16 readers sound off on the NIL era of college sports
Wisconsin State Journal readers have sent in many letters to the editor about the new era of college sports. You can join the conversations by sending your own letter to wsjopinion@madison.com.
(16) updates to this series since
Because the "name, image and likeness" system has made college athletics into a minor league system for professional teams, I suggest that a compensation system to colleges should be established.
This is a small item considering all of the serious things going on in the world right now, but it’s one that bothers many sports fans.
The Dec. 9 State Journal article "Salaries revealed for administrative team" about the UW Athletic Department illuminated how much big-time college athletics has become a business. The student athletic side of the business is becoming increasingly less about amateur athletics and more like professional paid athletics with transfer rights, portals and player pay for use of their names, image and likeness.
My first recollection of attending Wisconsin football was when my father took me to see Minnesota's All-American quarterback Sandy Stephens play my beloved Badgers at Camp Randall in 1960.
College athletes, including those at UW-Madison, are now receiving compensation for "name, image and likeness" (NIL).
Calls to fire UW Athletic Director Chris McIntosh are shortsighted. As a former UW Athletic Board member — a voluntary position -- I saw firsthand how complex the athletic department is to manage. There is far more than football. It's a large department of all sports, academic programs, staff, development, facilities, campus relationships and much more.
The fans for football in Badgerland have turned away.
Why are we so down on our Wisconsin Badgers football team?
Kudos to last Thursday's letter to the editor "Don't blame Fickell for broken college system."
Money has dramatically changed the nature of big-time college football. Not only are the coaches paid in the millions of dollars, but athletes throughout the athletic department will receive a total of about $22 million plus name, image and likeness contracts.
I was at the Sept. 20 Badgers games against Maryland and did not boo. But I felt the same frustration that the “boo-ers” expressed.
In the recent NFL draft, Ohio State had 14 players selected while Oregon produced 10 and Michigan had seven.
After a great deal of soul-searching and after nearly 50 years as ticket holders, my husband and I have decided not to renew our season tickets for Badgers football.
The college football national championship recently concluded with Ohio State (oops, forgot the "The") winning the championship.
Whatever happened to amateur athletics? The short answer is that it no longer exists at the collegiate level.
If you have grown as tired as I have with the revolving door of college athletics caused by the creation of the transfer portal, I may have a solution.
Send us your letter to the editor of 200 or fewer words to wsjopine@madison.com. You can also fill out this online form. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification.
