It's Not Right

I'm sitting in my chair, feet up, with the National Championship basketball game playing out before me.  It's college basketball heaven.   I traveled with a college basketball team for three seasons.  It is a great experience.

Several media reports place John Calipari leaving Kentucky for the Los Angeles Lakers, regardless of the outcome.  Whether or not the report is true, it will happen somewhere.  The young men that he recruited to Kentucky over the past three years are stuck with Kentucky or have to leave the school.  Something about that is not right.

Coaches recruit kids, who often see the professional athletic dream, not the classroom, to come play for them.  Their parents, unless they have had a sibling recruited or been through it themselves, can only provide gut feelings.  NCAA scholarships are one year and are renewable by the school, not the student.  The potential for exploitation is everywhere: the student could get stuck by a change in coaching, a change in academic emphasis, even intervention by the governing agency, the NCAA.

Coaches have none of those strings.  Their agents can scour the landscape for the best offer, usually at their percentage.  They can jump ship and leave the kids they told would play for them the whole way, teach them what they need to get to the pros.  At least the coach can get their money out the millions they earn for their institution.  The athlete is supposed to get an education.  What do they actually learn?

It is a sign of how far college sports have drifted from their original intent: an extracurricular activity for their students.  The NCAA lost control of the situation when the dollar became more important.  The dollar led to the decline in character.  Decline of character leads to players showing on police blotters and college rosters at the same time.

Northwestern football players might have it right.  The college player generates the money by their skill.  Maybe they need to cash in early.  They generally don't play pro ball, even the really good players.  Would the NBA D-League generate this kind of interest and cash without colleges being involved?

I'd like to be more positive, but I've seen it happen once too often.

So...am I off base?