Deadspin Weighs In

I've been watching the games on Watch ESPN. I don't know if the ads are different when coming directly from cable. It took one day to be nauseated by the Billie Jean King NCAA ad on the purity of college sports (I posted about it). Three weeks later I'm ready to throw things at my tv when I see the ad.

They had the perfect opportunity to use the 11.7 scholarship limit to hammer their point and didn't use it 

The Billie Jean King ad makes me wanna puke too.

I'd like to see an NCAA ad ... This baseball player has to work in the off season and summer. Otherwise he can't afford to go to college on his 25% baseball scholarship. Even though the NCAA says he can't participate more than twenty hours per week, with the mandatory optional workouts and bus rides it's a full time job on top of his academics. While he's having the thrill of his life playing in the CWS he's losing a month of his summer job he needs to pay for next year.

...and while our athletes have a graduation rate higher than the general student population, our APR and other eligibility metrics significantly discourage coaches from encouraging (or even allowing) difficult majors, especially ones that may take more than 4 years.  All the while our athletes have to scrape for food on a nightly basis (until Shabaz Napier humiliated us on national TV just after we made a ton of $$ off him and his UConn teammates) because their practices end after the dining halls close and they bust their tails so that our coaches don't cut them off on an annual renewal basis for lack of performance on the field.

But no, its pure and not about the $$ at all Billie Jean.

$500MM was generated by the NCAA off the backs of athletes across a variety of sports, but have the scholarship restraints been lifted?

What a racket. The NCAA, through its own rules, is able to preserve a workforce for itself so as to generate that type of revenue. Meanwhile, in baseball, 11.7 full scholarships are shared across 35 players.

The whole structure needs to be rethought. With new media, a wider audience, more content, improved facilities, etc., it's just a matter of time before this anachronistic NCAA-driven infrastructure blows up. Sooner the better.

Have to get to a place where any student-athlete receives a 4 year free ride, with the opportunity to jump ship to go pro at anytime.

correct me if I am wrong but don't the draft eligibility rules (3 years for the NFL, 1 for the NBA, and 3/21yo for MLB) come from the leagues themselves and not from the NCAA? 

sure the NCAA sets the rules about whether or not athletes retain their eligibility after declaring for the draft but honestly if they didn't have those rules in effect there would be tons schools/players/boosters who would take advantage of the lack of rules.

You are right gamecock - one nuance I don't really understand is if you enter the NBA or NFL draft, you can't go back.  For MLB you don't really 'enter the draft,' you're just drafted (or not).  I suppose it has something to do with contractual obligations leading up to NBA and NFL drafts vs. MLB draft.  Perhaps someone can clarify?

Billie Jean managed to annoy me at least once again last night.  I am a very big fan of college sports - however, I am not a fan of the NCAA at all.