Texas women’s athletic director Chris Plonsky testified at the O’Bannon trial on Tuesday and introduced a new description of those athletes who are trying to get a piece of the NCAA’s revenue: entitlement.
Texas women’s AD says athletes who want a cut are ‘entitled’
Plonsky acknowledges her view is players asking for share is sense of "entitlement."
— Rodney Gilmore (@RodGilmore) June 17, 2014 Emails have also showed Plonsky expanding on that view when the case was first filed.
"I view these cases as being the result of the entitlement attitude we've created in our revenue sports. We now have threatening (student-athletes) -- many of whom, based on grad rates of the 80s and 90s, sucked a whole lot off the college athletics pipe -- and now want to buckle the system at the knees at the expense of today's (student-athletes.)"
Ironically, Plonsky said she was worried about the exploitation of athletes. She implied that the schools are the ones who need to protect them.
Isaacson: Is it your opinion that student-athletes should be protected from commercial exploitation? Plonsky: Yes, that's part of it.
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) June 17, 2014 Plonsky: "We don't have anybody in our business that believes in exploiting student-athletes."
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) June 17, 2014 But it turns out Plonsky got an email from the Collegiate Licensing Company discussing how to exploit recently-turned professional Vince Young.
After Vince Young announced for NFL, Plonsky got email from Collegiate Licensing Company suggesting "huge revenue opps for Texas and Vince."
— Ben Strauss (@bstrauss1) June 17, 2014 Re Vince Young, proposal was 4 VY, UT & NCAA to exploit likeness after announcing going pro (but apparently still a student).
— Rodney Gilmore (@RodGilmore) June 17, 2014 Meanwhile, the Texas athletic department is the richest in college sports and has its own ESPN television channel. The athletic department reported to the Department of Education that it made over $81 million in profit off football last year, and $27 million in profit as a whole. However, due to NCAA rules, Longhorn athletes cannot market their athletic abilities.
Her testimony might’ve impacted the case, but probably not quite the way the NCAA hoped.
More bold talk by an O'Bannon attorney. This time it was Bill Isaacson saying of NCAA witness Chris Plonsky: "She was our witness."
— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomonCBS) June 18, 2014 See More:
