Sorry Brit for carping your tag line.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/sports/jeffrey-kessler-envisions-open-market-for-ncaa-college-athletes.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0&referrer=
Read this and you decide if Tom Kelly and company can possibly be prepared for coming next.

When all this happens, I wonder how many schools will stay in D1

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

Well, one thing's for sure...LU won't remain D1

_________________
Cigarboy sucks!

Well, if indeed the big bad ol' colleges are really treating their athletes as cattle or whatever all the while GIVING them an education and their keep valued at say $200,000.00 and more--and all the while pulling in dollars for whatever these wicked Colleges want the profit for--Maybe a dirty old Hospital wing or a crass new Business building, well I guess we should pay the poor things----all the while giving the Lawyers and agents billable hours--What's the harm in that ??

Oh by the way, the poor kid that only has his brains--not brawn just Might, I say might get a small scolly --
Actually I would rather pay that kid rather than some jock--who may or may not make it on the Pro circuit.

Its probably coming but not for me --I'll stick with my Bears, Cubs Hawks Browns, and TRIBE.

Oh , I will wish LUC well as I will all the other schools that really make up the college scene--not the Texas' FSU's Auburns--

The Colleges already are farm teams for the pros--Let's make it real--The Bears will take ND, Ill, and others---The Lions woulds take Mich, Mich St--Maybe BRAVES would take Georgia G Tech etc and on and on. Of course the Bulls would get LUC, DEPewl etc------These pros would kick in just as they do Baseball--all the while never forgetting billable hours.

NOPE , Old Me likes the OLD way--Sad to say its going away.

Brot,

If the money earned by some big-time college programs went for building new hospital wings instead of paying coaches like John Calipari $9.5 million/yr., I don't think there would be such a groundswell of support for giving athletes a fairer share of the pie.

Swella , I cannot argue with that--Nope--no argument whatsoever on that score. It surely is out of kilter.

I remember back oin the day when the MSG torney at year's end featured the best in private school Hoops. Or at least it appeared that way.

The NCAA started its power grab back then--They saw a good thing. Now the good thing has become a monster. SAD, in a way.

What's ironic, I think, is the very real possibility that if the NCAA had been a little more lax enforcing its rules about under the table payments/perks for athletes, it might not be in the predicament it is today, because the athletes would have received what many people now think is their due and wouldn't have as big an incentive for suing.

This would have permitted colleges and their fans to maintain the comforting fiction that their athletes were amateurs, which has served as the rationale for college athletics for many years.

I have always thought that a judicious amount of bribery and under the table payments were not an unmixed evil as they oil the wheels of a system which might otherwise go off the tracks.

No one has mentioned it, but the real problem is professional athlete salaries and the economics of professional sports bubbling down to the ranks of supposed amateurs. The NCAA problems are a lagging indicator of that, and the overall greed and dysfunction surrounding the enormous money in sports are problems that are hard to rectify when you're dealing with a comparatively few future pros mixed in with 85% of athletes who will never make a dime from sports.

I was looking at baseball-reference the other night, and my jaw dropped when I found out that the 9th oldest player in the major leagues is Kyle Farnsworth. Kyle Freakin' Farnsworth! I met him several times and saw him before and after games two or three times a week for a couple of years when I worked at Wrigley. I hadn't even really noticed his career much since he left the Cubs... I knew he pitched for Detroit and the Yankees, but always rolled my eyes when I found out he was somehow still in the majors. Miraculously, Kyle Farnsworth-- KYLE FARNSWORTH!!-- has managed to stay in the majors for 16 consecutive years, during which time he has earned (according to the baseball-reference.com salary estimates) $37,964,999. Here's a guy who never seemed to take his sports career very seriously, never seemed remotely inclined to work very hard on it, never distinguished himself much (except in causing frustration), bounced around from team to team, and managed to make $38 mil. just from pitching an average of about 50 innings a year. That figure is salary only, and doesn't include endorsements, autographs, appearances, baseball card money, per diems, meal money, etc. Obviously it doesn't include any investments, side businesses, or other income.

Just think about that for a moment. Think about how many teachers, cops, or CTA bus drivers you could pay for a lifetime of work with Kyle Farnsworth's baseball-only income from the past 15 years. And there are many other Kyle Farnsworths out there in the NBA, NFL, NHL, European soccer, MLB, etc.-- athletes you've barely heard of (and even some who never play five complete seasons)-- who make tens of millions. Think about the economics of professional sports before the mid-1970s, compare it to now, and there's the root of your problem.

well said JCT

Agreed about Farnsworth. He's held on for an amazingly long time.

The biggest distinction though is that baseball salaries are extremely high because MLB revenues are extremely high. Like it or not, MLB players earn their money because people pay to see them play and to watch games on television.

Then you have major college football programs (and basketball, to a degree) raking in tons of money and giving the players far less, comparatively.

If there's a common "problem" between the two, it's television money.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart