[81alum]

Paying athletes makes sense in the context of a market system, but the underlying mission of a University (at least publics and non-profits like Stanford) is not market oriented at all.  For a non-profit educational institution to run a professional sports enterprise is, to me, a repulsive idea. 

Instead, I have long thought that the baseball model is more or less the ideal solution.  Young ball players should have a choice of entering directly into professional minor league teams or to play for a few years as amateurs at a university.  This puts the choice into their hands, and at the same time it preserves the underlying mission of a University and protects it somewhat from the corrupting influence of the professional sports world.

I do think that the present system deserves to be changed.  Let the NFL create its minor league teams and let Universities be Universities.  I wonder how many young men (who are college age) would opt not to go to college but instead enter minor leagues where they could be paid?  I suspect this would undermine a lot of football factories and leave Stanford virtually unscathed. 

[81alum]

Paying athletes makes sense in the context of a market system, but the underlying mission of a University (at least publics and non-profits like Stanford) is not market oriented at all.  For a non-profit educational institution to run a professional sports enterprise is, to me, a repulsive idea. 

Instead, I have long thought that the baseball model is more or less the ideal solution.  Young ball players should have a choice of entering directly into professional minor league teams or to play for a few years as amateurs at a university.  This puts the choice into their hands, and at the same time it preserves the underlying mission of a University and protects it somewhat from the corrupting influence of the professional sports world.

I do think that the present system deserves to be changed.  Let the NFL create its minor league teams and let Universities be Universities.  I wonder how many young men (who are college age) would opt not to go to college but instead enter minor leagues where they could be paid?  I suspect this would undermine a lot of football factories and leave Stanford virtually unscathed.