@anotherparent posted:I'm just a humble D3 parent, where things seem more purely what the NCAA's ideal is: you are a student who plays baseball. You are doing two things at once: practicing/playing baseball, and taking classes. It's not easy. Some players focus more on baseball, some on classes, it shows in the performance of each. You are playing because you love it, not because you are getting money.
In theory this is how it is supposed to be at all levels, the difference being that you are playing for scholarship money so you can be a student and play baseball. Everyone knows that is not the case, but it's the ideal. Changing the NLI rule at the same time as shortening the draft and changing the transfer rule - was it coincidence, due to covid? Must have been, because the NLI rule and covid/transfer is for all sports, the draft just impacted baseball. Clearly, though, the convergence of those 3 things gave MLB the idea that they can now rely on college baseball to be a minor league.
Watching summer league baseball makes me realize the huge difference between playing baseball while taking classes, and playing baseball when all you have to do is focus on baseball. Even MLB is not going to get the NCAA to do away with the requirement that student-athletes be students too, regardless of how much of a joke some of the "classes" must be.
The sit-out rule was to discourage transfers, and to encourage players to actually get their degrees. It's not like business and changing jobs. If you change jobs voluntarily, you presumably don't go backward the way you do if you transfer schools.
So, indentured servitude - yes, in the money sports it is. Baseball is not money-making at the vast majority of schools. That's why the NLI is corrupt. If they had made it so that popular players could be in advertisements or selling autographs or jerseys, or making money from social media, that would be fine. Setting it up so rich alumni can "pay" them is just rotten. Maybe it gets away from the taint of everyone making money except the athletes, but that doesn't make it better.
I agree with most, we've never lived in an ideal world. Money and Collegiate sports (especially football and basketball) has always been the game, e.g Lloyd Daniels (UNLV from queens) read at 4th grade level.
John Wooden looked away as players were getting payments
Transfer penalties had nothing to do with getting a degree, some might think it did.
Indenture Servitude has nothing to do with how much money a school makes, it is about controlling an individual's ability to move freely without penalties.
As for NLI being corrupt with respect to donors funneling money, even if the NCAA were to implement those restrictions, the United States Supreme Court would strike it down.