Fix it!

Post by Mike

Everyone knows college athletics has a dirty underbelly, but college basketball exist a little lower on the landscape.. in a disgusting, unwashed area.

AAU travel teams for 15 year old players, cash payments from shoe companies, hookers, gift grades... you name it and it is growing in this petri dish. Still... as disgusting as the process is, March Madness is one of the best sporting events of the year and college basketball deserves to be salvaged.

The scandal is going to upend March Madness this year. Michigan State,  Duke players and many other programs have been named in the scandal: Michigan State's Miles Bridges, Duke's Wendell Carter among dozens of players named

From CBS:
Based on Friday's report, and documents obtained therein, schools that could potentially face NCAA repercussions include: Alabama, Clemson, Creighton, Duke,Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, NC State,North Carolina, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, USC, Utah, Villanova, Virginia,Washington, Wichita State Texas and Xavier.
There are various theories on the best way to fix CBB. I think this method is called the NBA. One way to fix CBB.

After hearing Parrish explain this a bit more in depth this morning his proposal does make sense. The market place would foot the bill. College athletes could sign with agents and take loans from their reps. They could also endorse products, sell autographs, make paid appearances... what ever the market demanded.

I'm skeptical this will ever happen because I don't see the money pie growing. I see the players cutting into the pie for their piece which means the current power structure has to take a smaller piece of pie.

How often do humans give up power and money without a death match struggle?

I have another idea of how to clean house and it involves bringing college athletics back to real students.

1 - Make basketball recruits stay in school, or ineligible to be dratted until they are three years out of high school if they begin a college career. Of course the NBA will need to cooperate to enforce this. Do it just like MLB. If a player is talented enough to go pro out of high school, wish him luck and send him on his way. If, however, he goes to play in the college ranks, he stays for three years. In fact, set the same rules for all collegiate sports... football, golf, tennis, hockey... even treatment across the board.

2 - Make every student athlete take a standardized test, issued and monitored by the NCAA to ensure they are actually college level students. Implement this for all NCAA sports... including Alabama football.

3 - Implement a universal stipend to be paid to players in good standing and deposit $20,000 per academic year completed in the name of every athlete in a trust account to be given to the student at graduation.