Should Student-Athletes be paid for their name, image & likeness while scholarships?

[AZ Shocker]

So will this start the process of student athletes collecting income AND getting free schollies to play their sports?

Where and how does the NCAA envision this thing happening? How far does it go? Is it on an individual basis? Some players get more dollars for usage than others because of either popularity or perceived skill level? Is the amount uniformly applied to cover the entire team? Will Title IX play a role in this? Will all sports and all athetes be compensated? As the amount of monies increases, at what point does eall of this amount to a job? The school is the employer. If the school or some other associationn is paying monies to student athletes for usage, then wouldn't ALL of this be taxable at both Federal and State levels? Who will pay the Social Security and Med SS taxes? Will the employee (student) be responsible for both parts as usually an employer pays half. Would that not mean that all of the student athletes are self employed?

Uncle Sam will be entitled to a portion of this wouldn't they? I mean if the current system has players receiving straight-up cash payment no-record and no taxes paid, this will be good bu$ine$$ for federal and state government budgets. Are current cash payment players filing taxes on their monies? I doubt it. If this happens, it needs to be ABOVE BOARD and the income these kids receive (including scholarships) is the equivalent of being employed by someone, and lets get those 15% percentages back into federal and state budgets. Some of the scholarship (guessing) probably have a higher value than that 15% rate. And to keep it relevant to everything going on today....who pays the unemployment? Do they get to file for unemployment if they leave the school, are kicked out, or if the payments flat out cease?

To JV Shocker's point....when the trial era is done after a couple-few years and everybody sees the mess it created...perhaps the NCAA will give up governing all this nonsense and succumb to just requiring all athletes to be 1099'ed. Hell...that probably is how it will be handled from the get go anyways. The NCAA would most likely be off the hook...but it would sure suck for most athletes owing all those back taxes after their eligibility runs out.

[JVShocker]

To JV Shocker's point....when the trial era is done after a couple-few years and everybody sees the mess it created...perhaps the NCAA will give up governing all this nonsense and succumb to just requiring all athletes to be 1099'ed. Hell...that probably is how it will be handled from the get go anyways. The NCAA would most likely be off the hook...but it would sure suck for most athletes owing all those back taxes after their eligibility runs out.

And that's how it would have to be done. Though I doubt Uncle Sam is going to want to wait 4-5 years to collect their money. And they shouldn't. Student athletes would have to file taxes on their income and scholarships EVERY YEAR. And given the high transfer turnover rate, graduation, and dropouts, that's a lot of Unemployment for the Universities to have to pay and keep track of. Out of almost 200,000 D1 Athletes that amount to $8.4 million in unemployment taxes just at the federal level - IF every one of them had a scholarship. Clearly not all D1 athletes are receiving scholarships

If those basic 200,000 student athletes are now "working" for their schools and scholarships, assuming every student athlete is receiving a scholly, and using $25,000 as the basis for "income" at the D1 Level (and it is far more than that), assuming a standard deduction, it still amounts to $1-2 Billion dollars in income taxes, $620 million paid to Social Security, and $145 million paid to Medicare. These are all generalizations of course and are based on a lot of assumptions. And it is ONLY at the Federal level. The States would reap benefits from this as well.

So as far as Uncle Sam is concerned, yeah, HE WANTS YOU.

What do I think? Avenged Sevenfold sums it up best...IT'S A NIGHTMARE!!!!

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

1099 workers are not employees, and employers do not pay employment taxes on them. So universities won't have to "keep track of" or pay anything for student athletes who receive name/image/likeness payments.

Students who receive payments will have self-employment taxes they have to pay themselves, which (after the corresponding SE tax deduction) is basically their portion of FICA.

It would probably be a good idea for universities to start requiring student athletes to take a personal finance class their freshman year--something I believe they should have been doing years ago.

[JVShocker]

1099 workers are not employees, and employers do not pay employment taxes on them. So universities won't have to "keep track of" or pay anything for student athletes who receive name/image/likeness payments.

Students who receive payments will have self-employment taxes they have to pay themselves, which (after the corresponding SE tax deduction) is basically their portion of FICA.

It would probably be a good idea for universities to start requiring student athletes to take a personal finance class their freshman year--something I believe they should have been doing years ago.

Good point. Contract workers. Its still a nightmare. Without said personal finance class, its troubling to think of asking the same student athlete for, what, 20-30% of their income at THE END OF THE YEAR??? No way the Government can wait 2, 3 or even 4 years. I'm guessing, just like my LOTTO winnings, that the money would be gone.

So at first this....



And then this....

[WuShock Reaper]

What Zion Williamson’s legal issues say about basketball’s future - Yahoo News

By Pete Thame
May 10, 2020, 9:55 PM CDT

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/what-zions-legal-issues-say-about-basketballs-future-025539909.html

"...Anyone who thinks Williamson and his family weren’t compensated in some way prior to his career ending at Duke should enjoy their next tea party with the Aquaman, the Easter Bunny and Bigfoot. Three separate court cases with allegations of NCAA rule-breaking has to be some kind of record. Even SMU football from the mid-1980s is impressed. ..."

[Stickboy46]

Ignore the Bilas rant.

This is comical coming from Duke. They only reason they are against NIL is because if everyone can pay players, they will have to either spend more money or get outbid for the same players they are already paying under the table. They don't want to lose their unfair advantage.

I'm still not on board with NIL combined with free tranfers, but Duke? come on.

[Aargh]

When I look at this, I envision some booster offering a recruit $100,000 for the rights to their NIL proceeds while they're in college. Then another booster at another school offers $200,000. That would all be legal.

What makes it worse is that $200,000 might be a low bid. The actual profits for elite players from schools with large followings could be huge.

Could Zion Williamson have gotten $500,000 for one year of his endorsements?

Throw in the no sit out trfr's that are probably coming. What do you think it would have cost to keep Baker and VanVleet around for 4 years? Marshall's ability to find under the radar players goes away after they've had a year or two of development in his system.

[WstateU]

No $hit Sherlock!

[Dan]

Wait, I thought it was designed so they can just coach camps in the offseason for a little walking around money.

[SHOXAAC]

No $hit Sherlock!

Say it isn't so Nick...buying players. I can't believe you or your football coaching colleagues would stoop to that level.

[wsushockerdude]

It all boils down to this - the bigger programs were doing it anyway and getting away with it. Now that it's "allowed" at least we can participate.

[WstateU]

Playing in the slop is fun...

[SHOXAAC]

Playing in the slop is fun...

If you're going to GIF mud wrestling, then GIF something we will actually look at for more than a second...if you know what I'm saying!!!

[BostonWu]

It all boils down to this - the bigger programs were doing it anyway and getting away with it. Now that it's "allowed" at least we can participate.

Not really. Who we got to fund big dollar NIL deals?

[1972Shocker]

No $hit Sherlock!

My exact reaction.

Sometimes you have unintended consequences. In this case. you have intended consequences.