(10-01-2019 07:41 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: Won’t this just set off a giant arms race in which the schools with the richest alums and donors annually buy their alma maters the finest recruits money can buy?
What’s to keep corporate sponsors from raiding rosters to stock their favorite programs?
There’s sure to be strife if it becomes public that Nike or Adidas is providing more salary...oops, I meant endorsements to one of their client schools over another?
Or what’s to say that a school like Alabama demands $5 million in endorsements for recruits in exchange for an outfitter deal?
All good points.
You know, the problems & complexities are so troubling that it almost seems that we should legalize making money any old way from athletics the same way some countries legalize prostitution.
Throw out the rule books, anything goes...
Notions of fairness and of doing things "the right way" are becoming increasingly quaint to many people.
I'm not really serious in saying just screw it and turn it over to the mobs and just say "anything goes," "let the strong survive," "it's all a Darwinian thing, you know??
The tricky part is telling young men that they can't earn money from being basketball stars, when people their age can earn money from being rock stars or rap artists.
The whole system is changing. The guys aren't just "kids" any more. They're young adults and they're exerting their rights. The P5 schools have the dough to pay them, and the dudes are earning a living.
============================================
It's not amateur sports any more. They are all professionals. Once they're pros, no one can really limit their entrepreneurism. It's probably unconstitutional to try.
============================================
There's no putting the toothpaste back in this tube. We've just got to deal with the new reality and iike it or lump it.
Only other thing I can think of is to ditch "varsity" sports altogether, or have the professionalism be part of their educational curriculum, the same way a person can pursue a MBA while earning over $100 K per year.
Like - "yeah," we're students, but we're pros at the same time, and our studies are about how to become better pros.
============================================
Maybe it's really not so bad. You know, a lot of college "kids" get ripped off by not being able to earn more than a pittance while going to school.
A lot of teens are learning to make serious money by being various kinds of entrepreneurs.
Over half of college students have outrageous & impossible debts, loans, etc. If we're not going to help them afford a college education, then college probably needs to adapt to the demands of the marketplace, rather than forcing the "kids" to adapt to the demands of the university.
============================================
It ain't pretty. It probably ain't good.
But this is capitalism, pure and simple, it's sink or swim, dog eat dog.
Maybe we'll never return to the idyllic form of college education that many of us were fortunate to appreciate and treasure.
Maybe it is now, actually, a mean, nasty, dark, dank, brave new world.
But what can anybody do about it at this point.
In a way, the Trumps, Putins, Giulianis, have won. The bastards have won, and we're stuck with it.
============================================
But, cheer up: The pendulum will swing back the other way again at some point when people get completely fed up with this uber-materialistic BS.