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Message: [QUOTE="Waltdods, post: 2593360, member: 2932"] No it's not. Obviously, comparisons to slavery are both wrong and unhelpful, and everyone can take a well-deserved victory lap in explaining correctly that slavery is much worse than being a D-1 athlete. But that doesn't mean that the system is just, or that many D-1 basketball and football players are not getting screwed. Many here keep saying - look, this is the system, if you don't want it, go to the G-league or Europe, or whatever. That's fine. This is indeed the system. But that doesn't mean the system is just, or that it can't be changed. And it doesn't mean that the "system" is inherently right. People can, and should, advocate for changing systems that are unjust even when those systems aren't slavery. I suggest this thought experiment. Imagine the NCAA entirely removed the rules about compensation for athletes (someone suggested this several posts back). Does anyone seriously think that P-5 basketball and football players would receive [I]less[/I] than they do now? Everyone knows the real value to the universities is less than what these guys are receiving, because everyone acknowledges that if the compensation rules didn't exist they would get paid more. (Obviously, even with the compensation rules, many guys are getting paid more, just in a black market.) Once you accept that the players are being paid less than what they would receive in a free market, you can still argue for the present system, but you need to actually argue that the benefits outweigh the costs. And those costs are being borne by one group of people - the players. Big-time college sports is creating a lot of surplus, some of which would otherwise go to the players, but now instead goes to coaches, to administrators, to designers of expensive practice facilities, to Louisville prostitutes, to Mark Emmert, to ESPN, etc. Maybe that's a just system, but you're going to need more than saying it [I]is[/I] the system to establish that it's a good one. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?