I saw an article in the WSJ this past Thursday about the falling participation rates in child/teen organized sports. Since most do not have a WSJ account, I've found some recent articles that speak about it as well for info purposes. I put the WSJ story as the 3rd link.

http://tracking.si.com/2013/11/13/youth-...ion-drops/

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/ex...ticipation

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10...ticipation

I have a number of concerns about the long term prospects of college athletics including: the "student athletes" ability (or lack of ability) to participate in college level studies, the level to which the programs at many D1 schools are run more like minor league teams loosely affiliated with a university as opposed to athletics teams sponsored by universities and the effects of money pouring into the athletics conferences to such an extent that a football coach is paid more money than the person in charge of the entire university and every facet it participates in (Chancellors and Presidents). I am very concerned because as you tally up the problem areas in college athletics, you will see that they are run like a hybrid entity. Academics are the number one reason to attend a university EXCEPT...when they get in the way of practice. Most D1 universities are non-profit entities beholden to their states EXCEPT when they are managing their revenue generating sports. Universities try their best to attract and retain the best young minds it can get its hands on EXCEPT when it comes to pursuing scholarship athletes for the revenue sports.

Yes, a lot of concerns that frankly are making me sour on college and pro sports as I get older. But the participation rate drops noted in the articles above have other damaging ramifications for college athletics from a different angle. The kids are becoming tired of it. This is VERY concerning because team sports are a great way for kids to learn valuable life lessons. Part of the reason the kids are burning out is due to the move to "professionalize" this sports with specialization and the travel teams. College sports are becoming ruined by losing their amateur status. Now it's happening further up stream at the source. This is bad. The football injuries are yet another twist on it too.

What are your thoughts on how this relates to college athletics. I think athletics will start to shrink over time, but not in the near term. Longer term, I predict them to look significantly different.