Jenkins/Swarbrick NYT Op-Ed

[Drinking The Green Koolaid]

The New York Times published an op-ed piece today written by Fr. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet:

Opinion | College Sports Are a Treasure. Don’t Turn Them Into the Minor Leagues.

The best way to support student-athletes is to ensure that they are students first.

www.nytimes.com

The article bemoans the present day status of college athletics, with NIL and the looming prospect of college athletes one day being classified as employees of the universities they attend, and asks Congress to step in and fix a broken system.

You may draw whatever conclusions you want from the article, but in many corners Jenkins and Swarbrick are being pilloried as a bunch of elitists who are oblivious to the fact that college athletics have become big business. Andy Staples wrote a particularly scathing critique of the op-ed in The Athletic, which included the following observations:

"Instead of trying to find a way to pay revenue-sport athletes their market value as athletes, school administrators complain about the name, image and likeness system foisted upon them by state legislatures who grew tired of seeing schools break the Sherman Act in an effort to keep anyone from providing athletes anything beyond tuition, room and board. Swarbrick and Jenkins are correct that this did result in a sham system, but they conveniently leave out the reason.

"The market wants to pay athletes for their value as athletes, and the schools — through the NCAA — forbid this. So the market, as it always does, has devised another way to provide that compensation.

"Swarbrick and Jenkins want Congress to declare that athletes aren’t employees even though making athletes employees and then collectively bargaining with them would actually solve many of the problems that vex them so. Essentially, Swarbrick, Jenkins and their ilk would like someone else to fix the mess they themselves made. Neither Congress nor the NFL nor the NBA should let them off the hook. The people running the schools cashed the checks. They can, and should, figure it out on their own."

Some of the comments posted at the end of the NYT op-ed are particularly harsh.

The Shakespearian phrase, "hoist with his own petard" sort of comes to mind here.

 

[banmate6]

Great article. Surprised your post hasn’t gotten more attention. But I concur: players deserve some cut of schools and the NCAA running sports at such scale.

Tuition, room, and board is not enough. Academic scholarships don’t necessitate less time in study. And I doubt those scholarships generate proportional revenue.

At the end of the day, ND participates and makes lots of money off college football. Father Jenkins and Swarbrick cannot sugarcoat this. I get the point about a true student athlete ideal…but go Ivy or Colonial league in that case.

Regardless, the market will indeed take care of this. If ND doesn’t stay competitive, revenue will most likely decline and hard decisions will be made. Mind you…maybe ND can still attract enough great athletes under the current setup to stay competitive?

I hope so. I just doubt it. I fear the gap will widen. Father Jenkins and Swarbrick seem pretty clear about what they will and don’t do about competing with the top teams.

Last point: college football has become a farce. It’s semipro and not a student-athlete ideal. Of ND stops being competitive, I’m out.

I’m already losing interest. I’ve no desire to watch a semipro farm league for the NFL. Pretending they have something to do with the academic and social mission of a college.

 

[tbonesays]

The New York Times published an op-ed piece today written by Fr. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet:

Opinion | College Sports Are a Treasure. Don’t Turn Them Into the Minor Leagues.

The best way to support student-athletes is to ensure that they are students first.

www.nytimes.com

The article bemoans the present day status of college athletics, with NIL and the looming prospect of college athletes one day being classified as employees of the universities they attend, and asks Congress to step in and fix a broken system.

You may draw whatever conclusions you want from the article, but in many corners Jenkins and Swarbrick are being pilloried as a bunch of elitists who are oblivious to the fact that college athletics have become big business. Andy Staples wrote a particularly scathing critique of the op-ed in The Athletic, which included the following observations:

"Instead of trying to find a way to pay revenue-sport athletes their market value as athletes, school administrators complain about the name, image and likeness system foisted upon them by state legislatures who grew tired of seeing schools break the Sherman Act in an effort to keep anyone from providing athletes anything beyond tuition, room and board. Swarbrick and Jenkins are correct that this did result in a sham system, but they conveniently leave out the reason.

"The market wants to pay athletes for their value as athletes, and the schools — through the NCAA — forbid this. So the market, as it always does, has devised another way to provide that compensation.

"Swarbrick and Jenkins want Congress to declare that athletes aren’t employees even though making athletes employees and then collectively bargaining with them would actually solve many of the problems that vex them so. Essentially, Swarbrick, Jenkins and their ilk would like someone else to fix the mess they themselves made. Neither Congress nor the NFL nor the NBA should let them off the hook. The people running the schools cashed the checks. They can, and should, figure it out on their own."

Some of the comments posted at the end of the NYT op-ed are particularly harsh.

The Shakespearian phrase, "hoist with his own petard" sort of comes to mind here.

I believe the exponentially escalating pay of Athletic Director's is ruining college administration.

 

[d1042]

college is for students, no?

 

[baron100]

I believe the exponentially escalating pay of Athletic Director's is ruining college administration.

Jack forgot to mention that. And quoting Rockne is interesting since he invented pay for play and gladly took Gipp, who never graduated from high school. yeah, it’s all about academics Knut.

 

[chaseball]

Why in the hell are the two most important people at ND going on public record speaking out against paying players? That ship has sailed like 2 years ago. Now you are just making the brand look even more elitist, stuffy, and self righteous. 18 year olds with 5 star ratings are REALLY excited to come play for ND after reading this.

What in the hell is Marcus Freeman doing letting these out of touch dinosaurs say anything to the public about their college football politics? What a way to shiv your staff's recruiting efforts. I bet BK would have resigned on the spot.

This is one of the real downsides to having such a green coach. He's going to get steamrolled in any situation where he has to advocate for the football team against the university leadership. An established/tenured head coach would have never let the AD/university publish something like this.

Can Notre Dame Football STOP shooting itself in the face for one god damn season?

 

[NDSMC78]

Why in the hell are the two most important people at ND going on public record speaking out against paying players? That ship has sailed like 2 years ago. Now you are just making the brand look even more elitist, stuffy, and self righteous. 18 year olds with 5 star ratings are REALLY excited to come play for ND after reading this.

What in the hell is Marcus Freeman doing letting these out of touch dinosaurs say anything to the public about their NIL politics regarding football/athletes/etc.? What a way to shiv your staff's recruiting efforts.

Can Notre Dame Football STOP shooting itself in the face for one god damn season?

Once again, you need to follow another school. You don't like ND's administration. You don't like ND's coaching staff. You don't like ND's recruiting. You don't like ND's approach to academics. You don't like ND's philosophy concerning athletics.
If you knew one single thing about ND, you wouldn't be asking why the football coach is "letting" the president of the university and the athletic director say something. The question is absurd. Why would anyone want to be a fan of a school that he believes is elitist, stuffy and self-righteous?

 

[4-4-3]

The New York Times published an op-ed piece today written by Fr. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet:

Opinion | College Sports Are a Treasure. Don’t Turn Them Into the Minor Leagues.

The best way to support student-athletes is to ensure that they are students first.

www.nytimes.com

The article bemoans the present day status of college athletics, with NIL and the looming prospect of college athletes one day being classified as employees of the universities they attend, and asks Congress to step in and fix a broken system.

You may draw whatever conclusions you want from the article, but in many corners Jenkins and Swarbrick are being pilloried as a bunch of elitists who are oblivious to the fact that college athletics have become big business. Andy Staples wrote a particularly scathing critique of the op-ed in The Athletic, which included the following observations:

"Instead of trying to find a way to pay revenue-sport athletes their market value as athletes, school administrators complain about the name, image and likeness system foisted upon them by state legislatures who grew tired of seeing schools break the Sherman Act in an effort to keep anyone from providing athletes anything beyond tuition, room and board. Swarbrick and Jenkins are correct that this did result in a sham system, but they conveniently leave out the reason.

"The market wants to pay athletes for their value as athletes, and the schools — through the NCAA — forbid this. So the market, as it always does, has devised another way to provide that compensation.

"Swarbrick and Jenkins want Congress to declare that athletes aren’t employees even though making athletes employees and then collectively bargaining with them would actually solve many of the problems that vex them so. Essentially, Swarbrick, Jenkins and their ilk would like someone else to fix the mess they themselves made. Neither Congress nor the NFL nor the NBA should let them off the hook. The people running the schools cashed the checks. They can, and should, figure it out on their own."

Some of the comments posted at the end of the NYT op-ed are particularly harsh.

The Shakespearian phrase, "hoist with his own petard" sort of comes to mind here.

GOOD ONE.

 

[4-4-3]

Great article. Surprised your post hasn’t gotten more attention. But I concur: players deserve some cut of schools and the NCAA running sports at such scale.

Tuition, room, and board is not enough. Academic scholarships don’t necessitate less time in study. And I doubt those scholarships generate proportional revenue.

At the end of the day, ND participates and makes lots of money off college football. Father Jenkins and Swarbrick cannot sugarcoat this. I get the point about a true student athlete ideal…but go Ivy or Colonial league in that case.

Regardless, the market will indeed take care of this. If ND doesn’t stay competitive, revenue will most likely decline and hard decisions will be made. Mind you…maybe ND can still attract enough great athletes under the current setup to stay competitive?

I hope so. I just doubt it. I fear the gap will widen. Father Jenkins and Swarbrick seem pretty clear about what they will and don’t do about competing with the top teams.

Last point: college football has become a farce. It’s semipro and not a student-athlete ideal. Of ND stops being competitive, I’m out.

I’m already losing interest. I’ve no desire to watch a semipro farm league for the NFL. Pretending they have something to do with the academic and social mission of a college.

Your key point, as I see it, is your reference to the IRONCLAD LAW OF THE MARKET.

Despite what the ETHICISTS, TRUE BELIEVERS and CURATORS OF TRADITION live for -- and they can be found in all walks, as well they should be -- CFB is now playing FOLLOW THE MONEY on a GREATER SCALE.

To squeeze out more revenues, it only MAKES SENSE to incentivize the players with STAKEHOLDER STATUS as it drives them towards financially more aggressive schools; which in turn concentrates the talent pool; which in turn creates a GULF between the more aggresive schools and those that can't or WON'T financially compete, thereby setting the stage for the deployment of something akin to a CFB PREMIER LEAGUE.

Because while, say, a Williams, William & Mary or Western Michigan will still field a football team, they'll do so even LESS CONSEQUENTIALLY than they do today while functioning on a scale much like the myriad of lower-level soccer teams do in the UK and Europe today.

In other words, only the PREMIUM product will count -- the one endlessly streaming on TV with the a) greatest talent pool and b) most intricate, MONEY-MAXIMIZING playoff structure.

While some may have zero interest in such a product -- and I get it -- others won't care a whit, whereas those BORN INTO IT will probably crave and relish it just as much as people hunger for today's brand of CFB.

But the bottom line will be THE BOTTOM LINE, and it will be MONEY that drives this, not Jenkins and Swarbrick and their sense of FAIR PLAY. They're talking Marquis of Queensbury in a era of CAGE FIGHTING.

What happens will be MARKET DICTATED, and whatever that is, ND will have to TAKE IT or LEAVE IT.

They call it CAPITALISM.

 

[chaseball]

lol @ the idea that ND won't take it. The football team has made the university filthy. Of course they are going to take it which is why this article makes ND not only look like stuffy elitists but it makes them look like hypocrites too. You can't swell into a multi billion dollar entity off the backs of your athletes and accept all of the cash/benefits from it, and then turn around and speak out against compensating those athletes, especially when that ship has already sailed with the public.

ND is sharing a sentiment every university administration out there is sharing amongst themselves behind closed doors discreetly, but none of them are stupid enough to say the quiet part out loud. They know better than to speak out against compensating athletes when they are in a yearly competition to attract them.

 

[4-4-3]

Why in the hell are the two most important people at ND going on public record speaking out against paying players? That ship has sailed like 2 years ago. Now you are just making the brand look even more elitist, stuffy, and self righteous. 18 year olds with 5 star ratings are REALLY excited to come play for ND after reading this.

What in the hell is Marcus Freeman doing letting these out of touch dinosaurs say anything to the public about their college football politics? What a way to shiv your staff's recruiting efforts. I bet BK would have resigned on the spot.

This is one of the real downsides to having such a green coach. He's going to get steamrolled in any situation where he has to advocate for the football team against the university leadership. An established/tenured head coach would have never let the AD/university publish something like this.

Can Notre Dame Football STOP shooting itself in the face for one god damn season?

Telling points.

And, yes, it does suggest why Freeman was akin to a gift from CENTRAL CASTING -- if not heaven -- for more reasons than perhaps meet the eye. To me, they saw a guy who SMELLED SIZZLE. Jesus, the guy CONVERTED TO CATHOLICISM! What boats would he ever rock?!? We're talking Terry Brennan II.

I'm not saying Freeman isn't a good man, but as you pointed out, he's GREEN.

As for Kelly, it seems like he'd already seen enough so that he didn't need such an OP-ED to trigger his decision. As an extremely bright and experienced football man, he must have known his chances to win an NC at LSU vs. at ND were greater.

Another point:

While they're obviously trying to figure this out in REAL TIME, the Jenkins/Swarbrick Declaration could, if circumstances dictate, serve as the opening stage of what could develop over time into a STRATEGIC RETREAT.

Maybe, maybe not.

But they're certainly not interested in ENGAGEMENT with NIL in its current iteration. And if the rest of CFB doesn't bend a knee, how does such an avowedly ETHICAL and MORAL university such as ND back away from what it's just announced.

And that's the challenge with strategic retreats -- if that's what's afoot -- as with a few FALSE STEPS, you've BACKED YOURSELF INTO A CORNER.

 

[4-4-3]

lol @ the idea that ND won't take it. The football team has made the university filthy. Of course they are going to take it which is why this article makes ND not only look like stuffy elitists but it makes them look like hypocrites too. You can't swell into a multi billion dollar entity off the backs of your athletes and accept all of the cash/benefits from it, and then turn around and speak out against compensating those athletes, especially when that ship has already sailed with the public.

ND is sharing a sentiment every university administration out there is sharing amongst themselves behind closed doors discreetly, but none of them are stupid enough to say the quiet part out loud. They know better than to speak out against compensating athletes when they are in a yearly competition to attract them.

You may be right. We'll see.

But Jenkins is on record -- I've seen the video -- where he states in a non-plussed but CATEGORICAL way that ND would survive JUST FINE without football -- IF IT CAME TO THAT.

Was that a marker in a trajetory? Were the latest comments a marker? Again, we'll see.

But how does ND, as it's making these kinds of statements, ARTFULLY BACK AWAY FROM THEM without looking like the Catholic Church every time the exigencies of modern daily life run AFOUL of CHURCH DOCTRINE?

It will take some REVISIONIST HISTORY and THINKING as I see it.

But, of course, the thing that COULD do it would be NEW BLOOD, provided it comes with a NEW MINDSET.

Either way, SOMETHING WILL HAVE TO GIVE.

 

[Airzee23]

The New York Times published an op-ed piece today written by Fr. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick. Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet:

Opinion | College Sports Are a Treasure. Don’t Turn Them Into the Minor Leagues.

The best way to support student-athletes is to ensure that they are students first.

www.nytimes.com

The article bemoans the present day status of college athletics, with NIL and the looming prospect of college athletes one day being classified as employees of the universities they attend, and asks Congress to step in and fix a broken system.

You may draw whatever conclusions you want from the article, but in many corners Jenkins and Swarbrick are being pilloried as a bunch of elitists who are oblivious to the fact that college athletics have become big business. Andy Staples wrote a particularly scathing critique of the op-ed in The Athletic, which included the following observations:

"Instead of trying to find a way to pay revenue-sport athletes their market value as athletes, school administrators complain about the name, image and likeness system foisted upon them by state legislatures who grew tired of seeing schools break the Sherman Act in an effort to keep anyone from providing athletes anything beyond tuition, room and board. Swarbrick and Jenkins are correct that this did result in a sham system, but they conveniently leave out the reason.

"The market wants to pay athletes for their value as athletes, and the schools — through the NCAA — forbid this. So the market, as it always does, has devised another way to provide that compensation.

"Swarbrick and Jenkins want Congress to declare that athletes aren’t employees even though making athletes employees and then collectively bargaining with them would actually solve many of the problems that vex them so. Essentially, Swarbrick, Jenkins and their ilk would like someone else to fix the mess they themselves made. Neither Congress nor the NFL nor the NBA should let them off the hook. The people running the schools cashed the checks. They can, and should, figure it out on their own."

Some of the comments posted at the end of the NYT op-ed are particularly harsh.

The Shakespearian phrase, "hoist with his own petard" sort of comes to mind here.

Jack needs to be fired or retire. He’s a greedy little dictator that hasn’t done **** at ND.

 

[Airzee23]

Once again, you need to follow another school. You don't like ND's administration. You don't like ND's coaching staff. You don't like ND's recruiting. You don't like ND's approach to academics. You don't like ND's philosophy concerning athletics.
If you knew one single thing about ND, you wouldn't be asking why the football coach is "letting" the president of the university and the athletic director say something. The question is absurd. Why would anyone want to be a fan of a school that he believes is elitist, stuffy and self-righteous?

Then join the Ivy League. You’re right, ND doesn’t belong in major college athletics. Drop down a level. There’s no shame in that. ND is a tremendous university. It’s a place to educate. It’s not a place for big time sports.

Is the greed that important? If the administration comes clean or the fans realize soon what’s going on the stadium will be over half empty every Saturday. Can’t have that…….

 

[HDK]

Why in the hell are the two most important people at ND going on public record speaking out against paying players? That ship has sailed like 2 years ago. Now you are just making the brand look even more elitist, stuffy, and self righteous. 18 year olds with 5 star ratings are REALLY excited to come play for ND after reading this.

What in the hell is Marcus Freeman doing letting these out of touch dinosaurs say anything to the public about their college football politics? What a way to shiv your staff's recruiting efforts. I bet BK would have resigned on the spot.

This is one of the real downsides to having such a green coach. He's going to get steamrolled in any situation where he has to advocate for the football team against the university leadership. An established/tenured head coach would have never let the AD/university publish something like this.

Can Notre Dame Football STOP shooting itself in the face for one god damn season?

Did you even read that article? They make it clear they support NIL, just not bribing players to come and play at a particular school. They also point out that a university exists for a higher purpose than serving as a rest stop on the way to the professional league for players with no interest in education. Personally, I'd love it, if the NFL and NBA would establish minor leagues, and let college sports return to being college sports.