Just when I thought wrestling’s challenges couldn’t get any worse…
The NCAA has been trying for years to deal with many of the nation’s very vocal State Legislators on how to handle the distribution process of collegiate athletic-department funds from an employee standpoint.
Not only is it complex, but at the same time it’s also very simple. The workers (student-athletes) are tired of struggling to be able to buy a pizza on Saturday night, while coaches on the D-I level receive enough money through salaries, on the backs of the athletes, to buy controlling stock in the pizza companies their athletes can’t afford to buy a slice of.
The new proposed system, that the NCAA wants, well, sort of, but not really, is to take control of the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) money that isn’t flowing through institutional spread sheets. They want complete control of all revenue, coming in and going out.
And the pressure is such that regardless of how the power of control is decided, it’s time to begin compensating the workers.
What this means is schools will be directly responsible to compensate athletes through a trust fund, at least for the big boys’ sports. The proposal is the athletes of football and basketball will receive a base salary of $30,000.00 per athlete, per year, above and beyond whatever scholarship aid the athletes receive.
That means complete compliance with Title IX rules as well; what’s good for the goose, is also good for the gander.
What a mess! Not that any of this is wrong, it’s just supremely disruptive, challenging and really, really expensive.
What’s going to come out of this, besides it being unexplainable to most laypersons, is all athletes outside of football and basketball, in every other sport, for both sexes; is going to cry foul if they don’t receive equal treatment under the law. Salaries may vary with sport, but minimum wage laws will rule the day for all.
Whether the NCAA likes it or not, the government is going to view all this as an employment scenario. Meaning tax liabilities, W-2’s, long term disability coverages, and as I mentioned, minimum wage requirements. The NCAA won’t be able to get away with saying athletes in revenue producing sports are employees, whereas those from the non-revenue sports are non-compensated workers.
All sports will be tethered to the same unwritten rule that just played out at Lindenwood University. Each sport will have to begin carrying their own water, at least generating enough income to cover expenses; or be discontinued. Schools won’t be able to keep non-producers on their books. It’s simple math for the administrators. Either cut overhead, or quickly watch their two revenue producers fall behind the pack.
Dear Wrestling Rules Committee, it’s time to put your big boy pants on and come up with a strategy, a marketing plan, and a set of rules that elevates our spectator numbers into black ink territory. Which no collegiate program is currently doing right now. We do have several that are breaking even, two to be exact, but that’s it out of over 300 collegiate wrestling programs.
Gentlemen, if you have a strategy, I’d love to hear it. If you have an acumen toward marketing, you’re certainly not demonstrating it. As to the rules you make and so reverently support, if they were fruitful, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Or, you could come right out and admit that wrestling isn’t that special, it’s not very watchable, and it’s not capable of growing beyond its current non-revenue level.
If I’m wrong, why do you think Lindenwood just dropped ten non-revenue sports, including, as I previously mentioned, wrestling? It wasn’t because any of the ten were revenue producers. The school was forced to throw them to the curb because they couldn’t hold their own financially. They needed to make room for the possibility, most likely improbability, of jumping into prominence in basketball and football with the money they’ve saved.
All this is most likely the pathway for collegiate sports in general. Either show a profit, break even, or say goodbye.
I always thought you were in the top five or 10 best wrestlers in the history of wrestling. But after following you and your interesting ideas and understanding of the wrestling world as a whole, you surpass your abilities as an actual wrestler.
I wish more people would listen to you