College Athletes May Qualify as Employees

Illini in Indiana said:

I agree !

But is it a bad thing. Why should someone who can throw a shotput get a free education? It is not generating revenue for the university. The adults (18 years old kids) that have a talent that generates money will get paid, seems like the real world to me.

There are 2 things that will be will impacted though.

1) The universities will have to priorities they funds to be competitive in certain sports. (example - Illinois will target Basketball over Football, because it is tough to compete in B10 football)

2) High schools sports will have to adapt to the new landscape of scholarships & NIL opportunities

If high schools drop the water polo programs - so be it

Maybe, just maybe schools might turn more of it's focus to education in the future. For now we'll keep getting watch the sports we love.

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I’ve been a die hard Illini fan since my college days, much more than pretty pro sport (with the only exception being auto racing). The reason for that was Illini is the only place where I’ve had an actual connection with the teams I’m watching. They’re students, and they’re representing the school I went to.

I always had an issue with the fact that the school doesn’t get a cut of the massive amount of revenues they generate (yes the exposure is there, but there’s just too much much sloshing around in P4 DIAs primarily due to the schools they represent and the school doesn’t get a cut of it). One of the only ways I accepted this structure was the fact that the money making sports subsidized the money losing sports.

If that goes away, and if athletes get a cut of revenues but the universities still don’t, I’m afraid to say there’s no longer any redeeming quality of the college sports model that motivates me to watch it. It’s really no different than any other minor leaguer program anymore.