against it.

There has been "dark money" in a college football for as long as I can remember. Maybe it might be best to just bring the money into the light and just allow the system and population to go where it's desiring to go. Let money talk and posturing walk.

Let me be specific. Maybe we should simply move to an English League soccer model. Big money teams at the top. Do some sort of relegation and promotion. Player movement more liberalized, etc. Most of the clubs in the Premier League and in most of the professional tiers started during the British Industrial Revolution as factory teams competing against other factories. They were and still are very community centered. But, it obviously became more professionalized over time to the point of purchasing players throughout the world, most of which I imagine never saw the inside of a factory.

Well, I think colleges face the same situation. The days of the great student-athlete, who took both aspects of the moniker very seriously seems gone. Wishing it back won't bring it back either unfortunately. So why not go all in and embrace the big money and high stakes athletics?

The timeline of the academic collegiate matriculation seems to have become less congruent with the athletic timeline of young people. There are a lot of factors on both the academic side and the athletic side that are causing this (too in-depth for a single post I'm afraid), but the gap is increasing, not decreasing.

I hope this doesn't come across as cavalier or prematurely throwing in the towel on the traditions of student-athletics. I was a college athlete and enjoyed the academic side of that as much as the athletic. It helped me make a good living after football was no longer in my life. The way it should be.

But sometimes, I think we should just take the system and the people where they are clamoring to go.




[Post edited by Maroon Baboon at 06/21/2021 3:49PM]