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Message: [QUOTE="reedny, post: 2355143, member: 1423"] [I]They accept this deal because it is the only one offered them, because everyone else in the system colludes against them. Imagine the NCAA passed a rule that said head coaches cannot make more than $1 million. (That would be a ton of money! And a massive pay cut.) The fact that many coaches would still take the job doesn't prove that $1 million is fair compensation, it just proves that that's what the rule is. (I mean, it proves a little more than that, but the economics get tricky quick.)[/I][/QUOTE] "[C]ollusion" sounds like conspiracy. Between whom, ESPN and the NCAA? The shoe companies? The NFL and NBA? The Boosters? The agents? Sounds a little far fetched, although I agree that the system is unclean and the influence of P5 schools in the NCAA rule-making process is perverse. The options are, clean up the cheating or create a new system. I'm not sure where you stand, but your post doesn't mention that: 1. The educational bargain is not only a "good deal", it's worth its weight in gold for 97-98% of college (full or partial) scholarship athletes; 2. Even for the few pro-level kids for whom you want to recast the whole system, they're a knee/rotation cut away from real life; 3. A college education (or some technical training) is a minimum requirement for a decent job in this economy; 4. Tuition, room and board at elite private schools like SU easily tops a quarter million dollars in "value", to say nothing of the personal, intellectual and social growth that goes on; 5. Even the few budding pros you focus on use college to showcase and develop their skills with high-level coaching and training, in cavernous facilities that cost a fortune to build and maintain. Anyway, since the amateur model works so well for so many, what exceptions would you create for a few hundred pro-level athletes every year? The NBA (CBA) requires age 19 or a year removed from HS. If a kid's THAT good out of HS, he can play for pay in Europe and enter the draft the second year. Prospects from Europe dot the NBA draft board every year. You've posted that you don't like the baseball rule, so what about the FB draft-eligibility rule? How would you change things? Are you arguing that kids who enter college should be paid a percentage if they have pro potential? Who decides what they're worth? Percentage of what? Most Universities use FB/BB proceeds to run Title IX programs and pay coaches' salaries. Do we scrap those programs and pay the athletes in 1 or 2 revenue sports? Should scholarship athletes be required to take legitimate courses, or just skate though using the pseudo-education offered at UK/Bama/OSU? And what about the other examples of education-for-service in the NFP arena ... like hospitals? They make hundreds of millions too. Should we make Medical schools pay all volunteers their "market" rate"? Should we get rid of residency? What about Universities with grad assistants doing research? Research brings in hundreds of millions. Should we give lab assistants a "percentage" too? What about cost of their training, and the U equipment and facilities they use? [/QUOTE]

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