Johnny Manziel– an unbelievable talent shrouded in scrutiny and arrogant adolescence.
The NCAA – a ruthless organization, which has drawn comparisons to the mob with its nonexistent business ethics, and exploitive policies.
These two entities are completely “unaware” of each other’s agendas, despite how much one needs the other to survive. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of money is changing hands thanks to all of the high-priced amenities on the Texas A&M campus. In fact, this unfortunate situation is not just happening in College Station. Dozens of Division I campuses across the nation are experiencing a business boom thanks to the cash cow that is college football.
Andy Schwarz – a managing partner at OSKR, a law firm based in California that focuses in sports, antitrust, entertainment and intellectual property – has said the six major Division I athletic conference’s make $1.3 billion per year. Somehow with all this money being generated the NCAA is unable to provide an athletic scholarship that covers a student/athlete’s total expenses. The result of which is a black market system that leads to scandal.
Johnny Manziel Exposes Issues In The NCAA
Manziel is a cocky arrogant kid – there is no denying that – I say SO WHAT?
He, like every other scholarship athlete, deserves more monetary compensation in my opinion. Texas A&M has heaped tens of millions of dollars thanks to his involvement in one of the most scandalous policies of the NCAA, which forbids student athletes from making money from, or permitting someone else to make money from, their names or likenesses.
In Manziel’s case, the NCAA investigated whether he was paid a few thousand dollars for signing autographs last season in two alleged incidents. The NCAA determined that he did in fact get paid to sign autographs, and suspended him for the first half of the Aggies’ opening game against Rice. This was a staggeringly light punishment in comparison to past sentences handed down for similar violations. This might lead one to believe the NCAA has a vested interest in Manziel’s ability to play in all the scheduled nationally and locally televised games. Just think of all the viewers that would be lost if Manziel was unable to play in those games.
Better yet think of all the money the NCAA would lose.
How His Own School Benefits From Johnny Manziel
Texas A&M, nevertheless, can make all the money it wants off of Manziel’s deeds, and given the quarterback’s headline-grabbing actions on and off the field that has proven to be quite a profitable industry for the school. Last year, A&M’s first as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Aggies’ athletic department collected $120 million in revenue, sixth-highest of any school in the nation. A reproduction #2 jersey goes for $60 through the school’s bookstore, just one of the countless items for sale with Manziel’s number. The jersey was so popular the bookstore sold out of them — all 2,500 — last December, according to ESPN.
The NCAA store also has a bountiful amount of Johnny-Football-related merchandise. Regardless of the NCAA’s claim that it does not link apparel to specific players, with a little URL hack a search for “Manziel” turns up a bit of Aggie items.
The quarterback also fetched his school a flood of media publicity that was worth an estimated $37 million from last November through early January, according to one study; a period in which Manziel won the Heisman Triphy and led the Aggies to a resounding four-touchdown Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma. Texas A&M made $7.45 million just for appearing in that game, a figure they split with Oklahoma.
Even the school’s booster program, the 12th Man Foundation, has made money off Manziel – auctioning off a dinner with him for $20,000.
Johnny Manziel will get not an iota of the money mentioned above – a number approaching $50 million for the school when just adding the merchandise sales, bowl game winnings and media publicity.
The Negligent NCAA
Mark Emmert has been doing some damage control recently thanks to Johnny Manziel.
The NCAA once again appears the apex of duplicity, as the organization profits in every possible way from the sweat of unpaid athletes. How can NCAA president Mark Emmert ignore this? Well – here’s a possible response for that question; Emmert is paid $1.7 million a year to Jedi his way through the NCAA deceptiveness.
Texas A&M doesn’t look so hot, either. The school has not and probably will never offer to give back the $37 million that, by its own assessment, Johnny Football towed in for the Aggies last season. The big conferences and powerhouse programs look unscrupulous, covered head to toe in cash brought in by amateur players. (Just as a taste, $81 million in football profits and $44 million in football income was brought in last season by BCS champion Alabama, according to Department of Education records).
If I’m not mistaken A.J. Green was suspended, when he was at Georgia, for selling a jersey that was his own property. Wouldn’t all this garbage end if the players were compensated, or feasibly allowed to charge payments for autographs and public appearances, and to do so openly? A lot of individuals must be thinking that right now.
Wake up sports fans! We are encapsulated in a never ending symphony of treachery and infamy, duplicity, deceit and trickery. And no one’s worse than the NCAA.
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