to pay full rosters of teams in sports that generate no revenue, or operate at a loss. Which leads to the next option.... You could do it based on revenue generated by the programs, but then we're back to complaints by Akron Soccer and Iowa Wrestling and other dominant programs of less popular sports. You could do it based on winning within the sport, but that would piss off most of the small schools, as well as simply creating an even bigger gap in recruiting between the haves and have nots of each sport. The point? I don't see how you pay players and have it be balanced fairly for all involved in college athletics. TL;DR- College athletes are already paid in more ways than once, and if you start paying players $$$, good luck trying to balance it fairly.

You sir, are wise.

[MysteriousPanther]

The way it went down yesterday, does mean college football fans can get to see some competition with 2K Sports vs EA Sports?