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[QUOTE="sholokov2, post: 3776743, member: 6629"]
Remember the reserve clause in baseball?  Indentured servitude until players revolted.  Pampered university athletes are by no means slaves except to tradition and cultural expectations.  I can imagine an open system where colleges compete to draft all athletes every year.  Consider a Michigan football freshmen who plays his first year at UM.  What's to prevent every coach in America from approaching him by offering a better deal: more publicity leading to more ad money, more scholarship money, better housing, etc. at any point after he matriculates at UM.  One obstacle, the NCAA.  They caved on ad money.  They'll cave someday on other restraints.  Universities will demand contracts with their recruits that prevent transfers.  Okay, great.  The families can negotiate with the college.  What ties a kid to a college.  Many variables.  Academics, location, culture, etc.  Just like any job, a student should be free to move at any point in his college career.  He owes the university nothing but tuition, room and board for as long as he is there.  Alabama comes knocking for this kid in October of his freshman year.  If he wants to, he should be allowed to.

Personally, I will hate this when it occurs, but like you I understand it is the right thing.  When I was a little kid, Mickey Mantle showed up on a baseball card.  On the Yankees no less.  I watched him the first time he ever went to bat and fell in love.  Bobby Orr joined the Bruins in the 60's.  I fell in love again.  If these guys had decided to leave their teams, it would have ripped my heart out.  Through these two I joined the Yankees and Bruins.  Lived and died.  Then they both succumbed to serious knee injuries.  I lost interest in both teams.  Fan loyalty depends to an extent on some connection to individual players.  I have lost all interest in pro sports partially because of free agency.  But that's life. And so it goes.
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