The Josh Luchs Problem and Solution

BSpringsteen

Well-Known Member
CFN has a really interesting take on the admission this week from agent Josh Luchs about paying college athletes.

First off, it is a horrible idea for any number of reasons to formally pay football and basketball players, but the biggest one is that if players are being given money now, if you pay the players, they will still be given more money under the table. There will never be equity. There will never be parity if you walk down that path.

However, if a student at Iowa receives a music scholarship there is nothing stopping that person from doing everything in their power to make music their career and occupation while in college. They can talk to potential employers and do whatever is necessary to ensure their post collegiate success in the field of their choosing.

Yet this doesn't exist in college athletics. If you have the talent to be an NFL player, you can't even talk about it publicly hardly without the NCAA coming down on you.

Yet, the agents are hiding behind the hedges like paparazzi, waiting to pounce.

How do you solve the problem, clean up sports and give the players the attention they deserve all without paying your players.

Create classes and majors that players can take for credit that prepares them for a life in professional athletics. They can take business and marketing classes, accounting and finance classes. They can even take law classes and learn about the contracts they will be signing.

Not only that, but by doing this you create better professional athletes. If Chad Ocho Cinco realizes that the car that he bought for 250K cash because it can't be financed actually cost him 400K because of taxes, and how much he needs to actually make in salary to have 400K in cash, he might think twice.

The sheer number of NFL and NBA players who wind up bankrupt is astonishing, and maybe this would help them prepare better.

Agents could even come in and be guest teachers for a week.

Put it in front and let kids major in what they want to major in which for college football and basketball players will largely be a professional career.

And guess what, if they don't go pro, it's not like those classes will be useless for them, they will have basically learned how to run a business of which they are the CEO.

How many of you are using your degree?

You would basically be giving them a well rounded education but relating everything to a career in professional sports instead of something they have no interest in.

And while you are at it, give the players their entire scholarship and stipends in cash and have financial advisors who help them with budgeting, let them pay their bills like they are not on scholarship.
 
"First off, it is a horrible idea for any number of reasons to formally pay football and basketball players, but the biggest one is that if players are being given money now, if you pay the players, they will still be given more money under the table. There will never be equity. There will never be parity if you walk down that path."

Why does it matter if it's equitable?
 
CFN has a really interesting take on the admission this week from agent Josh Luchs about paying college athletes.

First off, it is a horrible idea for any number of reasons to formally pay football and basketball players, but the biggest one is that if players are being given money now, if you pay the players, they will still be given more money under the table. There will never be equity. There will never be parity if you walk down that path.

However, if a student at Iowa receives a music scholarship there is nothing stopping that person from doing everything in their power to make music their career and occupation while in college. They can talk to potential employers and do whatever is necessary to ensure their post collegiate success in the field of their choosing.

Yet this doesn't exist in college athletics. If you have the talent to be an NFL player, you can't even talk about it publicly hardly without the NCAA coming down on you.

Yet, the agents are hiding behind the hedges like paparazzi, waiting to pounce.

How do you solve the problem, clean up sports and give the players the attention they deserve all without paying your players.

Create classes and majors that players can take for credit that prepares them for a life in professional athletics. They can take business and marketing classes, accounting and finance classes. They can even take law classes and learn about the contracts they will be signing.

Not only that, but by doing this you create better professional athletes. If Chad Ocho Cinco realizes that the car that he bought for 250K cash because it can't be financed actually cost him 400K because of taxes, and how much he needs to actually make in salary to have 400K in cash, he might think twice.

The sheer number of NFL and NBA players who wind up bankrupt is astonishing, and maybe this would help them prepare better.

Agents could even come in and be guest teachers for a week.

Put it in front and let kids major in what they want to major in which for college football and basketball players will largely be a professional career.

And guess what, if they don't go pro, it's not like those classes will be useless for them, they will have basically learned how to run a business of which they are the CEO.

How many of you are using your degree?

You would basically be giving them a well rounded education but relating everything to a career in professional sports instead of something they have no interest in.

And while you are at it, give the players their entire scholarship and stipends in cash and have financial advisors who help them with budgeting, let them pay their bills like they are not on scholarship.

This is a horrible idea. What do you do after they blow all that cash in a month?
 
There is no solution to this problem UNLESS you make the professional leagues care. Until the NFL, NBA, and to a lesser extent the MLB have a reason to regulate agent/college kid relationships nothing will happen. However, if they ever get on board the solution is simple...

Require agents and agent firms to be licensed by the respective league in order to business in it. Suspend agent and agent firm licenses for violating NCAA rules/regulations. Set up an investigations division that fields "tips" on unethical/illeagal agent behavior.

Under these conditions agents would effectively police themselves. By nature they are all slimey bottom feeders. If they had the opportunity to turn in one of their peers for improper contact with a college player knowing that the guy they turned in would loose his license and his player would be available for representation they would do so in a heartbeat.
 
"First off, it is a horrible idea for any number of reasons to formally pay football and basketball players, but the biggest one is that if players are being given money now, if you pay the players, they will still be given more money under the table. There will never be equity. There will never be parity if you walk down that path."

Why does it matter if it's equitable?

Because the QB from Nevada won't be getting paid the same as the QB from Alabama. People on the rowing, x-country, and soccer players wouldn't get paid as much as football players, because those teams don't bring in any money, and wouldn't exist without the football program.
 
The Big Eight used to pay its players. Few people realize that the NCAA only has been limiting scholarships for about thirty years. Prior to that time scholarship limits were set by each conference. So paying players is not unprecedented.

The reason the Big Eight dominated the face of college football in the late 60's and the 70's is that they were giving forty-five scholarships a year, redshirted, accepted juco transfers and players received twenty-five dollars a month laundry money. Yes, it was actually called laundry money.

In contrast, the Big Ten only was giving out thirty scholarships a year, prohibited redshirting except for medical redshirts, prohibited juco transfers and did not give a stipend for laundry.

I can't remember the limits, but each conference had a limit on the total number of scholarships. However, there was a huge discrepancy across the country. The SEC's scholarship limits were very similar to the Big Eight's but I can't remember if the schools also gave a stipend for laundry.

If you were an independent like Pitt, there were no scholarship limits. Johnny Majors gave out something like seventy scholarships his first year at Pitt.

Not until about the time Hayden came to Iowa did the NCAA begin limiting scholarships and put all schools on an even playing field. Laundry money also was eliminated. If I remember correctly, it was 30 and 105. Of course, there was a grandfather clause for the schools over the 105 limit. So, it took a few years for the scholarship limits to become effective.

I do not have any problem with a player getting a stipend of about 100 dollars a month for incidentials like laundry, gas for their mopeds, attend a movie, go bowling, etc.

The NFL and NFLPA can help solve the problems of agents in the next CBA. A rookie pay scale like the NBA would help alleviate many of the problems.
 
There is no solution to this problem UNLESS you make the professional leagues care. Until the NFL, NBA, and to a lesser extent the MLB have a reason to regulate agent/college kid relationships nothing will happen. However, if they ever get on board the solution is simple...

Require agents and agent firms to be licensed by the respective league in order to business in it. Suspend agent and agent firm licenses for violating NCAA rules/regulations. Set up an investigations division that fields "tips" on unethical/illeagal agent behavior.

Under these conditions agents would effectively police themselves. By nature they are all slimey bottom feeders. If they had the opportunity to turn in one of their peers for improper contact with a college player knowing that the guy they turned in would loose his license and his player would be available for representation they would do so in a heartbeat.

Josh Luchs was an NFLPA-licensed agent.

The problem is that their policing is virtually non-existent.
 
Josh Luchs was an NFLPA-licensed agent.

The problem is that their policing is virtually non-existent.

That's what I am saying. They dont police it because they don't care. If they did care policing it would be as simple as paying a dude from india 100 rupies an hour to answer a hotline receiving tips of unethical agent behaviour.

Agents would be standing in line to rat out other agents.
 
I hate this talk about paying players. If they are on scholarship they are getting paid....
 

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