I think that this is what people are missing. People claim that a free market would blow up the whole system but maybe the system needs blown up. We know that they system it would become actually does function.

I understand that there are more than 2000 Universities with athletic departments. I understand that most of them can't pay their athletes. I understand that some and afford a scholarship but not much more than that. I think that the problem is that the high paid individuals in athletic departments are always willing to tell us that we need to protect amateurism and the lofty idealism of higher education when it suits their own monetary interest and that, "It is a business," when it doesn't. If you would pick one we could hold you to an ethical standard. It is picking different ethical standards to be held by whenever that particular standard is convenient that is the problem. I don't think that paying athletes a particular set stipend solves the problem. I think that it further blurs the line between the line between business and amateurism and would also make cheating easier.

I think that the right thing to do is for there to be a division above the present D1 where it is a business. There is a free market. Labor and anti-trust laws are enforced. In the end it might only be a handful of schools that can survive in that environment. It wasn't that long ago that most bowls got better ratings than the World Series. Now the playoff takes all of the interest and the same 6 or 7 program get all of the interest from the 5 star recruits.

If you want to make your athletic department part of the educational institution then that's the choice you have made and you will be held to it. Athletes meet the same standards as other students. If you get cited for lack of institutional control then the hammer is dropped on your program to the point where everyone will agree that holding yourself to those standards is the most important thing.

If you want a winning div 1 football or basketball team in your conference or region or nationally you gotta pay what other schools are willing to pay to have a winning football or basketball team. That’s “the market”. Nothing else matters. Nothing else.

I think it’s either we pay dean type money and it truly is an amateur, extra curricular activity or it’s a business model and everyone participates accordingly.