Growing up near Notre Dame (Ara Parseghian days football), who couldn’t love the game. Touchdown Jesus overlooking the stadium. Sitting in the Northern Indiana fall and early winter watching the clash of humans and the stadium filling with cheers. I grew up in the Big 10. Norte Dame, Indiana University and Ohio State. Damn grand histories and damn fine teams today. (Okay, give me IU. They try and they are a hell of a lot better than Purdue.)
But I was young. The game was young and about football. It was a diversion from the educational pursuits the guys were engaged in. Some players went on for grand careers on professional teams. Some didn’t but they had a degree and a route to earn a living.
Then, I got older the college football turned its focus on money. According to number of media outlets, each institution in the conference earned at least $17 MILLION for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2015. That was the smallest gross earnings from football. Michigan led with $88 million. In 2013, total earnings of college football was $3.4 BILLION in 2013.www.businessinsider.com/… and Earning in the Big Ten for 2015. I am sure it is more today.
Of those funds, what do players get?
They get the following:
- Faces and promo’s in the media (exposure) for their school,
- A possible opportunity for a professional career via scholarships,
- An opportunity for an education,
- The opportunity to be feed money and “gifts” from alumni, which would end their career and educational opportunities, and
- the possibility they will receive a career ending injury at some point which, in some cases, ends everything — from their educational scholarships to their dreams of a pro career.
From the millions that pour into colleges and universities from football,
www.theatlantic.com/...
So as you support your teams efforts every Saturday, also support the movement to unionize the players and to ensure the efforts they are engaged can sustain them for the time they play. I know I have because slavery is effort without suitable compensation.
This entire enterprise is slavery supported Gladiator Exhibitions