Florida A&M is in the middle of a social media firestorm thanks to criticism over the football team having to travel by bus to its season opener at Arkansas.
The bulk of the disdain has come from current ESPN college basketball announcer and analyst Jay Bilas, who called out FAMU for exploiting the athletes for a payout of $750,000 in exchange for a 10-hour trip.
Make no mistake, all players are used to make their schools money. A crazy bus ride to Arkansas…for $750,000. https://t.co/Z6SG9xW7s0
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 5, 2017
That was in response to you. All college players are exploited, by definition, used to make money while limited to expenses only.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 8, 2017
Florida A&M Associate AD Chris Asa fired back at Bilas on Twitter, saying the athlete activist and NCAA critic didn’t understand the program’s unique situation.
I’m sorry we aren’t a $100 million budget school. If Bama was taking this bus ride you might have a point.
— Chris Asa (@ChrisAsa1) August 5, 2017
The Twitter conversation between the two, and others, went on for several hours with neither side yielding their positions.
So who was right in this social media debate?
Did anybody ask Jay Bias why out of all the fcs schools that take bus rides to play these games, did he decide to choose FAMU to discuss?
Why does it matter which school he chose to talk about? I agree with what Jay Bilas said.
He doesn’t have a point at all, he’s just try to stir something up. This isn’t new for HBCU’s because everyone knows that our budget is a lot smaller than the bigger schools. That why we are playing these kind of games in the first place. If he has a problem with the way my school is transporting our team, he is more than welcome to pay for the plane ride himself. He can put his money where his mouth is. I’m sure it will be a nice tax write off for him anyway.