Ah, the wonderful world of “college sports.” Now that the NCAA and NIT tournaments are done and college basketball players have nothing to live for until the next round of practice begins, many are announcing that they will forego their remaining eligibility and enter the pro draft.
Good for them. It’s gratifying to see young men reach for the stars, and the big bucks. But what about the colleges that got them to this highly marketable state? What about the teams that recruited them with the expectation of getting four seasons of play? And what about the deserving potential students who may have been denied a seat in a college class to make room for an athlete whose dedication to higher learning could be measured in terms of a vertical leap?
Yes, they bring glory to the institution, fans to the arenas and stadiums, and shoe contracts to coaches who are already the highest paid people on campus. But the institution makes a considerable investment in each of them. It pays their way through school, gives them privileges accorded to no other class of student, and then calls a news conference to announce when one of them decides he’s had enough of pretending to be a student and wants to move on. What kind of return on investment is this?
Let’s make a deal. Let’s have universities recruit their scholarship athletes with the understanding that they have some obligation. Play through your eligibility, and we’ll pay for your education. Even if it takes 10 or 20 years – come on back until you get your degree. But leave school to turn pro before your eligibility is up and you pay us back – everything provided by your aid grant. For some stars, this would be a nearly insignificant part of the signing bonus. For others, it might be substantial enough for them to consider whether or not to stick around another year. And for all of them, it would be a signal, however slight, that they are signing up to be college students, not professional entertainers on campus.
