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Happiness Vampire Profile picture
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Jul 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Big Ten got some terrific PR yesterday, but excuse me if I’m skeptical at the idea they are enthused about the prospect of paying players.

I’ve been around universities a long time and I have *never* seen them willingly collaborate with labor.

cbssports.com/college-footba…
If you look at what Warren actually said, there’s nothing whatsoever in there that gestures to real material change in the political economy of the conference.
I’m old enough to remember when we got excited about a meeting between #WeAreUnited and the PAC 12 commish only to learn that the entire thing was media spectacle. What makes this different?
Note that Stahl himself agrees that the prospect of shared revenue remains far-fetched. But that’s what the Big Ten is getting headlines for.
Anyway, here are my other current thoughts on the subject.

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More from @nkalamb

Happiness Vampire Profile picture
Jul 23
No one is more interested in seeing campus athletic worker unions than I am.

Unfortunately, that's not what we're talking about here.

Unions are effective when antagonistic, leveraging solidarity for power. The conferences/unis aren't going to cede power via congenial dialogue.
For more, please see this thorough reporting from @DanMurphyESPN. Advisory committees are not the answer, although they will assuredly generate some good PR for these universities.

espn.com/college-footba…
This is really the crux of it. There is no *asking* for better working conditions and pay. There is only demanding it. Until players are willing to threaten serious consequences, this is still just labor cosplay.

espn.com/college-footba…
Read 4 tweets
Happiness Vampire Profile picture
Jul 22
…okay then
I think we should probably read the news in the context of this tweet.
Very much share this sentiment.
Read 4 tweets
Happiness Vampire Profile picture
Jul 21
"We need urgent action now to stop the toxic abuse in the sport."

508 Canadian gymnasts call for independent investigation of Gymnastics Canada and immediate suspension of GymCan funding.
"GymCan and Sport Canada have had knowledge of, and the opportunity to act on, suspected systemic abuse in gymnastics for at least two years and have done nothing, allowing abuse to continue against Canadian child athletes without intervention."

globalathlete.org/our-word/canad…
"We ask that you immediately suspend all funding for GymCan, as was done with Hockey Canada, to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding an ineffective and harmful review that we expect will whitewash the survivor experience."

globalathlete.org/our-word/canad…
Read 5 tweets
Happiness Vampire Profile picture
Jul 21
Kirby Smart, yesterday, crowed that his players earned $3M *total* from NIL (i.e. not from Georgia).

Georgia football pulls in more that $134M/year.

The coach earns his salary because the players are denied theirs.
*by "earns" I mean "receives in return for his service as exploiter-in-chief"
"Players create the wealth in college sports but are only compensated in the form of scholarships. We are talking about one of the most egregious forms of systematic wage theft in American society today."

Coaches like Kirby Smart are the beneficiaries.

latimes.com/opinion/story/…
Read 4 tweets
Happiness Vampire Profile picture
Jul 20
Let me get this straight: New Brunswick has a $900M healthcare surplus over the last two years and the lowest per patient/per capita expenditure in the country? During a pandemic?

That's a criminal misallocation of public resources.
"Instead of improved funding, Higgs wants to apply statistics and force hospitals to improve their metrics."

This is the US-model, now almost universally understood (including among Americans!) to undermine quality of care.

nbmediacoop.org/2022/07/19/pre…
The jig is up for neoliberal jargon. It no longer has ideological hegemony and therefore there is no reason to even pretend to take it seriously. It is nothing more than class warfare dressed up in technocratic language.
Read 4 tweets

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