Sonny Vaccaro Quotes

The NCAA makes so much money off of their kids, and they put ridiculous - absolutely ridiculous - restrictions on everything that they can do.

I do support college athletes and the opportunity for them to be paid a stipend.

Stop the nonsense about 'student-athlete.'

Obviously, college stars deserve substantial compensation, right?

Some college athletes don't want to turn pro, they don't want to take the cut in pay.

LeBron james came, and he gets $10 million a year. There was no stigma or blemish, like you have with one-and-done. Now people say, "He's not a student, he's an athlete." Well, of course he's not a student! He's here for one year and he told you he's here for one year, and the school took him with open arms.

I'm moving to a point that I'm fed up with the N.C.A.A. dictation.

A lot of people talk about the one-and-done attitude of college athletes, but if you look at the University of Kentucky, we do build winners.

I got some cash from agents. I've talked to the NCAA. I think that should be legal. I want some money, too; everybody else is making money. I want to go on dates. I want to go buy myself some new suits. I want to buy myself some new sneakers, and I paid the agents back.

If the NFL can keep getting away with forcing players to wait three years out of high school before they're drafted - three! - the NCAA should be made to do away with its rules against paying players beyond room, board and tuition. I'm not talking about some token, $2,000-a-year 'spending money' stipend for every player.

I have long been one of those tedious people who rails against the coronation of 'student-athletes.' I have heard the argument that big-time athletics bring in loads of money to universities. I don't believe the money goes anywhere other than back into the sports teams, but that's another story.

I think the colleges should be free to give athletes less than a full scholarship, no scholarship and more than a scholarship. And the athletes should be free to bargain.

As soon as you take money for playing sport, it isn't sport, it's work.

If you offer athletes stipends, then you're into pay-for-play, and that's the ballgame. People should realize that, and they should realize that amateurism never has been a sustainable model for a sports-entertainment industry. It wasn't in tennis. It wasn't in the Olympics. And it's not in big-time college sports.

I don't think we should ever compensate players. I think we can do as much as we can for players. The cost of attendance is good. They get more meals now so they can keep their meal money. I think those are all good things and I think more of those things should have been done. But I don't think you can compensate players straight out.

We got to think of other ways to help these kids out because there's a lot of kids who get hurt in college and then don't make it to the NFL and don't have insurance, and their entire lives are changed when they put their bodies on the line for their school.

The NCAA model is outdated. If Steve Serby's a great player in high school, and an agent wants to represent you and wants to advance you money as a loan based on the fact that you're gonna be a high draft choice, so be it.

The difference between the National Football League and college is this: In college, you are a broke college student.

What is the NCAA going to do a program if a kid leaves before two years. You can't control it. The NBA is the one that has to control it.

When I was in college, I was a landscaper. Other than that, coaching has been my life and my job. A lot of people like coaching college, but I would never do it again. There are too many NCAA bylaws, rules and politics.

Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.

Yea, I wrote my college thesis on why college athletes should get paid. I think there's a way to do it based on the amount of revenue they generate.

College players make money for the colleges. You think they spend all that recruiting money to get the best students? Come on.

I was in school to play basketball; I wasn't trying to be a doctor. It's hard to talk about the NCAA rules and everything that happened in the past because I've just been focused on practicing and getting ready... I was trying to reach my dreams, and that's to play in the NBA.

I suspect the real reason the N.F.L. and N.B.A. don't want high schoolers and college underclassmen to play with their ball is that they don't want to jeopardize their relationship with National Collegiate Athletic Association, which serves as a sort of free minor league and unpaid promotional department for the pros.