# Missouri football players threaten to strike? An exercise in pure stupidity **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 8, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039 "2015-11-08T18:42:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/201 "2015-12-15T16:35:05Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > What if the football players held a strike to protest gold-digging bitches who try to ruin careers of hardworking date rapists – I mean, honorable athletes? > > I suspect that someone’s head would explode. I still wouldn’t support a strike. If players want to heckle the, “Take back the night” protestors or mock feminist professors, go for it. If a student on an academic scholarship refuses to take his chemistry final because the university president hasn’t sufficiently checked his privilege, then the student can suffer the consequences and lose that academic scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/202 "2015-12-15T17:42:13Z")
So, just what are the terms of the contract in the scholarship? Is there even a contract? ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/203 "2015-12-15T17:49:52Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > They can spend their free time running around and whining about a university president not checking his privilege to the satisfaction of some crybaby activist. But, they can’t threaten to cost the university a million dollars in forfeiture penalties. Of course they can. The school needs the football players more than the football players need the school, obviously. The football players realized this calculus and exercised their power. Good for them. And if Brattin wants to kill Mizzou’s football program (If you don’t think other schools won’t bring this up in recruiting, you are foolish), I’m positive that there are far more Missouri legislators who wouldn’t dream of it. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/204 "2015-12-15T18:22:20Z")
Btw, here is an interesting argument as to why the NCAA will resist this law with all of their fervor: [http://www.atlredline.com/missouri-football-strike-proves-athletes-are-our-univer-1741294684](http://www.atlredline.com/missouri-football-strike-proves-athletes-are-our-univer-1741294684) > [@](#): > > Theoretically, the athletes are breaching their contracts, aka scholarships, by not playing. However, the schools can never actually make that argument. Otherwise, **they would be admitting that the athletes are employees under contract to perform athletic services in exchange for tuition, room, and board.** And once student athletes are ‘employees’, that opens up a massive can of worms. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/205 "2015-12-15T19:37:59Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Good luck. The state has tried over the years dumping all kinds of money in those districts and no good. > > Best bet is to find the bright ones early on and get them into some type of college track or magnet program. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/1/14: > [@](#): > > For instance, always on the “golden” standard of school funding is the high-performing Clayton School District, spending $17,949 per student. Children in Riverview Gardens, including some who live at the Canfield Greens Apartments where Michael Brown was shot, get by on just more than half of that, $9,407. On average, the top 10 performing school districts in the St. Louis region spend about $1,600 more per student than the 10 at the bottom of the scale. Yep, clearly the problem couldn’t possibly be that schools in poor areas are underfunded. Must just be that those lazy darkies don’t wanna work.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/206 "2015-12-16T00:19:03Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > The players are provided with scholarships worth thousands of dollars. That’s also thousands of dollars they’re avoiding in student loan debt. > > They can spend their free time running around and whining about a university president not checking his privilege to the satisfaction of some crybaby activist. But, they can’t threaten to cost the university a million dollars in forfeiture penalties. > > The options are: > > 1. Take the scholarship and be bound by the conditions > > 2. Don’t take the scholarship. > > No, I don’t usually agree with Rick Brattin. I’m strongly pro choice and his proposed abortion restrictions are silly. Intelligent design is a joke and shouldn’t be taught in any school. “Take it or leave it” is an excellent strategy indeed when you’ve colluded with your competitors to all extend the same offer. The athletes will ultimately win this battle for economic freedom because they’re the only side possessing the nuclear option. And neither Missouri nor any other state can legislate that option away. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/207 "2015-12-17T00:21:46Z")
[Never mind. Bill withdrawn.](http://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/missouri-state-representative-withdraws-bill-to-revoke-athlete-scholarships/article_27be8766-a41e-11e5-a164-3310a64a0fa8.html) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/208 "2015-12-17T00:26:58Z")
Doh! ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/209 "2015-12-17T00:33:23Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s not just Missouri. If you are looking to hire a black PhD., the pickings are pretty slim. If you want a PhD. in something other than education, they are even slimmer. > > [Cite](http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/50_black_doctoraldegrees.html). [Cite](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72). > > Regards, > Shodan Okay, so this means… What? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/210 "2015-12-17T00:45:47Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > [Never mind. Bill withdrawn.](http://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/missouri-state-representative-withdraws-bill-to-revoke-athlete-scholarships/article_27be8766-a41e-11e5-a164-3310a64a0fa8.html) But the co-sponsor is befuddled, since his co-sponsor didn’t tell him he was going to revoke the bill. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/211 "2015-12-17T00:47:37Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > [Never mind. Bill withdrawn.](http://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/missouri-state-representative-withdraws-bill-to-revoke-athlete-scholarships/article_27be8766-a41e-11e5-a164-3310a64a0fa8.html) From the article: > [@](#): > > The Tiger Scholarship Fund pays for athletic scholarships, not the state. The fund is made up of private donations. According to the Missouri student-athlete handbook, the athletics department, “similar to a private business … must operate solely from what revenue it generates.” > > Bahr said Wednesday that Brattin’s research department “neglected to mention” that the state can’t dictate how athletic scholarship funds are used. Good to see conservative Republicans like Brattin putting forward bills that endorse the socialist principle of using the state to dictate how an organization uses its privately-donated money. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/212 "2015-12-17T01:13:27Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > From the article:Good to see conservative Republicans like Brattin putting forward bills that endorse the socialist principle of using the state to dictate how an organization uses its privately-donated money. 🙂 I came to post this. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039/213 "2015-12-18T14:22:31Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Intelligent design is a joke and shouldn’t be taught in any school. Maybe the teachers’ Union can take a position on this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missouri-football-players-threaten-to-strike-an-exercise-in-pure-stupidity/737039.md?page=10)