COLLEGE STAR’S ABORTED COMEBACK ANOTHER CASE STUDY IN THE NEED FOR REFORM
By FITSNEWS || During the height of the autograph scandal involving University of Georgia running back Todd Gurley, this website published a piece arguing that college athletes should be paid.
Well, to be accurate we argued that the entire U.S. higher education system needed to be scrapped – and rebooted in such a way as to permit the market to take over. Which in addition to getting government out of is one way of ensuring players “get theirs.”
“The ongoing government subsidization of higher education must stop,” we wrote. ” The co-mingling of public and private funds – which are funneled in, through and around college programs – leads to chronic incestuous corruption. More importantly, subsidizing colleges (academically or athletically) is simply not a core function of government.”
Under a fully privatized system, distortions, subsidies, regulations and other artificial manipulations would be replaced by the great equalizer – a.k.a. “what the market can bear.”
“Seriously … does anyone think Georgia head coach Mark Richt should make $3.2 million a year while Gurley gets nothing but free room and board?” we wrote in our piece.
Of course not …
Our next case study in support of such a reform should also be intimately familiar to Richt. We’re referring to former University of South Carolina football star Marcus Lattimore – who was forced to give up his dream of playing in the National Football League last week.
Richt knows Lattimore well – having watched the tailback run over his defenses to the tune of 467 yards in three starts from 2010-12, performances which helped catapult the University of South Carolina to its first-ever SEC Eastern division championship as well as 11-win seasons in 2011 and 2012.
Despite his best efforts, Lattimore was simply unable to fully recover from a devastating knee injury suffered two years ago. This became clear after the running back – drafted in the fourth round by the San Francisco 49ers two years ago – continued to feel soreness in his right knee following his first full-speed practices in the NFL.
“Getting my knee fully back to the level the NFL demands has proven to be insurmountable,” Lattimore said in announcing his retirement from the pro game – without taking a single handoff.
Tragic …
“He was one of those transcendent college runners – a guy who looked too fast and too strong for his competition even as a freshman – whom you just knew was going to wreck sh*t in the NFL someday,” the website Deadspin wrote of Lattimore’s decision.
Indeed, prior to his injury Lattimore was listed as the No. 1 running back prospect in America – a guy likely to be taken with one of the top picks in the first round of the NFL draft.
Of his remarkable collegiate career, Deadspin noted “all (Lattimore)’s got to show for it is an NFL career that never was and $2 million cobbled together from a signing bonus and an insurance policy.”
Again … tragic. And totally unnecessary had Lattimore been paid even a fraction of what he was worth during his three seasons at South Carolina.
Think about it. With the exception of Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina’s rise to national prominence during the four previous football seasons was due more to Lattimore than any other player.
“Obviously, the big success we had here between 2010 and 2013 started when we signed Marcus Lattimore and then all the really top players that followed after he came with us,” head coach Steve Spurrier said last week.
Exactly … and how much has that revival been worth to the program?
Lattimore has a graduate assistant’s position waiting for him at South Carolina whenever he wants it … and we have no doubt there will be plenty of local endorsement opportunities awaiting him when he returns to the Palmetto State. But that pales in comparison to the riches that awaited him as a top tier NFL running back – or that should have accrued to him as the best running back in the Southeastern Conference for the better part of three seasons.
And it hurts all the more considering what a genuinely humble and team-oriented player Lattimore was.
“I simply cannot believe we live in a world where this happens to someone like him but Ray Rice and Michael Vick (continue to) play and make millions,” one of our close friends noted last week in the aftermath of Lattimore’s decision to retire.
Indeed. Life isn’t fair. It never was, and it never will be. But there are steps we can take to make it more equitable – like scrapping a system that’s only perpetuating inequity. And other societal ills. While at the same time getting government out of a business it never should have been in to begin with.
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43 comments
Yes let’s pay them but hold money in escrow until said *student athlete* earns a diploma.
And require that it be a legitimate degree, everybody knows that History, African American Studies, Sociology, etc… are just bullshit degrees.
Yep, your statement was part of this– About two years ago I read an intelligent, in-depth article about this proposal – wish I had saved it….
History a bullshit degree? Maybe if more folks studied up on their history society wouldn’t continue to make some of the same dumbass mistakes as those who came before us
I agree, but the problem is there’s too many people with History degrees…which is caused by the distortion of easy money to students with no accountability as to how they are going to pay it back. The cause is similar to that of the housing bubble.
So what do you do with a History degree? Get a Masters degree and a PhD so you can teach history to future History majors? Maybe work as an archivist at a museum making slightly above minimum wage?
Underwater basket weaving.
Cassette rewind. (although I hear this is being phased out)
About two years ago I read an intelligent, in-depth article about this proposal – wish I had saved it….
Let’s not get carried away. I’m sure he had a fat insurance policy.
Damn if we don’t agree.
1.7 MILLION.
Yep, most kids/young adults don’t get a 2 million dollar start in life and then bitch about it.
Oh know right. Like your mom didn’t complain when I gave her 2 gallons of semen in her ass, ya know?
Obviously you were just paying her back for the 2 gallons of semen someone pumped in your ass based on the amount of butthurt you are displaying.
Now, that should quieten him down.
yikes
He had a 1.7 Million dollar insurance policy. That’s tax free cash. Let’s don’t lose site of the fact that is a lot more money that a lot of folks make in a lifetime. Don’t forget the 440K per year he made for being on the 49ers roster. Not many 21 year old millionaires around.
Lattimore is a class act, no doubt about that. He had a full ride at USC which very few non student athletes have an opportunity to receive. He also apparently has a nice tax payer funded job waiting on him at USC as well. Seems to me like he came out pretty damn good in the deal!
Perhaps the NCAA should create some type of grading system to determine which athletes could play in the NFL and purchase insurance policies for them. There is their compensation. Problem solved.
Agree with most of your post, but Marcus never got his NFL salary. He got $300K signing bonus and most likely will cash in the policy. But he never got his salary. Or at least that is my understanding since he never made the active roster.
No, he actually got his paycheck. Plus signing bonus, he got almost a million from them.
What’s the difference between his NFL career ending this way or if he were to have gotten injured in a car accident on the way to his first practice? Either way his NFL career would be over, and he wouldn’t collect anymore checks.
How many of us made $2 million + over the past two years? How many of you dropped out of college to earn it? Marcus (and every other NCAA football player) is a big boy and needs to realize that life isn’t fair and you have to earn your way through life. Marcus got paid $2 million dollars to rehab his knees in state of the art facilities. He’s already earned more than most will in a lifetime.
This is a horseshit angle if I ever read one. First, if they are being paid then the insurance policies will then be based on the value of that salary with a multiple arrived at by the actuaries, and I guaran-damn-tee you that they will be less than they are now.
In ML’s case, whether he was being paid or not, he was 1)able to obtain a handsome insurance policy and 2) a salary would not have prevented him from getting a broken leg or whatever you call what happened to him – it was too gross to watch twice.
So, salary or no salary, injuries will still happen and NFL grade players will be drafted and paid appropriately. I am not opposed to college ballers getting paid but as for this argument – the dog don’t hunt.
Which is why when they’re earning their free degree they should be thinking ahead for a backup plan and not putting all their eggs in one basket hoping to make it in the NFL. The average NFL career is 3 years.
yep. bad shit happens to good people. it sucks, but that’s life. fortunately, from what I know about ML, he will succeed regardless.
If we pay them, do they still get to go to school for free, with free room and board, books, clothes, etc…?
How does one get a Graduate Assistant position without an undergraduate degree? Has Lattimore already taken the GRE and been admitted into the Grad School at USC?
If you’re going to pay them, how much, and are you going to pay the women’s golf team the same amount? If not then you get to pay their lawyers.
Why don’t we just scrap the entire NCAA model and have universities adopt minor league or farm teams? Isn’t education the primary responsibility for a university?
my daughter plays college soccer. wondering what her take home would be.
Can we get back to discussing Nikki Haley’s butt?
Can he coach a defense?
I’m not sure who had the “post of the day” crown but you just took it!
+ ever how many yards we’ve had racked up against us this season
Will – you say some stuff that I agree with, some stuff that I disagree with and some stuff that is just to freaking stupid for words: “…“The ongoing government subsidization of higher education must stop…”
Are you really that vacuous on this issue? If ever there was an area where gubamint was in one of it’s core functions”, the promotion of education is it.
Would there be private universities and colleges with out gubamint involvement? Probably but there’d be no where near as many nor would any of them have grown to the prominence they have.
In the US, there is something like 2,500 “4 year degree granting institutions”. Of those, 630 or so are public – the 630 public schools have 10 times the number of seats as the 1,870 private schools. The freshman classes of all seven of the local “private” colleges combined is smaller than the Freshman class at USC. Without the public schools you lose access.
South Carolina can achieve greatness without a “teapot museum” – we can’t do it without the system of public colleges and universities.
I think Marcus Latimore is one of the finest athletes to have ever worn “garnet and black”, he’s certainly one of the finest young men to have ever played the game. I wish him all the best with the certain knowledge that he will come out on top but to use his situation to drag out this tired idiotic argument is beneath you.
“Oh yeah, well the University of Phoenix Online is a prime example of the private sector bringing something that resembles education to the masses through extensive use of unlimited government issued student loans.”
-Sic
I’ll agree with one thing, Phoenix provides “…something that resembles education…”
Actually, I proctored a lot of test for my deployed soldiers – there’s something to be said for learning your “core BS” that way. USC and Clemson offer online courses.
If ever there was an area where gubamint was in one of it’s core functions”, the promotion of education is it.
#10!
+ 1 fucking million
Sure..lets pay the players. You’ll end up with 4 to 8 “schools” that have football programs.
But why stop there? Why not pay high school players? Make a touchdown, get a $100 bill, right? Make a tackle…here’s $100.
But why even stop with that? How about pay the Pop Warner / rec league players, too. You could probably get away wiuth paying them less. Maybe, even prior to that, we start paying parents to selectively have kids that they turn into football robots, so they can start being paid for scoring drives in the first grade. Maybe we can farm it all out ot China or Taiwan and let them do it for half the cost.
All in name of free enterprise and Marcus Lattimore, amiright?
How about we let the NFL establish its own direct training for football players, and the employment of their coaches, and get it off college campuses?
The NFL needs to create a farm team, and quit using the college programs to develop their talent.
There’s the plan. Skewls should be for learnin’.
Why……..give me a 1 good reason its the NFL responsponsibility to create a “FARM TEAM” The players know the risk and take the chance. The only thing that is guaranteed in life is death. The NFL is a business like any other business. They exist to make a profit and put out a product. They are doing both extremely well.
$2 million cobbled together…
Not a phrase one sees often.
Life isn’t fair. It never was, and it never will be. But there are steps we can take to make it more equitable – like scrapping a system that’s only perpetuating inequity.
Screw capitalism!!!!
“I simply cannot believe we live in a world where this happens to someone like him but Ray Rice and Michael Vick (continue to) play and make millions,” one of our close friends noted last week in the aftermath of Lattimore’s decision to retire.
Is your friend, like five years old?
“Seriously … does anyone think Georgia head coach Mark Richt should make $3.2 million a year while Gurley gets nothing but free room and board?” we wrote in our piece.
Surely Gurley got a scholarship?
A UGA education is worth something, right? RIGHT?
It will make more sense if students on academic scholarships received a stipend. They are much better representatives of the schools.
That last paragraph sounds EXACTLY like what those of us who support unions argue. Oh, and your numbers are off – a football career at USC is worth about 50K per year to the athletes, not including the access they get to preferential hiring and connections. Hey, nothing wrong with getting an engineering degree free for playing a game.
If you think getting $2 Million at age 24 for getting hurt playing a dangerous game is “tragic,” you have lead a pretty charmed life. Lattimore needs to get his degree and get a job. If he is as dedicated and hard working as he showed on the field, he will do just fine.
There are good reasons to pay players just like they do other students who are paid for work/study while in college, but the possibility of a career altering injury is not one of them.
They are paid. They get a college education offered to them. What is the cost of 4 year degree today. 25K a year? They can choose to take advantage of it take their chance in draft. If we’re going to pay them, then wouldn’t the college education be considered part of the payment and therefore should be taxed as income.
UNC is why we shouldn’t pay players