Kentucky coach John Calipari and former sneaker company executive Sonny Vaccaro are part of a growing chorus of people in the basketball world who believe giving players an income might alleviate some of the problems — and scandals — inherent in colleges sports.
The U.S. Department of Justice last week announced the arrest of four high-profile college basketball assistants and a high-ranking Adidas executive, identified as Jim Gatto, in connection with a bribery scheme.
Calipari, whose program regularly produces NBA lottery and first-round picks, also believes college athletes should be able to hire agents.
“Players should be allowed representation just like they have in baseball,” Calipari told FanRagSports.com following Tuesday’s practice at Kentucky. “They don’t need a new model because there’s already a model in place. That’s what they do in baseball. Players should be able to earn income because of their name, their signature, and their likeness. If a uniform is sold with a player’s name on it, the player should get a percentage on it. If they want to go out and sign autographs, let them sign autographs. The money should be deferred. They should be able to sign a shoe contract too, but the money should be deferred unless it’s used by the parents of the player for transportation or expenses to come and see the kid’s play. They’re not professionals if that happens and it probably eliminates a lot of stuff.”
Vaccaro, who signed Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant to multi-million dollar sneaker deals, also believes college athletes should receive an income of some kind.
“I think we should get together and figure out how to equally pay, not just the main guys, anybody on a team that plays major college sports,” Vaccaro said Wednesday’s on ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines.’ “And I’m talking about the five big conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC). Those players who are playing should be given some sort of extra stipend. Figure the damn thing out. But all the players should share, even the little guy. It doesn’t have to be a bidding war although….a market value on an individual is a good thing, too.
“But I just want to see these kids get something back that the NCAA just pockets,” “I don’t know what they hell they do with their money.”
Meantime, Yahoo Sports college basketball columnist Dan Wetzel chimed in with comments on Kyle Tucker’s Podcast indicating that it may only be a matter of time before a blueblood like a Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas or UCLA is implicated in the bribery scandal that has already brought down Louisville coach Rick Pitino and touched Arizona, Auburn, Miami, Oklahoma State and USC as well.
“I would say at least one, yeah, absolutely,” Wetzel said. “At least one gets snared, and depending on how aggressive the FBI is, it could be all five. I don’t put this thing past anyone, and part of that is what we talked about earlier: Even if you’re trying your best, the corruption is just too big. The money is too big. Certainly, if you look at the waters that some are swimming in regularly, you would put at least one in — and maybe more.”
