I'm guessing that when Diddy Junior leaves UCLA and gets a job - whether it's with the NFL, Taco Bell or anywhere in between - his employer will also offer him something of value for his services.

I don't think that's really analogous. A scholarship isn't intended to be compensation for services. I mean, we can argue that athletic scholarships "really" are, or ought to be. But as it stands, scholarships are either a bribe to attend the school or an act of charity. Either way, it seems sort of silly for a wealthy person to suck up limited scholarship dollars.

I'm having a hard time parsing the distinction between "compensation for services" and "bribe to attend the school". ("Act of charity" is just silly.). What is a salary, if not a bribe to get someone to work for you? I'm sure UCLA has limited facilities maintenance dollars* too, but if they wanted this kid to mow the lawns I'd expect them to pay him.

* Presumably soon to be a bit less limited, once they successfully court a future 9-figure-rich alumnus.

Edit: And it's not a bribe to attend the school, it's a bribe to attend the school and play for the football team. It's not like he gets to keep the scholarship if he shows up and decides he'd rather take up basket weaving.

Either way, it seems sort of silly for a wealthy person to suck up limited scholarship dollars.

Probably status-seeking behavior, right? "My kid got a full ride to UCLA, etc."

edit:

("Act of charity" is just silly.)

Huh? A good number of scholarships are acts of charity.

Huh? A good number of scholarships are acts of charity.

I meant that it's a silly characterization in this context. Football scholarships are not acts of charity.

My sense is that big-time football is so inseparable from the scholarship system that it would be awkward to have Junior Diddy suit up and play without having him on scholarship. What would UCLA save by having him technically walk on and pay his own way? Pocket change, and I wonder if they could even increase their roster by one while doing so, not like that's much advantage either.

Either way, it seems silly to me that this is only being raised in the case of Diddy's son. Did the Manning kids have to pay full tuition in college? How about Luke Walton at Arizona, or Stephen Curry at Davidson (just to name a few off the top of my head)? I'm fairly certain all of those guys receive(d) athletic scholarships, but more to the point, I can't remember anyone even asking the question.

Yes, I was about to raise the same question as 306, but I just looked at the link on the last page and that was Wilbon's point too.

Either way, it seems silly to me that this is only being raised in the case of Diddy's son. Did the Manning kids have to pay full tuition in college? How about Luke Walton at Arizona, or Stephen Curry at Davidson (just to name a few off the top of my head)? I'm fairly certain all of those guys receive(d) athletic scholarships, but more to the point, I can't remember anyone even asking the question.

Well, there's a major question of scale there. P Diddy has far more money then all the rest of those families combined, even multiplied 2 or 3 or 10 times.

I'm very sorry, actually, to have derailed what was a very interesting conversation. I imagine we can all script the next 100 posts fairly easily.

EDIT: And FWIW, it's a bribe in both directions. Junior Diddy gets to say he got a scholarship to play D1 football, and at a decent school (consider who they were competing against: Iowa, Virginia, Illinois - good schools all, but not exactly football powerhouses), and UCLA gets to lock in the Diddy family as parents/alumni/donors. They'll throw a lot of cash UCLA's way over the next 50 years, all for the price of what was a fixed "expenditure" anyway.

The topic was broached when Indiana was over the scholarship limit for next year. A creative suggested solution was to have Cody Zeller walk-on, and have his NBA Draft Pick-brother pay his way.

I have no idea how serious the suggestion was.

Scholarship players have some preferential advantages to walk-ons, so teams don't want to put good players in such a position.

That Zeller thing sounds like a great idea.

Similarly, when the Giants run into salary cap problems they should just restructure Eli's contract to have him play for the minimum, and have Peyton and Archie cover the rest of his living expenses.