I don't want to get deeply into your discussion, but I have no doubt that NIL money is taxable to the recipient just as other earnings are. I'm not sure that makes a difference in determining what is right and what is wrong, but that's for you two to argue about.
How much #NIL $$ does Rutgers Athletics need to be competitive?!
- Thread starter bori_blanco
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Steve Cohen pays a $384 million pay roll and $109 million luxury tax. Estimates have the Mets losing $200 Million a year. It's his hobby. We need someone who wants a high profile hobby. Anyone know any billionaires?
It crosses my line. Investments in the program are something we can all take pride in (for better or worse). I'm not interested in paying for some dipshit's tattoos.
I did not intend to sound or be argumentative. I was just stating my thoughts/feelings on the topic that giving an athlete money in addition to tuition/room and board feels/seems different and another level, and I used the tax treatment (which you confirmed) as a way to look at one form of "payment," which I don't see as a payment but as a benefit versus being paid a periodic (weekly/monthly/annually) amount of money in addition to tuition/room and board.
Reasonable minds can disagree on what is "right," and I never claimed that I was right on this. Like many issues, there is probably some middle ground that people can accept, or accept more than one side or the other.
Just so you know . . . you do sound argumentative. But you are a lawyer, after all.
There's always been a fair amount of hypocrisy involved in college sports; for instance, under the table payments have always existed. But they were under the table and now they're over the table. So we all now have to recognize that money is a big motivating factor in why a kid picks school A rather than school B. It's not the only factor -- a kid will think about how well the coaching staff will develop him, whether he'll get to play, whether his friends are there, and (maybe) about how much a degree from that school will help him in later life. But certainly money is important and visible. For some fans, the loss of the illusion of amateurism and the illusion that the player is fighting for dear old Rutgers will lead them to play golf on Saturdays instead. There's nothing wrong with that, just as there was nothing wrong with fans deciding to stop following major-league baseball once free agency made it clear that players pick teams based on money rather than their love for a city or their teammates.
But the fact will remain that college football and basketball are played differently from pro football and basketball and that many fans will continue to prefer the college version. I can't count how many basketball fans on this board say they can't stand watching the NBA. And college crowds are different from pro crowds; being at a college game is not the same experience as being at a pro game. So I don't think college sports are about to die.
