Big Ten Commish Jim Delaney wants to take College Sports Backwards

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2015/04/17/big-ten-jim-delany-freshmen/25951783/

What a fucking tool sack. He's just given every other conference some serious ammo for negative recruiting. Quit trying to hold back talented athletes, they are going to your schools to play sports not school.

What's the end game? How does this idea make the big ten more cheddar or help the "big" 2?

Blanch32 wrote:What's the end game? How does this idea make the big ten more cheddar or help the "big" 2?

It would have hurt Ohio State. I didn't see Jim Delaney come out saying Ohio State should bench JT Barrett during last years championship run.

Barrett was a red shirt FYI

Blanch32 wrote:Barrett was a red shirt FYI

Whoops my bad, well I didn't see him out there saying Jesus Peppers shouldn't be on the field last year. Or Jesus McGarry should be in class instead of on the court.

http://www.lostlettermen.com/article/big-tens-jim-delany-must-be-stopped

Great article calling out Jim and his bullshit.

Sorry but I completely agree with this quote:

"First and foremost, requiring a year of readiness would make clear to prospects that they have a choice. On one hand, they would be free to pursue their sport as a vocation, where development in the sport is their primary — if not sole — objective. To the extent such avenues are limited in the sports of football and men's basketball, it is the responsibility of the professional leagues in those sports to provide such opportunities. It is not the responsibility of intercollegiate athletics to serve as professional minor leagues in any sport," he wrote.

Herbie Green wrote:Sorry but I completely agree with this quote:

"First and foremost, requiring a year of readiness would make clear to prospects that they have a choice. On one hand, they would be free to pursue their sport as a vocation, where development in the sport is their primary — if not sole — objective. To the extent such avenues are limited in the sports of football and men's basketball, it is the responsibility of the professional leagues in those sports to provide such opportunities. It is not the responsibility of intercollegiate athletics to serve as professional minor leagues in any sport," he wrote.

If anyone agrees with delaney then petition Izzo to not play swanigan and davis along with the rest of his recruiting class so they can focus on school their first year. Won't happen because no one wants that and for good reason.

Cameron wrote:

Fuck you, Steve, you Kentucky nut gobbler. Go suck Cal's dick somewhere else, I'm tired of your bullshit.

steveschneider wrote:

Herbie Green wrote:Sorry but I completely agree with this quote:

"First and foremost, requiring a year of readiness would make clear to prospects that they have a choice. On one hand, they would be free to pursue their sport as a vocation, where development in the sport is their primary — if not sole — objective. To the extent such avenues are limited in the sports of football and men's basketball, it is the responsibility of the professional leagues in those sports to provide such opportunities. It is not the responsibility of intercollegiate athletics to serve as professional minor leagues in any sport," he wrote.

If anyone agrees with delaney then petition Izzo to not play swanigan and davis along with the rest of his recruiting class so they can focus on school their first year. Won't happen because no one wants that and for good reason.

The NBA needs to get rid of the age minimum and form their own minor league. I would think you would be in favor of putting an end to this hypocrisy and exploitation. But I guess you would rather deny a kid the right to a earn living and put them in college as mercenaries so they help your favorite team win games.

Why weren't people pissed about Jordan Spieth?

And yes, if Swanigan has zero interest in school and his sole reason for college is to perform for NBA scouts - then he shouldnt be coming to MSU. That should be the role of the NBA and not college. I don't think I am the only one that thinks that way. But The Big Ten is not going to go it alone on this nor would MSU. Delaney's bluff is brilliant because the NBA would be totally screwed without the free scouting service. They would have their own minor league up and running within a year.

I don't know why this bluff is necessary and they can't come up with a solution that is best for everyone. Well I do know why - it is because the NBA is so greedy that they would rather ruin college basketball for their own free scouting service than to incur the expense of a minor league.

I was watching the Sonny Vicaro 30 for 30 the other night and they said the age minimum was put in to get the scouts out of high school/AAU gyms. As if they care about the sanctity of the game or something. The whole thing pisses me off. Colleges should be pressuring the hell out of the NBA to do something about it. Kudos to Jim Delaney for taking the lead on this.

DWags wrote:Why weren't people pissed about Jordan Spieth?

I've seen this a few times and I think it's a terrible attempt at a point.

There's no outrage because I, like most people, don't give a shit about the state of college golf.

Will he demand all colleges only accept athletes if they qualify under the same academic standards as the general student population?

Delaney gets too much credit/blame for this, Big 12 and Pac 12 had this idea before he did.

I question the motivation behind this when they only want to make Frershman ineligible in the sports that generate revenue for the schools.

All I see this move would really do, btw, is bolster the D-League and European basketball and make College Hoops even worse. Probably hardly notice in football. I find this potential rule and the age restrictions in the NFL & NBA ridiculous; if you're good enough to do the job you should be able to do the job. That's how it works in every other industry, including all the other professional sports.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:

DWags wrote:Why weren't people pissed about Jordan Spieth?

I've seen this a few times and I think it's a terrible attempt at a point.

There's no outrage because I, like most people, don't give a shit about the state of college golf.

You are exactly right and it's why if the players unionized they could shove it so far up our collective ass it wouldn't be funny.

Fuck pretending they're student athletes. They are employees who bring in millions, help city economies enable the employment of thousands on campus and help bring in huge donations.
Tired of the @well they get a free education" crap. Bullshit. If the get a degree that's bonus. But they're abused by a system getting very wealthy because of them.

DWags wrote:

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:

I've seen this a few times and I think it's a terrible attempt at a point.

There's no outrage because I, like most people, don't give a shit about the state of college golf.

 

You are exactly right and it's why if the players unionized they  could  shove it so far up our collective ass it wouldn't be funny.

Fuck pretending they're student athletes.  They are employees who bring in millions, help city economies enable the employment of thousands on campus and help bring in huge donations.  
Tired of the @well they get a free education" crap.  Bullshit.   If the get a degree that's bonus. But they're abused by a system getting very wealthy because of them.  

This guy gets it! The whole academics side of college sports is really just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Saw Jake Ryan in the Freep the other week saying college athletes don't deserve to get paid and that he got a degree from the University of Michigan and that was enough. Uh okay, first off University of Michigan is a great school but the degree he got is not on the same level as a student that qualified and actually earned a math or engineering  degree. Jake Ryan is a total sap, and he's saying exactly what those that exploited him for four years want to hear.

Remember the University of Michigan is one of 20 schools being investigated for academic fraud.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/academics/stories/index.ssf/2008/03/athletes_steered_to_prof.html

Jake Ryan graduated with a sociology degree, and if what that article above says is true he is probably qualified at this point for a desk job at Enterprise. Time for everyone to cut the shit, just because a prestigious school like UofM gave this guy a degree it does not mean this man is well educated.

I saw a lot of commenters mention that if Caleb wanted to go to Berkeley they didn't blame him because its a great school and its a good choice for an education. Uh, spare me Cal was under scrutiny for barely being able to graduate under 50% of their football team. Time to cut the shit, and stop saying that these football players are great students because they got into Berkeley.

A lot of people are in awe of Duke and their academics, plenty of articles out there about how watered down their academics are for the school if you are an athlete. You need about a 3.0 and there's an article by a Duke grad student talking about how terrible the academics were for the athletes at the school.

If it wasn't for basketball Mitch McGarry wouldn't even qualify for Ferris State, but he got into Duke and Michigan no problem. Time to cut the shit, Mitch McGarry is not that bright.

The real discussion needs to be these are just athletes and the degrees they are getting involved course loads like 'note taking', 'swahili', African Studies and my favorite was Aids Awareness or if a Univesity is lazy they'll just print off grades like UNC. If the NBA changes the rules to two years, schools won't clean up they can just fluff up their grades for two years instead of one semester. Look at Dexter Manley, guy was illiterate and graduated from a four year program. These degrees are a farce, as Johnny Rotten put it 'Have you ever felt like you've been cheated?'

You hear about the infamous bag men all the time, but what few people are willing to talk about is their cohort in this scheme 'the grade fixer'. http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/12/29/college-athletes-fixer-cheating-scheme

Plenty of cheaters out there that will get an athletes to 'qualify' for school.

Last, you are right Spieth is a classic one and done. God bless him for going out and making a living doing what he does. Delaney, if you are serious bench all incoming freshmen this year for at your programs. Actions speak louder than words. Till then I call bullshit.

No one is really arguing any of that. My issue with the current state is that as it is slowly morphing into a professional minor league, some are fully embracing the shadiness while others have too much integrity to do so, and that leads to an uneven playing field.

I ask again, do you guys actually want Izzo to do the things Cal does?

Regardless, everyone agrees the system needs a complete overhaul. Either embrace the minor league status completely or shun it completely. This in between shit is dumb.

I am with Delaney in that I advocate going the other way with it. I would be just fine watching MSU football and basketball with lower caliber-level athletes as long as the playing field was level. Let the pro leagues run their own minor systems.

DWags wrote:Why weren't people pissed about Jordan Spieth?

He actually went to Texas for one year but no one required him to do so. If he would have had to sit out for a year of "academic readiness" maybe he wouldn't have bothered.

But you are right about the hypocrisy that these athletes are struggling because they are admitted with such low standards. That ship sailed 50 years ago. Is this a problem in all sports or just football and basketball? I think the problem he is really addressing is only about 20 basketball players.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:No one is really arguing any of that. My issue with the current state is that as it is slowly morphing into a professional minor league, some are fully embracing the shadiness while others have too much integrity to do so, and that leads to an uneven playing field.

I ask again, do you guys actually want Izzo to do the things Cal does?

Regardless, everyone agrees the system needs a complete overhaul. Either embrace the minor league status completely or shun it completely. This in between shit is dumb.

I am with Delaney in that I advocate going the other way with it. I would be just fine watching MSU football and basketball with lower caliber-level athletes as long as the playing field was level. Let the pro leagues run their own minor systems.

I  think Delany is being a political, and like most political statements there's something to be agreed with but I think over all he's disingenuous.

He remained mute over Katzenmoyer in the 90's and he's remained mute over the Dr. Hagen UofM scandal. My guess is he stayed quiet so those stories would go away. If he cared about education why does he allow these practices to occur in his league?

I believe his intent is to get the NBA into requiring 2 years in the NCAA which will be very lucrative for his conference. The longer he can retain those athletes the more money the conference makes. I don't believe it will drive anyone off to the d leagues, they'll just hang around for 2 years with tutors writing their papers and taking piece of cake courses at the schools. If he were to take a stand on some of the practices which I outlined at UofM, OSU or really any school in the conference that was doing this sort of stuff I'd take him serious. If he was a leader of education and required all of our schools to sit their freshmen regardless of what the other conferences did this year I'd be impressed. He won't do it though because that's not what it's about.

I don't think pushing the NBA requirement to 2 years would send everyone to the D-League. I do think that making everyone sit out for a year will send them either there or to Europe.

The NCAA is paid pretty handsomely to be the minor leagues, btw.

This just looks like a shady attempt to make the NCAA more money to me. If the kids were the issue then they'd do away with all the sham classes they get pushed through.

steveschneider wrote:

I  think Delany is being a political, and like most political statements there's something to be agreed with but I think over all he's disingenuous.

He remained mute over Katzenmoyer in the 90's and he's remained mute over the Dr. Hagen UofM scandal. My guess is he stayed quiet so those stories would go away. If he cared about education why does he allow these practices to occur in his league?

I believe his intent is to get the NBA into requiring 2 years in the NCAA which will be very lucrative for his conference. The longer he can retain those athletes the more money the conference makes. I don't believe it will drive anyone off to the d leagues, they'll just hang around for 2 years with tutors writing their papers and taking piece of cake courses at the schools. If he were to take a stand on some of the practices which I outlined at UofM, OSU or really any school in the conference that was doing this sort of stuff I'd take him serious. If he was a leader of education and required all of our schools to sit their freshmen regardless of what the other conferences did this year I'd be impressed. He won't do it though because that's not what it's about.

Don't disagree that he has some kind of disingenuous motivations here. I can't tell you exactly what they are, but yours is a pretty good guess.

I like his idea for my own selfish reasons, though. I think it would help clean up the revenue sports, and I'm all for that. In my opinion it would be a step in the right direction, regardless of his intentions.

I would think the NBA owners would like a 2 year minimum, along with colleges and even Calipari. Delaney might even really ideally want better academic standards. As long as everyone plays by the same rules it works

...but left to their own devices, no one will voluntarily put themselves at a disadvantage.
An NBA team would draft a Lebron at 16 if they could. And Cal is going to Cal

The players union shouldn't be able to keep an 18 year old from signing a legal contract to play in the NBA. I'm surprised it can stand.

That said, the thing I can't get over is how do you fairly pay college athletes without destroying parity? Or how do you have a fair system on a single team?

Should Shillique have made more money than Rush last year based on previous performance, even though Rush was a big reason Shillique had such a great year?

Delany should be lobbying college basketball to implement on-court rules more favorable to the Big Ten. He's had numerous Big Ten teams in the Final Four in the past 15 years but only MSU has won the damn thing and part of that is because of officiating.

He should be more visible when Wisconsin is getting screwed and when MSU is facing such a large foul disparity, but he doesn't go to bat for the basketball schools like he would if Ohio State got screwed in football. It's annoying.