Unfortunately, with the middle class getting squeezed, people aren't mentally conditioned to accept some of these "long game" approaches to extracting cheap labor that were mostly built during the peak of American prosperity in the mid-20th century. Using your athletic ability to get a piece of paper that assures you will casually waltz into the middle class at worst or become an professional athletic superstar at best...that was a good deal when the floor (going pro in something other than football) was basically guaranteed. That is simply not the case anymore. It worked out for my wife and I but we know plenty of friends who are not thriving a decade out from getting their degree.

For a lot of these guys, their best pay day in their entire life is available while playing football for a top college football program. Increasingly, the talent is realizing it. Those who stand to benefit will use this pressure to create a new, more marketized "solution" that hands out some of the money to the talent to keep the racket going.

Nobody wants to talk politics or economics but I really believe the amateur model to college football and men's basketball is just not viable in the modern US conditions. The system produces too much money and the talent is self-aware enough they're taking a bad bargain by giving their body for a piece of paper. Especially when staying in good graces with your staff will likely mean not getting a particularly valued degree to boot. I don't think many athletes are going to be able to juggle an engineering school midterms gauntlet right around when their first big October conference game happens. People think most of these young men are stupid when looking at their major but often it is simply managing workload. I took classes with some starters when I was at UA and they were actually not all the dumb even though they were majoring in something like "General Business Administration."

This post was edited on 12/31/23 at 10:32 am