Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

In my day, never was longer.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: WTF, Sports Division

Open Thread: WTF, Sports Division

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Since it’s that kinda day, here’s Spencer Hall at SB Nation:

… There are a lot of ways to control people. You can control their money, and how they get it. You can control where they live. You can control who they can and can’t talk to, and sanction them for that. Finally, you can control the most basic human need of all: what they eat. And as absurd as it may sound, the NCAA to some extent tried to control some aspect of all of those things until yesterday, when they finally conceded after public embarrassment to allowing schools to give players as much food as they liked.

It’s deeply laughable to consider that this even constitutes progress. It’s more laughable still that there may have been a person out there who opposed giving players more food while continuing to hold back stipends and additional cash from them. This is why amateur athletics– and in turn, college football– has put itself in such a stupid position as to conjure up the real prospect of a players’ union. When you act like the company store and beggar over the number of biscuits on the tray, you wake up to an empty mine and picket lines and all that shit that only the worst industries with the lowest regard for human capital have to face…

Seriously? Bad enough a journamalism aspirant should have no better understanding of how unions work, but the NCAA nitpicking over breakfast bagels is an actual, non-parody incidence in twenty-first-century America?

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  2. 2.

    some guy

    Shabazz Napier made a big stink about this. Going to bed hungry. Stupid ncaa.good on the kid from Roxbury.

  3. 3.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I have to admit I don’t get this. Don’t athletes just have meal contracts like other students do?

  5. 5.

    Groucho48

    Funny how just a couple weeks after the courts decide players can unionize, we see the NCAA making changes. Perhaps a journalist can apply this to unions in general and their effect on workers in general?

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    1) acknowledging that military tribunals operate under a different set of rules and standards than do civilian courts

    2) both systems exist under one constitution system and a shared history of precedent and rulings which serve (in theory) to mitigate stark or contradictory or extremist differences

    3) which makes these words from a government military prosecutor at Guantánamo perhaps the most chilling, terrifying thing read in many a moon:

    The defense doesn’t have the authority to “double-check the government’s work,” [Navy Cmdr. Andrea] Lockhart told the judge, “and they certainly don’t have the right to do their own independent investigation” of what happened….” Source

    Eminent praise for the judge who (subject to appeal) denied credence to such stupendously egregious contempt directed to the very nucleus of the creed of integrity of justice.

  9. 9.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Damn. When I was college age I was only hungry once and that was continuously. I was merely working various jobs to support my studies so I can’t imagine how many calories it would take to adequately feed a full-on athlete.

  10. 10.

    ? Martin

    @Baud: The rollout was a fleeting thing. You can accuse the administration of being poor administrators, but with Sebelius gone, there’s not much there either. Remember the botched rollout of Part D when seniors couldn’t fill their life-saving prescriptions for a month or two? Yeah, neither does anyone else.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @? Martin:

    Remember the botched rollout of Part D when seniors couldn’t fill their life-saving prescriptions for a month or two? Yeah, neither does anyone else.

    Fringe benefits of being the worst president in history.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Given that there were NCAA rules in place about what spreads could be used on those breakfast bagels…well, gosh, it does seem pretty fucking stupid, now doesn’t it.

    The NCAA had a legitimate point about “part time jobs” that were, essentially, boosters giving cash to football players. The problem here is that the NCAA is very materially benefiting from the labor of athletes. The athletes who produce the value, who provide the product, should get a bigger piece of the pie and not be treated more or less as chattel.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud: Poor James Buchanan. Guy is rolling over in his grave because his distinction in history has been threatened by this Johnny-Come-Lately deserting coward.

  18. 18.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @JPL: I can see needing to eat more often. What’s the thing about the NCAA limiting things like bagel spreads though. That’s not in a normal cafeteria. It must be part of the food that’s laid on for the extra calories. In that case, why is the NCAA so nitpicky?

  19. 19.

    Hill Dweller

    @? Martin: The Bush crew were so utterly incompetent, things that would be huge scandals in any other administrations were lost in the steady stream of awfulness.

  22. 22.

    Orpho

    @Iowa Old Lady: They do. However, among other things, this happened. I mean, could you find a more sympathetic appeal for compensation/food than one of the NCAA championship winners, at the Chik-Fil-A Tostitos Tournament sponsored by Taco Bell than this?

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I think J.B. has lost the crown. As bad as he was, the dynamics of that time were far more powerful than any one president. Bush’s problems were pretty much of his own making.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    Remember the botched rollout of Part D when seniors couldn’t fill their life-saving prescriptions for a month or two? Yeah, neither does anyone else.

    The Republican party has selective amnesia about everything that happened between January 20, 2001 and January 20, 2009. They’re capable of remembering the things that go well most of the time, and the things that went wrong when they’re accusing Obama of being worse.

  27. 27.

    Violet

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I have to admit I don’t get this. Don’t athletes just have meal contracts like other students do?

    From the second link above:

    As ridiculous as it sounds, athletes were previously limited to three meals a day or a stipend. That rule came under controversy recently after UConn basketball star Shabazz Napier said that he and his teammates sometimes have “hungry nights” because the school is not allowed to give them enough to eat.

    It sounds like they had some kind of a meal contract. Not sure why they’d be hungry. Are the portions too small for athletes?
    Also:

    Current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster has also been critical of the NCAA’s food policy, pointing out that Tennessee’s coaches were committing a violation by buying Foster and his hungry teammates tacos while he was in college.

    Sounds like part of the problem is that they aren’t allowed to provide outside food. That seems stupid, although I suppose it could be part of avoiding having rich donors buying them fancy meals all the time or something? Who knows.

    Read through this crazy article where the University of Oklahoma violated whatever rule by giving the athletes pasta portions that were too big. That’s ridiculous.

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    @Baud:

    @ezraklein: More than 8 million have signed up for private insurance through Obamacare. Damn.

    @ezraklein: That Obamacare had such a bad start and still beat enrollment expectations speaks to how badly people want health insurance

    @ezraklein: That is insane. RT @voxdotcom: Obamacare signups last month: 3.7 million http://t.co/PZp43TlD9p http://t.co/

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    New report from SPLC:

    Stormfront users have been responsible for nearly 100 murders since the site came online in 1995.

    Notables include –

    Wade Michael Page (Sikh temple shooter)

    Richard Poplawski (Pittsburgh cop killer)

    Anders Breivik (Norweigian summer camp shooter)

    Buford Furrow (Jewish daycare center shooter)

    Ian Bishop (14-year old who beat 18-year old brother to death with a hammer, suspected he was gay)

    Richard Baumhammers (killed 5 in a random shooting spree of minorities)

  30. 30.

    FlyingToaster

    This is so weird. Back at my alma mater, the athletes were encouraged to live in the dorm across the street from the Field House, where IIRC the Alumni Association put on a small buffet every evening. In the next room, the Athletics department held a nightly study hall. It was salad and cold cuts and buns, but honestly, if you’re practicing basketball for two hours after dinner, you need another small meal just to survive, let alone study. Or practicing track and field, or swimming (all right there within a block). We only got one hot entree in the dorms per meal, but the salad bar was all you could eat, and that included make-your-own sandwiches.

    The NCAA is such a crock. Kill it already.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    @ezraklein: That Obamacare had such a bad start and is under constant sabotage by the right and still beat enrollment expectations speaks to how badly people want health insurance

    FTFE

  32. 32.

    Violet

    @lamh36: Fuck Ezra Klein and his hair-on-fire/sky-is-falling reaction to the website roll out. He concern trolled so hard it was like he was going for a Fox News badge. Imagine that–people wanted health insurance even when a website sucked! Who would have thought? Certainly not well-insured Both-Sides-Do-It-er Ezra Klein and his Spellcheck-less sidekick Matt Yglesias.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The NCAA had a legitimate point about “part time jobs” that were, essentially, boosters giving cash to football players. The problem here is that the NCAA is very materially benefiting from the labor of athletes.

    The underlying problem is that the idea of college sports as amateur athletics ended with the introduction of athletic “scholarships”. The whole point of college athletics was that people who were in college anyway would compete to see who was best. They threw that away when they decided it was more important to win than to compete fairly and started to bring in ringers. Everything since then has been an attempt to keep the cheating to within acceptable bounds, and more recently to keep as much money as possible, not to preserve the true meaning of amateurism.

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    I love this tweet from the NRCC:

    No, we can’t. RT @ZekeJMiller: Obama: “I think we can all agree that it’s well past time to move on.”

    You certainly can’t. Now, go try and stop the tide from rolling in.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @lamh36: Faux’s Dana Perino is an airhead. And that’s giving the spokesbimbo the benefit of the doubt.

  47. 47.

    Anoniminous

    @Roger Moore:

    Cite:

    The first college game ever played took place on November 6, 1869, when Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4 in football. Following this monumental game, a movement swept across American colleges that increased the number of schools participating in athletics. As the popularity of sports grew, colleges also began to actively recruit individuals, as well as to offer scholarships. As early as the 1870s, both colleges and universities were providing financial support and incentives to athletes.

    I’m afraid the idea of some Golden Age of collegiate amateurism is more myth than fact.

  48. 48.

    madmommy

    Another problem that can come up often is that athletes are on tight schedules, with school, practice, games etc. They might eat a light meal before an evening practice and be ravenous afterward but by the time they’re done and showered the dining hall is closed. I can easily see how a student athlete could go to bed hungry if ordering a pizza isn’t an option because you haven’t got any cash.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @Cacti:
    I think the number of hate-crime mass murderers is more telling than the absolute number of victims. Going by body count, Breivik would make almost any site one of the worst hangouts for murderers single handed. But having at least five mass killers from the site says it’s a breeding ground for them.

  51. 51.

    patrick II

    It has been quite a few years, but I was outraged at the NCAA for a suspension they handed out to Missouri U. I don’t remember names anymore, but there was a player on the basketball team who had come to Missouri from an East coast city. The boy had been raised by his grandparents and was very close to them. One of those grandparents passed away during the school year and an assistant coaches spotted the kid a plane ride home to go to the funeral of the person who had raised him. For that Missouri got a suspension.

  53. 53.

    Tommy

    @madmommy: I am sorry but I will ask what world do you live in? I went to LSU. Back in the early 90s when they were not good at football. The football team had their own dorms and place to eat. I am sure nobody there ever went hungry.

    Now I went to college on a Division I scholarship. Golf. Not a sexy sport. I know there were times I was physically hungry. I was there.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: She actually said “why does he have to be such a jerk all the time?” Un-fucking-believaable!

    The president keeps reminding us – repeatedly! – about what the Republicans are doing = BAD
    Republicans taking 50 f-ing votes to repeal Obamacare = JUST FINE

  55. 55.

    Violet

    @Tommy: You ask madmommy what world she lives in and yet your second paragraph and personal experience supports madmomm’y’s statement that student athletes can go to bed hungry. What are you trying to say? I’m confused.

  58. 58.

    Violet

    @Baud: Chris Hayes and his weird habit of looking over the top of his 80’s-Math-Teacher glasses creeps me out.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: It’s what they’ve done with his eyebrow shaping, I think. Didn’t used to be this way.

    @Baud: I like Chris Hayes a lot better on UP. It was better suited to him, I think. Now he just feels like a liberal talking head instead of a really smart, thoughtful interviewer.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @Violet: Had not seen the new glasses. Not a good look for him, but not as creepy as the round glasses he seemed to have for a bit. Or maybe it was just the really rounded eyebrow thing that made me think he had round glasses.

    I thought chris hayes was really attractive for awhile – smart is very sexy – but he lost me with the eyebrows.

  64. 64.

    madmommy

    @Tommy:

    So…every D-1 school has food service staff working 24/7/365 to feed the athletes at the school? That was the point Napier was making was making and I can see how it can happen. If they cannot get to the cafeteria during regular hours because of their schedule, how would they eat without paying to order takeout?

  66. 66.

    gian

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I remember some school getting sanctioned way back in the 90s because some assistant coach gave a kid a ticket to go home for mom’s funeral. It was in the early days of the internet and so didn’t take off as huge news. but it was a sign of how the NCAA didn’t give a crap then about anything but the power.

    and the way they bent over backwards to let Ohio State slide and go to a bowl game and the Cam Newton thing at Auburn, and Johnny autograph shows they’re losing that power. Perhaps by not being total jerks and making peace with the fact it’s not 1930 anymore they could’ve kept more of it…

  67. 67.

    Jay Noble

    Went to U of NE – Lincoln – Cornhusker central – during the 80’s. During one summer school session met a few 3rd and 4th string players, guys who got playing time but weren’t necessarily on scholarship, who while taking classes were also doing “voluntary” summer conditioning. Training table wasn’t open during the summer – NCAA rules – so they had to eat with the regular students in the dorm cafeteria. Thing was, supper time coincided with some of the training sessions. So they had to choose food or missing sessions, that while “voluntary”, would risk their standing on the depth chart. One of the guys who was wide receiver put it in perspective as he ate, “We run patterns for conditioning. Coach never throws us the ball anyway, so I’m gonna eat”

    At that time, during the year the training table was at the cafeteria in one of the dorms. There certainly weren’t any limits on food then. I saw football players who needed 2 tray to carry their horde. Ironically just a couple of tables away you would see a regular student who had been limited to 1 entree and 1 dessert. And the entree was certainly not the steak that the football player had.

    All of that changed when in the 90’s when they moved the training table into the stadium and opened it up for all the athletes. Food limits were placed on them but because of the nutritionists. I don’t know if that held true over the years, but if the NCAA was doing the 3 meal limit in Lincoln, I know it was probably broken quite often and not just for football players.

    And an “oh, by the way” the Nebraska Legislature actually passed a bill to make football players state employees during the 80’s only to have it vetoed by the governor for fear of what the NCAA would do.

  68. 68.

    mcd410x

    Uh, Spencer Hall is being facetious. If you’ve ever read him, it’s what he does. Well.

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