To be clear, the prohibition on drafting athletes within 3 years of their class's graduation from high school (NFL), or whatever the equivalent number is for the NBA, is NOT an NCAA rule, but is an NFL/NBA rule (possibly arrived at after a nod & a wink type discussion with various college officials)

How would the players' union address graduation rates?

Well, how would you characterize the worth of an unfinished degree? Is that appropriate compensation for 4-5 years of effort?

Everyone's issue should really be with the NBA and the NFL for not having viable development leagues of their own. Why is it the NCAA's job to provide one for those 2 organizations? Your beef should really be with the admissions offices of schools who are letting in kids who can't function in college. Do you really want to make this a free for all for schools with the richest boosters? You want division 1 to be about 30 schools for football and maybe a few more for basketball and 10 for baseball and no olympic sports.

BANG!!!!!

Question: how would this effect a "Right to Work" State? Wouldn't that make people in Indiana and North Carolina re-think their votes?

+1 

I can see no reason that the NFL and the NBA can keep these rules which seem to me to be restraint of free trade.  If a kid is good enough for professional ball right out of high school, or even without high school at all, there should be no rule preventing a professional league from employing him (or her).  Colleges have absolutely no responsibility to be feeders for the pro leagues.  If that happens, well OK, but there should be no tacit agreement along this line, which seems to be the case now.  Someone in this thread talked about "a wink and a nod" from the NCAA.  We'll, if that's true, I think it's time that the cartel is broken up and that the pro leagues are left to fend for themselves, which they can well afford.  

If college athletes are determined to be employees of the university then college athletes will become pro athletes and this will open up a whole new can of worms.  It will jeopardize the tax-exempt status of any university that runs an athletic program.  This will not be a question of the big guys vs. the little guys (Gang of 5 vs. Power 5), but it will be a result that will put at jeopardy all college athletics.  One possible end result might be the ending of ALL scholarships for athletics.  This is the opposite of what the proponents think will happen, but if colleges are faced with the choice of losing tax exempt status or making drastic changes in college athletics, the athletic programs will be sacrificed to the point necessary to assure the continuation of their non-profit character.  This could be the beginning of the end of college athletics as we know them.  And, that might actually be a good thing, in that it would reduce some of the corruption that has spread into the system over the years.  

Someone else talked about "unintended consequences" of these efforts to unionize college football players.  I'd second that thought and say this whole concept is pregnant with those possibilities.  

I agree, Paul. But what does that have to do with a players' union? I still have yet to see an explanation of how a union would improve graduation rates.

To summarize our discussion Paul, you've made it clear that college athletics are broken -- fraught with inequity and corruption. We agree on this.

I do not think unionizing student-athletes is a solution. In fact, it is a recipe for disaster to which OCF correctly stated, may be a way to end the current broken system. But what a painful path that could be with so many issues that unionizing would raise.

I am reminded of an old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. It will ve very interesting to see where this path takes us. There is much about the current athletic system that is broken, so tearing it down and starting over is not necessarily a bad thing, but while the current system has many failures (people that waste their opportunity in college and learn nothing) it also has produced successes as well, people that have taken advantage of their college experience to better themselves.

Since no one on this board is naive enough to think what has happened at UNC is an isolated situation...

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-27/universit...

Any effort that affords the athlete the opportunity to combat the irresponsibility and "money before players" approach of the NCAA and the Universities should be explored and leveraged.