Oregon State needs to invest in Shephard. Beaver Nation needs to invest in the roster.

[u/mtwolf55]

https://www.on3.com/teams/oregon-state-beavers/news/oregon-state-invest-jamarcus-shephard-valley-challege/

[u/CougFanDan]

I may just be jaded about the direction of college sports these days, but I’m a little tired of being coerced/guilt-tripped into donating my hard-earned money to these programs.

Yes, I know that’s partially how we ended up in the basement that we’re in now, but still…

[u/Ichthyist1 → u/CougFanDan]

Yes, but also we spend more than just about any other program in the conference on NIL, our coach is among the top salaried in the conference, and we are still in the basement. We used to do more with less, now we’re doing less with more.

[u/Aromatic-Action-2523 → u/Ichthyist1]

Last year we blew a lot on NIL and saw no return. Just shows how fucked up this current system is.

[u/Xmalantix → u/Aromatic-Action-2523]

End of the day none of us will have deep enough pockets to keep our best guys. Power conference teams can offer them more money and in some cases the chance to compete for a championship. Almost no kid is going to turn that down

[u/Rich_Situation_4337 → u/Xmalantix]

Donors have deep pockets. We just need to get certain donors to realize that athletics DOES affect enrollment and academics.,

[u/Aromatic-Action-2523 → u/Xmalantix]

I guess we need to just worry more about paying our current staff then and sell the opportunity to get on the field and get developed. NIL be damned.

[u/CougFanDan → u/Aromatic-Action-2523]

Staff is more important for sure, but realistically we can’t compete there either.

We’re basically farm programs for the major programs, but we don’t receive any compensation when they poach our players.

We need buyouts and multi year contracts or something.

[u/GrumpyBear1969 → u/CougFanDan]

I’m just done with college sports because they are no longer college sports. When they made it so players could transfer between teams I was mixed, but it made sense for players that were stuck behind a better player and could start on another team. But now it is just the bigger schools poaching the best players from smaller schools. Which was not really the intent.

Then you have the money problem. There was a time where the justification for all the focus on TV revenue was that the programs bring in money that benefits the schools in other ways. But now that they are paying the players you end up in this situations where you need to raise revenue to pay them enough so they are less likely to be willing to move to a bigger school. How fucked up is that?

I’m an OSU alumni. And you know, it is kind of fun. More fun when they are not horrifically bad (like they were when I was in school and they ran the wishbone and set the NCAA record for fumbles). But I will not be giving them money. The money was supposed to flow the other way. And you know, if they suck, that’s OK because that is not what the University is supposed to be about. If you want to go to a school that will worship their football program, go to UO. Or Penn State where the fans continue to defend all the good the program did despite the whole Sandusky thing.

[u/EightWhiskey → u/GrumpyBear1969]

It isn’t fair to the players to be uncompensated for what they do on the field when you consider the value generated for others from that activity. I don’t begrudge the players getting paid for their labor.

But it’s so clearly unsustainable. The real fix is to de-couple the professional sports development pipeline from university education. The NFL gets that pipeline for free. If we had a system more similar to European football academies/club pyramids then the players could get paid market rates, academic institutions could focus on academics, and the billion dollar corporations at the top would have skin in the game for developing their own talent pool.

[u/osuaviator → u/EightWhiskey]

Players were never uncompensated. A 4 year scholarship, best in the country (D1 level, not OSU specifically) coaches and facilities, academic tutoring, the exposure and experience playing, the list goes on.

It’s fine if you think they deserve more, but student athletes have never been uncompensated in the modern era.

[u/Paladine_PSoT → u/osuaviator]

While true, it's never been a big secret that most players aren't in it for the degree. It's a stepping stone to qualify for the NFL.

Monetary compensation does make sense because they are absolutely putting in the work to create a product that brings in huge revenue, but by blasting the doors wide open we've lost sight of what an athletics program should be doing to benefit a school. Pandora's box is open.

[u/Chrono_trigger99 → u/CougFanDan]

Long term, it's really just 20 teams who can sustain this arms race, and I say just let them break off into their own circlejerk league so the rest of us can mutually agree on set rules with real enforcement and go back to normal college sports. And to those teams at the top who think they won by accomplishing that, SOMEBODY gets to be the Clevelands and the Browns in that new league.

[u/Bvrcntry_duckhnt → u/Chrono_trigger99]

Agreed, let them go play with themselves while the rest of the schools play regional football.

[u/Calithrand → u/Chrono_trigger99]

"The Clevelands and the Browns,"

Ouch!

[u/Paladine_PSoT → u/CougFanDan]

That's not how "we" ended up there. The P4 got to where they are because of people who have so much money they don't even notice an entire town's annual wage worth of money going out so they can lord their purchased team's success over us.

It's not a regular fan failure.

[u/Alivelysnow → u/CougFanDan]

It’s amazing how tone deaf these statements are. Do they not realize that after Gen X, there is no wealth, there is no free money to hand to a college/university that charges tuition and collects o er 45% of every grant dollar brought in? It is mind boggling to think that anyone thinks this model is sustainable.

[u/reno1441 → u/CougFanDan]

I may just be jaded about the direction of college sports these days, but I’m a little tired of being coerced/guilt-tripped into donating my hard-earned money to these programs.

To be fair, this was always the case even before NIL. To a little lesser extent then, but practically the same. College athletics has always run on donor funds.

[u/Rich_Situation_4337 → u/CougFanDan]

I’m more than happy to donate! Go BEAVS!!! 🖤🧡🖤🧡🖤🧡

[u/Due-Seat6587]

Fans shouldn't have to invest in anything but tickets/concessions/team apparel

[u/Gold_Cow_1882]

Between el cheapo demanding 530 million from tax payers and now the beavers wanting 8 million per year from fans, its getting expensive being an Oregon sports teams' fan

[u/Alpha_Meerkat]

In a world where children are starving the idea of paying millions of dollars for a qb for your school is a moral outrage. All the media money should be dispersed evenly and private donors should be banned. Bring this back to normal amaturism and stop the alumni arms race. I think its fine to pay athletes but look at systems like the nfl which equalize the revenue to make the games more interesting and equal.

[u/slghtlymad]

It should be the other way around imo. The kids are “student-athletes,” they should want to invest their education into the schools they attend to better themselves for their future. But instead we turned college sports into semi pro, thus making everyone’s taxes go up as budget cuts to education happen every year. Fucking embarrassing. 

[u/HuntmasterReinholt → u/slghtlymad]

I’ve felt the same for quite some time.

I honestly feel that colleges and universities need to divest themselves of sports, and thereby make the Pro Sports setup farm leagues / minor leagues to build their future talent pool.

Then if the athletes want an education, they pay for it just like everyone else.

We need to reprioritize the focus on education. Especially in this laughably incompetent state!

[u/reno1441 → u/HuntmasterReinholt]

and thereby make the Pro Sports setup farm leagues / minor leagues to build their future talent pool.

No one cares about minor league football. People care about college football.

[u/Pandemic_Academic]

The direction of college sports is whoever has the most money. Even if every single OSU graduate and fan donated the minimum package right now, it's not enough to compete with the schools that have megadonors like Oregon with Phil Knight, Indiana with Mark Cuban, Michigan with the Ellisons, etc. Unless Jensen Huang suddenly becomes interested in OSU athletics, it's not gonna happen. Just like WSU and Paul Allen.

[u/Rich_Situation_4337 → u/Pandemic_Academic]

And Jensen Huang’s value makes Phil Knight’s look like pocket change. It’s just infuriating. He and his wife are both alumni. Could name it Nvidia Stadium. He wouldn’t even miss the amount that would change OSU’s entire athletic programs for decades.

[u/Talltimber99]

This is awesome what the Beavers are doing this season and what the next upcoming seasons could be if players/coaches remain. I'm hopeful the winner of Broncos/Beavers represent the CFP

[u/Queasy-Touch-1533]

Counterpoint: if the last two years taught me anything, it’s that no one is going to save us but ourselves.