Lincolnite

I think the polls are silly too. They should start the year with the final ranking from last year, and let wins and losses sort it out. In other words, Florida should be ranked number 1 until they get beat, even if on paper USC is a better team. A better idea would be to start the season with no polls at all until the first week of October. Then you’d get a truer ranking without the biases of past glories (coughcough Michigan coughcough). Doubt it will ever happen, but I’d love to see that.

Kudos to UNL for extending the Callahan contract.

I know that some of the players get huge scholarships for playing sports, but all of them do not and they ALL have to practice. I think the NCAA’s rules in the name of not exploiting amature athletes are mainly there so the NCAA can exploit them first. Am I one of those weirdos that think they should get paid? Well, yes, as long as its not blown all out of proportion like pro sports. There HAS to be a happy medium that would allow these kids to make some of the money they are generating for everyone else. They get to leave with an education and maybe some exposure that cost the U 35,000 per for a full scholarship, yet that same scholarshipped athlete is making millions by exposure for the University. Quite a bargain for the U. With the number of hours required for training being such that these kids have to have special tutoring sessions and what not because they spend so little time as a member of the rest of the student body I feel its only fair. They forgo the ability to work a job ( the NCAA again) that doesn’t conform to the ‘rules’ and they don’t have time for one anyway. Once their scholarship is done and they graduate, now what? Most other college kids have something saved back by then to help with the transition. How is this not exploitation as well?

I agree. The majority of the athletes are NOT scholarship players. They are walk-ons or have a partial scholarship. They are waking up at 5:30, working out, going to class, team meetings, practice, homework, then do it all over again.

They can’t work but they don’t scholarships to help with school. Their parents, if they can, take out loans or find other ways to get money so the students can be on the team.

The NCAA needs to protect amateur status but they need to be realistic about what it takes, financially and otherwise, for student athletes to attend school.

And if you look at college baseball it’s even worse. The scholarships are so limited there that only a few are actually on a full scholarship.

I agree wholeheartedly with CS, and for the same reasons. I have always thought we should be paying players. Nothing ridiculous, but a bit more than than minimum wage for the hours they can practice legally as set by the NCAA, and some token bonus for playing in each game - say $100. (I’ve known students who work in car washes that make far more than that in TIPS on a game day.) Only seems fair.

Polls are a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I believe there should be no poll that factors into the national title in any way that can be released prior to week 6.

Should Michigan have dropped out?  YES. There are plenty of teams that DID NOT lose to a Div.II team this weekend that deserve some press.

Of course, a tournament to end the season would be even better!

I’m not at all a Michigan fan but it seems like they shouldn’t have dropped completely out. How many times has a top team lost to a nonconference opponent early in the season?

The Wolverines didn’t play a slouch, they were either overrated or they were punished unfairly. I’m not saying they should be rated, I’m just saying that other teams have been treated differently in the polls.

$1.75 MILLION?? REALLY? That quip about feeding his family was a laugh. Many (if not most) people don’t make that much in an entire lifetime of work. (45 years of working at 40k per year would equal $1.8 million.)

Am I the only one shocked by this? Probably.

You may not be the only one shocked, but it’s the reality of major college athletics (at least men’s BB and FB, the two sports that generally make a profit for colleges). Look around the ranks of college football and the NFL, and you will see plenty of folks making even 2, 3, 4 or 5 or more million a year. Nebraska thinks of itself as an elite program, and fans expect championships every year (people tend to forget it actually took T.O. over 20 years to win his first title). If you want an elite program, you need an elite coach. Today, those come with elite price tags. We can at least be thankful that NU is one of the very few self-sufficient athletic departments in the US. They live on donations and tickets and merchandise sales, not on tax dollars or other University dollars. Most colleges cannot say the same.

It’s so sad, when you think of where the money goes. As people said above, the program is built on players backs, but they don’t see much of the money.

Then again, they do gain a LOT in social capital- look at the number of former huskers that end up owning businesses and becoming politicians. The contacts they make may make up for the lack of monetary compensation.

As the son of a former Athletic Department employee, I’m torn on the subject of “compensation”. 

Being a student athlete can be tough no doubt. But they really are taken care of while they’re here.

Beyond the free education they get:

Three meals a day at what’s called the “training table”, and having eaten there myself, I know about the quality and selection they are offered. Its fantastic.

Some of the best medical care in the world is available to them. Even if they have a cold.

Clothing, shoes, luggage, coats, sunglasses, watches, hats, etc. All provided free from Adidas and the other suppliers.

So in all fairness, they are “compensated” so to speak.

Thanks for the insight, West A Dad.

I remember as a poor fine art student, walking by the stadium in the evening was a pain- you could smell the food for blocks, and it always smelled so damn good. (I assume that’s where the training table was, otherwise, they’re just making steaks there a lot!)

The last time I was there, the “table” was in the south end of the west stadium.  And yes, you did smell steak.

As a UNL academic student myself, I can relate to both sides of this subject. A lot of things happen in that stadium and the other UNL athletic facilities that most folks never know about.  And that’s probably a good thing. 😉

I worked at a bakery about 11 years ago that used to deliver bread, rolls, etc. to the Hewitt Training table. The athletes eat extremely well, indeed.

I’m with Karin. A lot of those guys are set for life if they ever want to sell insurance in this town.