Before NIL - Sammie Coates

[cbo 7,979]

We all know NIL is a mess. It was implemented with no plan. 

But let’s remember what it was like before NIL. This certainly isn’t right.
 

 

[Mikey 16,777]

Carlos Rogers, Ronnie Brown and Caddy Williams had similar tales to tell. There has to be a middle ground somewhere.

[JuscAUse! 1,499]

48 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Carlos Rogers, Ronnie Brown and Caddy Williams had similar tales to tell. There has to be a middle ground somewhere.

One would think so. 

[cbo 7,979]

9 minutes ago, WillMunny said:

Hey Sammie, I didn't get a $250,000 scholarship to play ball at AU, like you did.  Instead, my dad and I worked to save the money it took in 1981-85 to send me there to get an engineering degree.

BTW, it sure has paid off.

I like most of your thoughts on here but you are off on this one. 

You are nothing like Sammie Coates. Not that you are better than him or he's better than you. But it comes down to money, like everything does.

Millions of people watched him play. He had very special skills that made a lot of us happy AND made a ton of money for the university. So he deserved a scholarship much more than you. And some money on top of that. Tons of money was made off his back and he got none of it. 

[CCTAU 3,355]

10 hours ago, cbo said:

I like most of your thoughts on here but you are off on this one. 

You are nothing like Sammie Coates. Not that you are better than him or he's better than you. But it comes down to money, like everything does.

Millions of people watched him play. He had very special skills that made a lot of us happy AND made a ton of money for the university. So he deserved a scholarship much more than you. And some money on top of that. Tons of money was made off his back and he got none of it. 

That's an interesting take. One that the younger generation seems to have more than us old folks. An agreement was made to come to AU on scholarship to play football. At the time, it was not known that any of the signed players would be stars or even productive for that matter. As this is a team sport, there are very few individuals whose value is such that it warrants what these kids are asking for today. Sammie was a good player for us. But so were others. He received a very expensive education. And he got a little cash under the table also. Was it enough cash to live it up? I doubt it. But if it was a penny, it was more than was left in a lot of other lockers. And that's OK. We all knew the scholly players got a little extra.

All that being said, the NCAA screwed over all the institutions by not allowing a stipend for each player. Unless you had the Pell Grant coming in, there was no more legal "extra" money. And that left a lot of players without even money to take their girl to eat and a movie. They also did not allow jobs for scholly players. So I can see where people would think they were used and didn't receive their due in return. But that scholarship was a huge payout.

At this point, I don't feel a thing for the NCAA. They screwed over everyone associated with them for that extra dime. But I don't feel bad for Sammie either. He received a quality education in return for his participation in football. As for tons of money made off of his back, I'm sure Cam (and others) would like that percentage to be identified. It really can't, because again, this is a team sport.      

Bottom line is that the NCAA screwed over everyone and now the sport is going to pay the price.

[Viper 3,139]

Cam rode an $180,000 scooter around campus. Stop your whining guys.

[80Tiger 904]

I miss LSU Freek. He always had something good.

[Tiger Refuge 6,675]

21 hours ago, Mikey said:

Carlos Rogers, Ronnie Brown and Caddy Williams had similar tales to tell. There has to be a middle ground somewhere.

I think most reasonable folks could agree with this. The idea that, in the current landscape, nothing has changed and a scholarship should be enough is a tired and lazy argument. The fact of the matter is when demand rose in the 80s-90s, the NCAA dropped the ball. Now, we deal with the repercussions of their inaction.

[GoAU 1,612]

A standard stipend would have made a lot of sense and would have been reasonable, but the current NIL "solution" is an absolute mess.

[JuscAUse! 1,499]

This is so America! We never do anything halfway. We go so hard to fix things we screw them up worse in a different direction!!

Edited May 18 by JuscAUse!

[AU9377 5,136]

4 hours ago, JuscAUse! said:

This is so America! We never do anything halfway. We go so hard to fix things we screw them up worse in a different direction!!

Greed rules until we destroy it all.

[creed 1,666]

My AU roomate's daughter played D1 basketball in Oklahoma. She graduated in 2019 and at that time her monthly stipend was @ $900/month on top of a scholarship, an apartment, utilities, books, meals, etc. 

[Mikey 16,777]

17 minutes ago, creed said:

My AU roomate's daughter played D1 basketball in Oklahoma. She graduated in 2019 and at that time her monthly stipend was @ $900/month on top of a scholarship, an apartment, utilities, books, meals, etc. 

If memory serves, Auburn has one of the highest "stipend" rates in the country. I could have gotten through college very nicely with a deal similar to the above. What I had was the G.I. bill and a part time job. I'm not too much in sympathy with the athletes on full scholarship, they should be doing quite well. Those athletes in baseball, softball and other sports that get only partial scholarships are the ones who need additional help.

[aubiefifty 17,100]

3 hours ago, Mikey said:

If memory serves, Auburn has one of the highest "stipend" rates in the country. I could have gotten through college very nicely with a deal similar to the above. What I had was the G.I. bill and a part time job. I'm not too much in sympathy with the athletes on full scholarship, they should be doing quite well. Those athletes in baseball, softball and other sports that get only partial scholarships are the ones who need additional help.

that GI bill was something else. it helped a lot of kids back in the day.

[gr82be 14,507]

That last post by Sammie is concerning since he has played in the NFL. I hope he’s exaggerating now and he isn’t actually “always broke”. 

[GreenTiger 1,007]

The older generation will always claim to have the more difficult “walk to school” experience than the current generation. 

[TripleDegreeTiger 80]

44 minutes ago, gr82be said:

That last post by Sammie is concerning since he has played in the NFL. I hope he’s exaggerating now and he isn’t actually “always broke”. 

There is a great 30 for 30 that talks about what these guys do with their NFL money. Can't remember the name of it.

[TripleDegreeTiger 80]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

If memory serves, Auburn has one of the highest "stipend" rates in the country. I could have gotten through college very nicely with a deal similar to the above. What I had was the G.I. bill and a part time job. I'm not too much in sympathy with the athletes on full scholarship, they should be doing quite well. Those athletes in baseball, softball and other sports that get only partial scholarships are the ones who need additional help.

I was in one of those sports as a college athlete. The partials went to the out of state players to try and match in state costs.

I'm with you. You got a full scholarship at Auburn University, you went to the NFL, you made connections at Auburn. If you're broke then you are doing it wrong.

[Mikey 16,777]

45 minutes ago, GreenTiger said:

The older generation will always claim to have the more difficult “walk to school” experience than the current generation. 

That's been the goal of Americans since the Pilgrim days, for our next generation to have it better than we did. To a large extent we have succeeded. Recently, at some point in the process we've hit "critical mass" and the next generation having it better may no longer be a good thing. But we're straying off into the political/sociological area aren't we?

[ShocksMyBrain 9,389]

1 hour ago, TripleDegreeTiger said:

There is a great 30 for 30 that talks about what these guys do with their NFL money. Can't remember the name of it.

“Broke”. 

[pikecracker 45]

They absolutely could put rules in place to prevent some of the shenanigans going on right now where schools are just straight up buying players. All most of us wanted was for a legit superstar to be able to profit from it without having their amateur status revoked. If you are a household name, you should be able to profit from it. That's how capitalism works. If Dominoes wants to put you in a commercial, then good for you. If only people at your school know who you are and the local burger joint wants to pay you for ads, then good for you. If you want to set up a website like the QB from Nebraska a few years ago, that should have always been allowed. However, the way it works now is just pay for play funneled through a third party. I really hope they find a way to get that under control, but it doesn't look like it. The NCAA lost in court and they dropped all investigations into schools where the coaches or other school representatives were directly involved in NIL deals. 

[woodford 3,678]

Sammie either didn’t know the right people or didn’t know how to ask. 

[woodford 3,678]

4 hours ago, ShocksMyBrain said:

“Broke”. 

Half the people in Broke were also in The U lol

[JuscAUse! 1,499]

His net worth in 2022 was 5 million dollars, according to a quick web search. 

[JerryAU 1,694]

On 5/18/2024 at 9:22 AM, Mikey said:

If memory serves, Auburn has one of the highest "stipend" rates in the country. I could have gotten through college very nicely with a deal similar to the above. What I had was the G.I. bill and a part time job. I'm not too much in sympathy with the athletes on full scholarship, they should be doing quite well. Those athletes in baseball, softball and other sports that get only partial scholarships are the ones who need additional help.

August 2015 the NCAA allowed student-athlete Cost of Attendance Stipends, and you are correct, Auburn paid out on the high-end at +/-$5,500 if my memory is correct. 

Sammie went in the 3rd rnd of the 2015 NFL Draft, so he missed the stipends. 

Edited May 23 by JerryAU