[dabigv13]

I think a lot of my thinking on this topic is captured in the posts by Goose, teejers, and paloalto.

Tactically speaking, the NCAA should have seen the writing on the wall and given in to some sort of stipend or image rights arrangement.

Compensating college athletes will not substantially grow the total amount of money in college sports, I don't think at least. Perhaps donors will open up their pocket books to pay players instead of buying another yacht but I'm skeptical this will be more than a minimal amount of the total money in the pot compared to that from tickets and TV. Also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those type of donations mean less donations to university or AD general funds. The pot may even shrink if fans become disenchanted with college sports.

So if you dramatically increase the number of people who are taking from that pot, someone is going to have to give up their current share. Highly paid college FB coaches won't be the ones with the most to lose, that's for sure.

Seems to me that many smaller schools will give up football, and many schools of all sizes will give up lots of other sports. With Title IX, that probably means a lot of schools will end up with college football, college basketball, and then however many women's sports needed to equal the scholarships.

So the winners in this new arrangement will be the very best football and basketball players. The losers will be the more average football and basketball players, and most every other college athlete and the staff involved, as well as more indirectly the fans of all the programs that will cease to exist.

Maybe it will be better for HS athletes to be less motivated about a scholarship, in order to focus more on their academics. But I suspect like Teejers that ultimately this arrangement is one that will benefit and entrench the current Haves more than the Have-nots.

An NFL D-League is definitely the answer, but there are no incentives for it to come about, so it won't happen. NFL sure is happy to have a development program that costs them nothing. An NFL D-league would also create a lot more future litigants over head trauma.

[dabigv13]

I think a lot of my thinking on this topic is captured in the posts by Goose, teejers, and paloalto.

Tactically speaking, the NCAA should have seen the writing on the wall and given in to some sort of stipend or image rights arrangement.

Compensating college athletes will not substantially grow the total amount of money in college sports, I don't think at least. Perhaps donors will open up their pocket books to pay players instead of buying another yacht but I'm skeptical this will be more than a minimal amount of the total money in the pot compared to that from tickets and TV. Also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those type of donations mean less donations to university or AD general funds. The pot may even shrink if fans become disenchanted with college sports.

So if you dramatically increase the number of people who are taking from that pot, someone is going to have to give up their current share. Highly paid college FB coaches won't be the ones with the most to lose, that's for sure.

Seems to me that many smaller schools will give up football, and many schools of all sizes will give up lots of other sports. With Title IX, that probably means a lot of schools will end up with college football, college basketball, and then however many women's sports needed to equal the scholarships.

So the winners in this new arrangement will be the very best football and basketball players. The losers will be the more average football and basketball players, and most every other college athlete and the staff involved, as well as more indirectly the fans of all the programs that will cease to exist.

Maybe it will be better for HS athletes to be less motivated about a scholarship, in order to focus more on their academics. But I suspect like Teejers that ultimately this arrangement is one that will benefit and entrench the current Haves more than the Have-nots.

An NFL D-League is definitely the answer, but there are no incentives for it to come about, so it won't happen. NFL sure is happy to have a development program that costs them nothing. An NFL D-league would also create a lot more future litigants over head trauma.