@cabbagedad posted:So many of you have been big proponents of either the looser transfer guidelines, pay for play or both.
I’m one of those folks. The one-time transfer exception is “one time”, so it’s not complete chaos. And NIL has helped 1,000s of kids earn some money which often helps with student loan debt. What actual harm have the changes caused? (I am actually interested, I'm not trying to be confrontational.) As far as competitive balance, haven’t we always had the same teams in the FBS, and even FCS, football “playoffs” every year? Basketball might be a tiny bit better in terms of balance, but we know basketball has the worst track record when it comes to paying kids under the table anyway. The coaches can leave for more money any time they want, so why shouldn't the kids be allowed to move one time without sitting out for an entire season? To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, people cheer for the laundry. Players come and go at the big schools and the fans keep cheering.
I do think the smart thing to do would be for the big revenue schools to leave the NCAA and form their own association, and just make the players employees. They have the money, and they could avoid most of the problems caused by pretending otherwise. Let the NCAA go back to serving legitimate student athletes, not unpaid professionals.
* edited to correct NIL