About 20 years ago I wrote a letter to the previous owners of this site and, specifically the publication that was associated in it. In that letter I appealed to Athletic Director Bill Martin to live up to our names, the leaders and best and not simply follow the heard to the emerging seat licenses. Yes, we would fall behind our competitors who were raising money for stadium expansions and coach's salaries but there had to be a better way to raise money and not make the experience of attending a Michigan football game unaffordable for most.
Tonight I sit with a similar plea for our athletic director - LEAD, find a better way. Find the RIGHT way Mr. Manuel - even it means reducing the kingdom of you and yours across the country.
I really enjoy WTKA's roundtable on Thursdays. Sam Webb does a great job hosting three great contributors. Brian Cook, a leader and innovator in his field that shattered paradigms on what you can and should get for free. I respect, admire and even am proud that Cook is "ours" despite often being annoyed at the occasional abuse of his influence as he attempts to paint matters that are many shades of gray as black and white - entirely comfortable slandering the living hell out of other humans in the process. His co-worker Seth is a fantastic football analyst and Michigan sports commentator and Craig Ross is an Ann Arbor gem. It's must listen for Michigan fans.
Today the group took on NIL and Michigan getting it wrong. Sam presented that, while it may not have made a difference, JJ McCarthy was never presented with the type of proposal that he may have been at other schools and Michigan is going to need to take a hard look at how they do business or risk not being able to compete. Frustration was expressed at Michigan's reluctance to pay for performance and Brian Cook went on a rant about Denard Robinson not being compensated as he should have been and this being wrong.
He is 100% correct. Denard Robinson and thousands like him should be compensated for the revenue they are generating for a business. The worlds most obvious anti-trust violation has gone on for 100 years without paying their labor and Denard, a player that generated millions for his college, but couldn't sustain an NFL career is one of the biggest victims of that crime.
Where the discussion is dead wrong is that NIL is not, should never have been and should not be the answer. NIL is a scam on top of a scam. Its the NCAA and Universities trying to side step the obvious illegalities of free labor. They need to get paid, so we'll allow them to get paid from sources other than the revenue they generate for us. We still want to keep that. It's beyond ludicrous. Worse, its opening up a system that could make a negative dent on sports all around the planet. You want Jared Goff to re-sign, well Detroit fans, the Lions are limited by salary cap, the community needs to show us love and we need to crowd source 10 million to keep him. I know you just paid $600 for your playoff ticket, $100 for your sweatshirt but we really need you to contribute $500 a month to get him here.
Yeah, that's a smart formula to maintain the appeal of sports. Ludicrous. But its what college sports are giving birth to in order to avoid paying athletes from the revenue they create, such as done with just about every other job on the planet!!!
So what should be happening? That's obvious. Athletes need to be classified as employees and they need to be able to unionize so they can bargain with their employers. The hundreds of millions, if not billions, generated from TV contracts and ticket sales....THAT's where the money should be coming from to pay players. Fair contracts and salary caps and working conditions can be negotiated. However, that requires some leaders to stand up and say "we've been unethically swimming in dirty money on the backs of unpaid labor, that structure needs to change and needs to change immediately". Someone needs to have the guts to cut off the university and athletic department joy ride and mold the college sports experience of the future. If it takes five years, I'd be willing to take my chances on 15th ranked recruiting classes and culture to get it right and stop giving birth to a system that could ruin the sports experience going forward to serve the NCAAs crooked end around.
In another world, i've noted the absurdity of so many duplicated jobs in the education world. Why does Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter and Plymouth Canton all need a school board, superintendent and staff to administer the same services. 200 years ago they were a long horse ride away from each other and represented different villages with different needs. Now there is obvious consolidation needed and why won't it happen? Because that would require bodies voting themselves out of existence. That's it.
Why is it going to be slow to get players a chunk of the TV and gates? Because presidents and athletic directors have to have the courage to shrink their kingdom. Because they don't, we'll continue with absurd end arounds like "NIL". That isn't "NIL" is GYDAFTPYL (get your donors and fans to pay your labor).
You want to get on Warde? Get on him for THAT. Have the courage to do the right thing and create the right future.
Sorry for the rant, just so tired of seeing so many get it so wrong to service short term wins and perpetuate an increasingly broken structure. Lead Michigan. Lead.
Too many sheep out there calling for people to throw money at an obviously pathetic system.
Tonight I sit with a similar plea for our athletic director - LEAD, find a better way. Find the RIGHT way Mr. Manuel - even it means reducing the kingdom of you and yours across the country.
I really enjoy WTKA's roundtable on Thursdays. Sam Webb does a great job hosting three great contributors. Brian Cook, a leader and innovator in his field that shattered paradigms on what you can and should get for free. I respect, admire and even am proud that Cook is "ours" despite often being annoyed at the occasional abuse of his influence as he attempts to paint matters that are many shades of gray as black and white - entirely comfortable slandering the living hell out of other humans in the process. His co-worker Seth is a fantastic football analyst and Michigan sports commentator and Craig Ross is an Ann Arbor gem. It's must listen for Michigan fans.
Today the group took on NIL and Michigan getting it wrong. Sam presented that, while it may not have made a difference, JJ McCarthy was never presented with the type of proposal that he may have been at other schools and Michigan is going to need to take a hard look at how they do business or risk not being able to compete. Frustration was expressed at Michigan's reluctance to pay for performance and Brian Cook went on a rant about Denard Robinson not being compensated as he should have been and this being wrong.
He is 100% correct. Denard Robinson and thousands like him should be compensated for the revenue they are generating for a business. The worlds most obvious anti-trust violation has gone on for 100 years without paying their labor and Denard, a player that generated millions for his college, but couldn't sustain an NFL career is one of the biggest victims of that crime.
Where the discussion is dead wrong is that NIL is not, should never have been and should not be the answer. NIL is a scam on top of a scam. Its the NCAA and Universities trying to side step the obvious illegalities of free labor. They need to get paid, so we'll allow them to get paid from sources other than the revenue they generate for us. We still want to keep that. It's beyond ludicrous. Worse, its opening up a system that could make a negative dent on sports all around the planet. You want Jared Goff to re-sign, well Detroit fans, the Lions are limited by salary cap, the community needs to show us love and we need to crowd source 10 million to keep him. I know you just paid $600 for your playoff ticket, $100 for your sweatshirt but we really need you to contribute $500 a month to get him here.
Yeah, that's a smart formula to maintain the appeal of sports. Ludicrous. But its what college sports are giving birth to in order to avoid paying athletes from the revenue they create, such as done with just about every other job on the planet!!!
So what should be happening? That's obvious. Athletes need to be classified as employees and they need to be able to unionize so they can bargain with their employers. The hundreds of millions, if not billions, generated from TV contracts and ticket sales....THAT's where the money should be coming from to pay players. Fair contracts and salary caps and working conditions can be negotiated. However, that requires some leaders to stand up and say "we've been unethically swimming in dirty money on the backs of unpaid labor, that structure needs to change and needs to change immediately". Someone needs to have the guts to cut off the university and athletic department joy ride and mold the college sports experience of the future. If it takes five years, I'd be willing to take my chances on 15th ranked recruiting classes and culture to get it right and stop giving birth to a system that could ruin the sports experience going forward to serve the NCAAs crooked end around.
In another world, i've noted the absurdity of so many duplicated jobs in the education world. Why does Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter and Plymouth Canton all need a school board, superintendent and staff to administer the same services. 200 years ago they were a long horse ride away from each other and represented different villages with different needs. Now there is obvious consolidation needed and why won't it happen? Because that would require bodies voting themselves out of existence. That's it.
Why is it going to be slow to get players a chunk of the TV and gates? Because presidents and athletic directors have to have the courage to shrink their kingdom. Because they don't, we'll continue with absurd end arounds like "NIL". That isn't "NIL" is GYDAFTPYL (get your donors and fans to pay your labor).
You want to get on Warde? Get on him for THAT. Have the courage to do the right thing and create the right future.
Sorry for the rant, just so tired of seeing so many get it so wrong to service short term wins and perpetuate an increasingly broken structure. Lead Michigan. Lead.
Too many sheep out there calling for people to throw money at an obviously pathetic system.
