commentaries

You have to promote the University somehow.

Amen!

This is a very well-thought-out and comprehensive plan for college athletics and makes a lot of sense. Therefore, it has no chance of being implemented.

Couldn't agree more.

You have the perfect name P.T., there is one born every minute! Take a bow and stick to science.

Or, professional sports could just follow the baseball model: set up an effective minor league system. Colleges and universities would still have football, basketball and hockey, just as they now have baseball. Those athletes that want an education would opt for the college route. Those who want to skip the education and stick to sports could follow the minor league route.

The idea of selling franchise rights is clever but skirts the main issue; which is that States are subsidizing minor league sports (and indirectly major league sports), and take a financial loss in the process. As for publicity, I would suggest that in the case of the University of Minnesota, the football and basketball programs are more damaging than helpful given their poor record on the field and associated scandals. Colleges and universities do not NEED affiliated sports. College administrators simply lack the courage to end these programs, as Boston University did in 1997. BU donations did not dry up, students didn't stop going to the university. Professional sports NEED to pay for their own minor leagues, and until university officials stand up to professional sports and say they will no longer cover their development cost, professional sports will continue to take advantage of them, and us.

Two groups that need to be tested for performace enhancing doping and roids are: All football players... starting in 8th grade on up through the NFL. The other group is all police officers.

This is an interesting proposal. Instead of these semiprofessional teams, how about a beefed up intramural league at all universities comprised of real students. There would be more students involved with these sports and it would also contribute to good university moral, not to mention an increased level in the health of our student population.

The way to solve the issues with revenue college sports is for the NFL, NBA and NHL to set up true minor league systems that they expect to develop the majority of the players for their leagues, the same way Major League Baseball has done. Of course this will not happen because then these leagues would have to invest the money into setting up the system and paying the players real salaries, whereas now they can let the NCAA institutions shoulder the burden of developing the players at no cost to the professional leagues. In return, the NCAA institutions get to compensate the players cheaply for in-kind services (educations scholarships)and turn around and market their entertainment services for billions in revenue for the member institutions. Everybody wins except the players.