[Baez87]

I really think you, and many others, are sentimental, high-integrity, and overall nice people (all of which I glean from a message board!), which is why your students probably dig you. I hope I'm the same. But I really don't think things are as bad as you are perceiving. The kids that are transferring, the coaches that are making moves, the universities and their NIL collectives...they aren't bad people. They are doing what's necessary to compete within the governing rules. We can question the decisions made that got collegiate sports into this position, but there is a very strong rationale why we ended up here. The players were being exploited for far too long. Choose to look at all the positives that come with that being fixed.

Thanks for you thoughtful encouragement, BB.  I also do not believe that the people making these decisions are bad people, other than perhaps those at the very top who started the mess.  Failure of leadership in the NCAA and the Supreme Court set us on this path, and everyone is scrambling to find their way in the new reality.  And some have lost their way.

Bill, your assertion that “The players were being exploited for far too long” ignores the fact that a non-athletic scholarship student must pay roughly $300,000 for a Stanford University education. The players benefit hugely!
I think the system was corrupted a long time ago when coaches, initially football coaches, were able to profit off of their sport. In my ideal world, a coach at a university would receive the same salary as all other professors in the institution. i think the more correct characterization of the system would be to label coach’s compensation as “opportunism,” certainly not to characterize the players as exploited!

[Baez87]

I really think you, and many others, are sentimental, high-integrity, and overall nice people (all of which I glean from a message board!), which is why your students probably dig you. I hope I'm the same. But I really don't think things are as bad as you are perceiving. The kids that are transferring, the coaches that are making moves, the universities and their NIL collectives...they aren't bad people. They are doing what's necessary to compete within the governing rules. We can question the decisions made that got collegiate sports into this position, but there is a very strong rationale why we ended up here. The players were being exploited for far too long. Choose to look at all the positives that come with that being fixed.

Thanks for you thoughtful encouragement, BB.  I also do not believe that the people making these decisions are bad people, other than perhaps those at the very top who started the mess.  Failure of leadership in the NCAA and the Supreme Court set us on this path, and everyone is scrambling to find their way in the new reality.  And some have lost their way.

Bill, your assertion that “The players were being exploited for far too long” ignores the fact that a non-athletic scholarship student must pay roughly $300,000 for a Stanford University education. The players benefit hugely!
I think the system was corrupted a long time ago when coaches, initially football coaches, were able to profit off of their sport. In my ideal world, a coach at a university would receive the same salary as all other professors in the institution. i think the more correct characterization of the system would be to label coach’s compensation as “opportunism,” certainly not to characterize the players as exploited!