https://madison.com/sports/college/wisconsin-badgers-seniors-wont-return...
The NCAA overreacted in restoring a year of eligibility to spring sports students amid the coronavirus-related shutdown, University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said.
And UW won't be allowing those seniors to pursue another year with their teams in 2021, according to an athletic department statement Thursday that cited "a time of unprecedented uncertainty in college athletics."
"What we tried to do was encourage our seniors to go ahead and, if you're going to graduate, graduate and move on with your life," Alvarez said Wednesday on his monthly radio show on 1310 WIBA and Learfield/IMG College. "We appreciate everything that you've done. But move forward. The future is in question, and we can't promise you anything."
What the hell is Wisconsin doing? This is a a stupid and unnecessary step. I hope this comes back to bite them.
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Translation: "All recruits, go elsewhere, because we don't care enough about your athletic career."
Or...we care enough about the playing time we promised you that we won't let the seniors stick around another season and take it from you.
Conversely, we don't care about the thing that could give us the best chance at winning or helping you continue your education as far as you can.
I get that financially, especially if football is impacted, tough decisions will have to be made, but I don't think anyone will say it is about playing time.
You can keep a kid on scholarship without playing them. Be upfront that you want to give underclassmen a shot and move on.
I've never thought of Alvarez as a guy who's real big on tact, but man that's rough.
"You cost us too much money, goodbye"
Totally read this in this voice:
Man, whatever happened to that lady?
Apparently, she was the weakest link.
No idea but it was hilarious when Rob Schiender made jokes that eventually forced that woman to smile.
The number of spring sport scholarships is minimal. Most of these kids are paying their own way (or at least a majority of the cost) and playing for the love of the game.
The few sports that do have full scholarships are expensive, and it would expand rosters so more scholarships are needed next spring. It's about money.
That seems . . . off to me. Those other students don't have the same kind of time limitations that athletes do.
Exactly -- those students don't exhaust "eligibility" like an athlete does and could opt to still do all those things if they wanted to.
Now he will reject their transfer requests.
NCAA has already said the extension is only good for the school you are currently at and it's at the schools discretion to offer the extra year.
I do not understand wisconsins athletic department... tons of money just lying around and Alvarez and terrified to spend it. Furthermore he comes off as more and more of a dick with these moves
This is particularly shitty because there aren't any revenue sports in the spring. Unless these kids are baseball standouts or Olympian material, college is the apex of their careers.
EDIT: It's shitty in any season, really. For the majority of college athletes, this will be the apex of their careers.
Yep. Schools don't have the billions of dollars Jay Bilas claims they do to pay their players (slaves).
The AD is going to make about 1.5 million this year. If he gave up 300,000 of it and the football coach and basketball coach gave up 200,000 each they could afford those kids scholarships.
Those 2 jobs and skills are less expendable than athletes. IIWII. That's why they make what they make. Why should they be paid less?
If Dabo gave up half of his $9m/yr salary they could pay 100 players 45k/season. Obviously they couldn't do that and provide benefits and what not, but still a note on the raw cash already outflowing within an Athletic Dept.
From what I've seen, Jay Bilas (and most intelligent people) support an olympic model; not a pay-for-play model.
I'm pretty sure Bilas supports a pay for play model, yes.
No, he doesn't:
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Wisconsin is one of the most profitable athletic departments in the country they could easily pay this out
Probably because they make good business decisions like this. Sucks for the athletes - but keeps UoW from having to cut other sports in 2020-21 or furlough employees.
Big Picture- Keeping adults employed, paid and on benefits is more important that giving a kid an extra season.
I wouldnt say they make good business decisions....I think that brand could be a lot better and bigger if they actually aggressively paid and sought after their coaches. They have an enormous alumni base and tons of money filling in they're gonna run out of coaches eventually. The fact that they lost 3 DCs in 3 years is absolutely inexcusable, each one wanted to stay but Wisconsin was paying them absurdly low salaries. Same point for their basketball team. Greg gard is not the answer, he keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat but I do not think hes a good coach at all. Hes a cheap one. You expand and get bigger by being aggressive when you can their bubble will burst eventually
The real problem is that this was on the schedule for next year.
If the NCAA approved an extra year of eligibility for 2031, then Wisconsin would be all over it.
Give it another couple years and it will be half a scholarship in 2040 and the second half in 2045.
The sports involved are baseball, softball, tennis, golf, outdoor track and field, lacrosse, rowing, men's volleyball, beach volleyball and women's water polo. Bringing them back costs the school for a full year. Wisky won't be the only school that does this, imo.
Wisconsin doesn't have baseball, lacrosse, mens volleyball, beach volleyball, or water polo.
1 Mens Tennis (4.5 total scholarships)
1 Mens Golf (4.5 total scholarships)
3 Mens Rowing (bonus they have a rower named cox) (not a scholarship sport)
2 Sr, 6 RS Sr Mens Track and field (12.6 Scholarships)
4 Softball (12 total scholarships)
1 Rs Sr Womans golf (6 total scholarships)
11 rowing (20 total scholarships but like 40 women on roster)
2 W. Tennis (4.5 scholarships)
1 RS Sr W. Golf (6 scholarships)
6 Sr, 3 RS Sr W. Track and Field ( 18 scholarships)
Most of these people dont have full scholarships. 11 can't redshirt. So really, at worst, 11 x ~$50k for a scholarship (based off there website for cost for grad school) is $550,000.
Seems to me that there are going to be some cuts somewhere.
Wisconsin has done the math already.
The Ivy League also did this.
In the Ivy League, it was a bit different, though, as they haven't in the past allowed graduate students to participate in sports.
It may be worth looking at the pros and cons before making a judgment:
Sports Illustrated discusses pros and cons
And Ivies dont give athletic Scholarships, so the academic cost of a student athlete is not carried by the institution, only peripheral things like uniforms, travel, equipment, etc. Their denial is based on their 5th year rule.
This is true, but they're pretty generous on their needs-based scholarships all around. It's just not different for student-athletes.
Anyone else read this thread title and think "wow that's a powerful blanket" ?
Think how heavy that weighted blanket would have to be in Wisconsin of all places.
That blanket has some real pull.
I suspect Wisconsin won't be the last program to do something along these lines.
The state of Wisconsin has been a cluster-fuck as of late...
Sucks for the kids who are missing out on a season, but I think the schools might be nervous that there won't be sports next year away, so might as well have those kids move on.
Announcing it early allows both sides to plan as best as possible. Student knows they need to get a job or start grad school, school can budget for typical number of scholarships and take care of those kids as best they can.
Money this, scholarships that, end reality is that ADs have to protect football and basketball. That's it.
Oh we gotta pay for five seniors on the baseball team, again? No, we gotta pay or expenses for that Bahamas trip for the basketball team. That's a lot of marketing, and we'll pocket double through revenue from the tournament.
Oh that championship track relay team? Nah, we could put that towards an alumni event for the first football game of the season.
That wrestling team with national qualifiers? Eliminate em (looking at you ODU). We save enough to be title ix compliant, and put football revenue back into football.
One thing I haven't heard mentioned is the roster size limits for baseball. Imagine bringing in a recruiting class and not having any of the seniors leave. Only 35 are allowed on a roster and that won't be changed. If you are a school like Wisconsin and want to make it easy on your baseball coach you just order the blanket no seniors allowed to stay because you wouldn't be able to just say it for baseball.
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/division-i-council...
Roster sizes can reflect any seniors who stay.