College Jersey Hypocrisy Continues

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A.J. Green

A.J. Green will finally play this Saturday.

In his absence his Georgia Bulldogs have gone 1-3.

While Green has been apologetic for selling his Independence Bowl jersey to a person the NCAA terms an agent, which resulted in a four-game suspension, many — including me — haven’t been so gracious towards the NCAA’s hypocrisy.

For years, I’ve been saying to pay the players for their jersey sales. Well, if that’s not going to happen, at least we can stop colleges from selling the jerseys themselves.

Nebraska is selling every single jersey (158 of them!) that supposedly will be worn by its players on Oct. 16 against Texas. They’ve already put them up for auction and they’ll be raising thousands of dollars.

Source: nmnathletics.com

Just like the NCAA gets away with not paying the players by not putting the player’s name on the back of the jerseys, Nebraska says they will take the name off the back before sending it to the winning bidder.

Any collector knows that devalues the jersey and will result in a lower bid.

So why not be transparent in the best interest of Nebraska raising more money and the players being a part of it?

College football is a business. It’s absurd to pretend it’s not. Let's set up a structure to give players a piece of the merchandising action. It's not that hard.

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