The only true student athletes in the NCAA are in Division 3. They work just as hard as the kids in D 1&2 but get no perks. There are no free shoes, free clothes, stipends, 24/7 catering, special dorms, free books, free tutors, personal trainers, etc. My son has a couple friends who are D 1 in softball and soccer. The softball player was handed her softball schedule and then told to fit classes in around it. Oh, and not more than 12 hours in the spring, enough to meet the minimum hours needed. She is going to college to get an education, she's there to play softball which is what the softball coach told her.
You want to put the academics back in college sports. There are some simple steps to take.
- Like D 3, once enrolled the clock starts ticking, the student has four years of eligibility. There is no redshirting in D3. Maybe apply the same thing to D 1&2 and see what happens.
- A team is granted X number of scholarships over 4 years and if a players transfers or leaves early for what ever reason, you loose the scholarship until they would have graduated. For instance, in basketball you get 12 scholarships. You bring in 4 freshman and two leave for the pros after one year, now you only have 10 scholarships for the next three years. This would put and end to one-and-dones. Coaches would be a lot more careful on who they recruit and the character of students.
- Limit coaching compensation. The pros put a salary cap on teams; have the NCAA put a cap on coaches salaries.
- Limit the days of competition. For instance, it used to be in the B1G basketball was played on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Today, the only days B1G doesn't play is Monday and Friday. Put the student-athletes butts back in the classroom.
- Up the APR to a minimum of 90 graduation in 4 years, and count transfers and early departures.
- Moved the minimum GPA from 2.0 to 2.5. I know the min. to play as a freshman is 2.3. And with the GPA about 40 percent of football players and 60 percent of basketball players two years ago would not have been eligible as freshman.
I know none of these will ever be looked at because NCAA D1 is big business now and no longer about students. Just look at Butler. When they got to the final four, the following year their applications went from about 4,000 to close to 20,000.