#second season they had fluke university playing basketball - duke university | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

annchumleigh · 6 years ago

Text

Wolverines’ Top Big Ten Opponents

Navigation:

Michigan State

Wisconsin

Indiana

Ohio State

The Wolverines are just tearing it up! The University of Michigan picked up right where they left off last year. They are Big Ten basketball right now. Michigan is continuing to build on its proud basketball legacy. John Beilein’s squad looks more poised than ever. They definitely look ready to make another NCAA Championship run. They’re riding a 28-1 record over their past 29 games and cruised past Penn State in their last game. The Wolverines have shown a strong ability to adapt to different defensive looks. Against Penn State, it took a minute, but they soon settled into a groove against PSU’s aggressive man defense. Their single loss happened when? The 2018 NCAA title game. None have been able to stop them since!

The Wolverines are currently No. 2 right behind Duke. So far this season they’re undefeated! The Wolverines are playing like true contenders at this point. They’ve beaten the likes of UNC, Villanova, and Purdue. Michigan didn’t just beat these teams, they ran them out the building. None put up much of a fight. They’re not just scraping by, they’re blowing teams out. Ignas Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole have proven themselves to be sharpshooters all season. Their perfect start looks to be no fluke. Even though it is early in the season, we’re going to take a look at the Big Ten teams most likely to stop this juggernaut run.

Michigan State

Even without Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr., this team is stacked. The Spartans are led by their trio of Nick Ward, Joshua Langford, and Cassius Winston. You can never underestimate a Tom Izzo coached Spartan team. There are currently sitting second the Wolverines in the Big Ten standings. The Spartans have only lost to Louisville and Kansas. Both of these games ended close.

Wisconsin

Finally healthy this year after an abysmal showing last season, the Badgers are playing like they used to. Look for them to bounce back this weekend after back to back losses to Western Kentucky and Minnesota. They look to end this streak against the Nittany Lions tonight. They have the ability to really compete in this conference and have the talent to win on any given day.

Indiana

It’s all about Romeo Langford for the Hoosiers. He is a real threat. The projected lottery pick has dazzled this season, leading the Indiana Hoosiers to a top 25 ranking. Indiana is currently riding a hot streak after getting blown out by the Blue Devils, they’ve won their last seven games. This includes victories against Butler and Louisville. Archie Miller’s Hoosiers look to give the Wolverines their first loss of the season today. Watch out for Langford, he just put up 28 on the fight Illini. The Wolverines will have to continue their excellent run of defense to keep the Hoosier’s star in check.

Ohio State

Ohio State has only had two losses this season, and those came against Syracuse and the Spartans. Losing against the Orange or Michigan State shouldn’t be considered a terrible loss, however, they’ve yet to win against any quality opponents. Some might argue their home win against Minnesota was a good victory, but apart they’ve done little to impress.

If Beilein’s Michigan keeps up their amazing defense they can go all the way. With about half of the season wrapped up, it might be too early to tell if they can keep up this undefeated run. Beilein has to approach this season like another other, game-by-game. Even though they lack the star power of Zion and RJ at Duke, the Wolverines display a well-rounded team led by Ignas Brazdeikis, Charles Matthews, and Jordan Poole. The Wolverines must first look to beat a red-hot Hoosier squad led by an incredibly talented Romeo Langford.

best michigan clothing company

The post Wolverines’ Top Big Ten Opponents appeared first on LIVNFRESH.

from LIVNFRESH http://blog.livnfresh.com/wolverines-top-big-ten-opponents/ from Livnfresh Share Your State Pride. http://livnfresh.tumblr.com/post/182296113502 via http://livnfresh.tumblr.com/

#Livnfresh Share Your State Pride.

0 notes

livnfreshmichigan · 6 years ago

Text

Wolverines’ Top Big Ten Opponents

Navigation:

Michigan State

Wisconsin

Indiana

Ohio State

Michigan State

Wisconsin

Indiana

Ohio State

best michigan clothing company

The post Wolverines’ Top Big Ten Opponents appeared first on LIVNFRESH.

from Michigan – LIVNFRESH http://blog.livnfresh.com/wolverines-top-big-ten-opponents/

0 notes

jesse-k-williams · 8 years ago

Text

The Hunger Games By: Jesse Williams

March Madness and the College Football Playoffs mean many things to many people, but for almost everyone involved it means money. Fans of the month long Collegiate Basketball Championship tournament bet over $9 billion on brackets and individual matches. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) brings in billions as well in sponsorship deals from these venues. The coaches look to make six-figure bonuses as well. And for the players, the ones leaving it all out there on the court, well of course they will see none of that profit. “The National Collegiate Athletic Association – the powerful nonprofit organization that makes and enforces rules for college sports – is opposed to paying athletes.” (Issues For Debate, Page 268). The NCAA repeatedly defended its policies on paying college athletes by saying these athletes are often on full scholarships that cover tuition, accommodation, fees and meal plans at their respected universities or colleges.

While these costs are all covered. There are other expenses associated with college athletics that these scholarships do not cover. For example, athletes who spend well over 90 hours a week between practice, weight room, class and studying will often find themselves hungry well after the university’s dining facilities have closed. There is nothing within these scholarships that will provide these students additional dining options. During the end of the 2014 Championship Tournament, Shabazz Napier of the tournament winning University of Connecticut men’s basketball team spoke of the impact of these scholarship limits. “Sometimes like I said, there are hungry nights that I can’t eat. But I have to play to my abilities… There are many hungry nights that I go to bed and I’m starving”.

For many, these things seem like a small price to pay in return for a full scholarship. It is important to remember that these scholarships are the only way many of these athletes can make it to college. A staggering 86% of college athletes live below the poverty line and their performance at their sport is one of the few chances they have at attending college. Many cannot rely on their parents for the extra money they need to live. Many of these athletes come from single parent households, where they worked while in high school to help out with bills too often once these athletes leave for college their families struggle to make ends meet.

According to Randy Grant, a collegiate athletics economist at Linfield College, two groups benefit most: the NCAA and its coaches. “A lot of the revenue actually goes toward the coaches’ salaries,” Grant says. “That’s the most expensive item in their budgets.” (ibtimes.com). Coaches and their staff account for close to 30 percent of Division I athletics expenditures. At top tier schools, like North Carolina, USC, Virginia, and Duke head coaches can reach well into the millions. The University of Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski tops the pay chart, with a salary of $9.7 million. According to USA Today, 35 coaches in last year's tournament made seven-figure salaries before bonuses. Now add in bonuses, the money becomes even crazier. For instance, if Virginia had won this past championship, the school would have made as much as $600,000 in NCAA quota, along with its conference rivals. But the school’s head coach Tony Bennett would have made at least $800,000 on top of his $1.9 million salary, far exceeding the tournament winnings.

With all this money going around, the NCAA and Universities still find a way to not compensate the ones that are most important to these programs, the heart and soul, the players. “Arguably, the ones who lose are the players, they’re the ones who are doing the bulk of the work, and they’re not really being compensated.” Ryan Grant. (ibtimes.com)

What makes the NCAA’s stand on not paying their “student athletes” even more outrageous is the amount of money the NCAA and these Universities make off the sweat equity of these athletes. The NCAA and these Universities claim they don’t profit off of “student athletes”, which is far from the truth in fact. According to a 2013 August article on theweek.com, the 2012 Heisman Trophy Winner (awarded to the nation’s best college football player) Johnny Manziel brought his school, Texas A&M a wave of media exposure that was estimated to be valued at $37.5 million dollars between November 2012 and January 2013. Along with that $37.5 million in media exposure, he took his team to the 2013 Cotton Bowl where the school made $7.45 million for appearing. Students selling his replica jersey for $60 in the book stores of Texas A&M make $10 an hour, while he made nothing. He was even auctioned off at a dinner held by the school’s boosters for $20,000, with him seeing none of that money.

In August 2013 the NCAA was exposed as hypocrites when ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas went on their website and proved one of the biggest lies behind one of the organization’s central arguments for amateurism. He searched specific player names, starting with Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel and proceeded to search several other players from both college football and basketball. NCAA rules prohibit adding names to jerseys or selling merchandise based around an individual player. However, when these player’s names were searched their jerseys and memorabilia came up.

Total Football Expenses Total Football Revenue

Alabama

$36,918,963

$81,993,762

Ohio State

$34,026,871

$58,112,270

Oregon

$20,240,213

$51,921,731

Stanford

$18,738,731

$25,564,646

Georgia

$22,710,140

$74,989,418

Texas A&M

$17,929,882

$44,420,762

South Carolina

$22,063,216

$48,065,096

Clemson

$23,652,472

$39,207,780

Louisville

$18,769,539

$23,756,955

Florida

$23,045,846

$74,117,435

The chart above is from an article by Forbes called “The Economics of College Football”, it’s a list of the top ten College Football teams in the country. What’s interesting about the numbers in this article is that when you look at the amount of money the University of Alabama brings in through the football program and divide that by the amount of players on the team, you realize each player has a value of $863,092. So what does the University spend its money on? Its head coach, Nick Saban. Saban was being paid $5.5 million dollars a year in 2014, after that season he received a $1.5 million raise to $7 million a year for the last six years of a eight year contract. This contract makes him the highest paid coach in College Football. The schools board of trustees even bought his home which is valued at $2.875 million. That’s not all, every year that the University of Alabama makes the college playoffs he gets a bonus of $110,000, if they make it to the National Championship game he gets $210,000 and if they win it he makes an additional $310,000. Altogether Saban can make an additional $630,000 on top of his $7 million a year salary. He isn’t just the highest paid coach in College Football, he also makes more money than every coach in the NBA except for one, and every coach in the NFL except for two. So when these Universities, the NCAA, and some of these coach’s say that can’t afford to pay these players because of other “expenses” that is untruthful.

“Student Athletes” and “Amateurism”, are two of the NCAA’s favorite phrases. The term “Student Athlete” was created by the NCAA. The term came into play in the 1950s, when the widow of Ray Dennison, who had died from a head he injury received while playing football in Colorado for the Fort Lewis A&M Aggies, filed for workmen’s-compensation death benefits. Did his football scholarship make the fatal collision a "work-related" accident? Was he a school employee, like his peers who worked part-time as teaching assistants and bookstore cashiers? Or was he a fluke victim of extracurricular pursuits? Given the hundreds of incapacitating injuries to college athletes each year, the answers to these questions had enormous consequences. The Colorado Supreme Court agreed with the school’s contention that he was not eligible for benefits, since the college was "not in the football business." "We crafted the term student-athlete, and soon it was embedded in all NCAA rules and interpretations." (former NCAA president Walter Byers wrote)

Using the "student-athlete" defense, colleges have compiled a string of victories in liability cases. On October 26, 1974, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs played the Alabama Crimson Tide in Birmingham, Alabama. Kent Waldrep, a TCU running back, carried the ball toward the Crimson Tide’s sideline, where he was met by a swarm of tacklers. When he regained consciousness Waldrep learned he was paralyzed. He had lost all movement and feeling below his neck. After nine months of paying his medical bills, his University refused to pay any more, so the Waldrep family coped for years on dwindling charity. This is just one of hundreds of cases where the NCAA use the term “Student Athlete” as a shield.

This is what the NCAA has to say about Amateurism. “Maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority. In the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.” (ncaa.org/amateurism). Students first, athletes second. This statement sounds great but in reality isn’t the case. Kyle Hardrick lost his basketball scholarship at Oklahoma after he tore his meniscus. Jason Whitehead nearly lost his football scholarship at Ohio University after he injured his neck. How can the NCAA say that these athletes are students first when the second some of them get injured these Universities are throwing them out the door?

Defenders of the Amateurism rule say that if college athletes were to get paid it

would water down the sport. Not to long ago the Olympics were an amateur affair, which was just as committed to no-pay-for-play, no salaries, and no endorsements as today's NCAA. “If we water down the rules now, the sport will be destroyed within eight years.” (Olympic Historian Bill Mallon). But the 1960 Olympic committee decided these athletes could and should be paid for autographs, and endorsement deals. Going forward into the 2016 Olympic games the games are more popular than ever. Allen Sack, a professor of sports management at the University of New Haven has written many articles on college sports and economics said “My point of view is that there is absolutely nothing wrong, unethical, or immoral about people, students in particular being paid for playing a sport. The Olympics realized that. Even the NCAA realizes that. I interviewed [former NCAA president] Myles Brand for a book, and he said that notion of amateurism has outlived its usefulness. It doesn't fit in the 21st century. It didn't even fit in the 20th century." (theatlantic.com)

So what can the NCAA do to solve this problem. They can allow stipends to cover the cost of things scholarships do not. The stipends should be enough to reduce student’s vulnerability to breaking the rules. Allow six year scholarships and eliminate year to year scholarship renewals. Currently 43% of football players don’t graduate and up to 53% of basketball players. Allow schools to operate more like the Olympic Armature model, free market. So if you are great in Lacrosse sign a stick deal, great in tennis sign a racket deal. Give them a portion of their jersey sales, let them get paid for their autographs and receive endorsements.

There should be a College Player Association to serve as a counter weight to NCAA. The CPA would help the players with the NCAA in getting deals with TV networks, handle licensing deals on behalf of players getting their jerseys sold and they would administer a health plan. Give these athletes insurance. It is not just football players at risk, heading a soccer ball is extremely dangerous as well. Provide lifetime health insurance for anyone who has played at least two years. And let’s not forget about women athletics, they might not be the big ticket sports that drive the revenue but they are student athletes that work just as hard if not harder than their male counterparts and deserve the same pay.

In conclusion college sports is a huge market which everyone participating can and should profit. I’m not advocating for athletes being paid at the college level, but I strongly advocate that they get stipends, that they be able to raise money for charities of their choice, and that they receive a portion of all jersey sales.

#college athletes #hunger games #why college athletes should get paid #ncaa #college football #college basketball #March madness

0 notes