[2006alum]

Something has to happen. The NCAA needs to act and propose something constructive before they have the ball taken away.

The issue is not the NCAA per se.  The issue at its core is the relationship between academic institutions and athletics, and the fact that athletic competition attracts money.  All the rot flows from that fact.  If it weren't the NCAA, some other organization would be corrupt in its place.  Or the individual conferences would be.  Or the schools.

BC

This is the credited response. As long as you have revenue-generating college sports, you will have this problem. And I am confident once the players start to generate significant revenue on their own, colleges will begin to question whether it's worth it, because it's going to lead to too many other problems. If a one-and-done can get an endorsement deal for $1m, does he care if it requires him to miss a practice here or there to make an appearance? If a school requires kids to live in dorms their freshman year and a star bball player has tons of cash, what's stopping him from also getting an apartment off campus but nominally keeping the dorm? What would keep a star player from hiring tutors for every class who just so happen to occasionally submit work on behalf of the student. Will the college be held responsible if it wasn't their own tutors? Coaches will lose authority over their players, some of whom will make more than the coaches. Etc.

And at some point it's just not going to be worth it - just make them the college equivalent of an AAU team that's nominally associated with a college and still generates some decent revenue for the school, but discards the student-athlete sham. We can still root for Alabama, we just don't have to pretend the players are also full-time students.

[2006alum]

Something has to happen. The NCAA needs to act and propose something constructive before they have the ball taken away.

The issue is not the NCAA per se.  The issue at its core is the relationship between academic institutions and athletics, and the fact that athletic competition attracts money.  All the rot flows from that fact.  If it weren't the NCAA, some other organization would be corrupt in its place.  Or the individual conferences would be.  Or the schools.

BC

This is the credited response. As long as you have revenue-generating college sports, you will have this problem. And I am confident once the players start to generate significant revenue on their own, colleges will begin to question whether it's worth it, because it's going to lead to too many other problems. If a one-and-done can get an endorsement deal for $1m, does he care if it requires him to miss a practice here or there to make an appearance? If a school requires kids to live in dorms their freshman year and a star bball player has tons of cash, what's stopping him from also getting an apartment off campus but nominally keeping the dorm? What would keep a star player from hiring tutors for every class who just so happen to occasionally submit work on behalf of the student. Will the college be held responsible if it wasn't their own tutors? Coaches will lose authority over their players, some of whom will make more than the coaches. Etc.

And at some point it's just not going to be worth it - just make them the college equivalent of an AAU team that's nominally associated with a college and still generates some decent revenue for the school, but discards the student-athlete sham. We can still root for Alabama, we just don't have to pretend the players are also full-time students.