My Dad first purchased Husky football season tickets in the early 1960s. As a UW family — siblings, nephews, in-laws and I have all attended or graduated from “the U-Dub” — we’ve spent countless hours at Husky Stadium and Hec Edmundson (basketball) Pavilion. And had some great times at other stadiums and arenas where the Purple and Gold have shown their colors, too.

Through the Huskies, I came to know and love the PAC-8. Then the PAC-10. And now the PAC-12. I remember seeing the future NBA great James Edwards plodding up and down the court, thinking that the gangly freshman would never amount to much. I remember hearing legendary coach Don James, at a booster lunch, say he had a new young quarterback who was learning to throw in pads. He was future Hall of Famer Warren Moon.

Professionalizing is a Terrible Idea

So, it has been with growing chagrin that, with millions of other college sports fans, I’ve watched the NCAA, at least in Divisions I and II, descend into virtual professionalism. The term “scholar-athlete” hardly has even a tinge of integrity in big college basketball and football. And the education which the young men and women who play big college sports came to obtain is, for many of them, more a bother than a privilege. 

Some are for throwing in the towel and outright professionalizing college athletics. Remove the veneer of amateurism, they say, and let young people play on behalf of various universities for pay. College sports would more openly be a vast network of pro-sports farm teams. This, they say, would alleviate the phony student/sportsmen lie.

This is a terrible idea. First, many young men and women still play college sports out of love of the game. Or the rush of donning the uniform. Or the camaraderie of teammates.  Or the glory of the moment. And other reasons unrelated to the business enterprise that large college sports have become.

The NCAA’s website notes that “Nearly half a million college athletes make up the 19,500 teams that send more than 54,000 participants to compete each year in the NCAA’s 90 championships in 24 sports across 3 divisions.” The vast majority of these young men and women will never don a pro uniform. They will never make a dime from pro sports. They deserve greater respect than predatory commercialization.

Big Money and College Sports: Disturbing Mix

No one should think that professionalizing college athletics would prevent corruption. Corporatizing college sports would only accelerate debauchery. Does anyone really think that providing a lavish lifestyle to young men and women, living on their own and with head-inflating money and glamour, would not create serious problems? It would be like teaching a bunch of four-year-olds how to play Russian roulette. 

Big money and big college sports are a disturbing mix. As Oliver Stanley reports in Quartz:

Texas A&M spent $485 million to expand its football stadium to seat 102,733, according to the New York Times. The renovation was funded in part by donors who collectively paid $125 million for the rights to rent 12 luxury suites for seven or eight home games a year.

There’s no way to stop this kind of thing other than, perhaps, by shaming these mega-universities that deny entry to financially struggling students. Or maybe approaching high-end donors and asking them to pay for a kid’s tuition so he won’t leave college tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

The most recent scandal involving the legendary Kentucky basketball coach Rick Pitino and a host of lesser luminaries only vindicates the Apostle Paul’s warning that the love of money (and, for that matter, winning at any cost) is a root of all kinds of evil. 

In-State Recruitment and Coach Salary Caps

What to do, then?

First, the NCAA should require all colleges and universities to recruit from in-state. This would make some teams much less competitive, others much more so. So what? By limiting recruiting within a state’s borders, the fans would know they are cheering the home team in fact, not just imagination.

Sure, people can move from state-to-state, gaining new residency status. But if the limitation I’ve just suggested included a mandate that potential players must have graduated from a high school within the state of the college or university recruiting them, the limit would be enforceable.

Additionally, college coaches should have salary caps. These should be developed by the NCAA and be based on the size of the school for which they coach. No coach should be paid more than $200,000 and outside income — of any kind — should be limited to a maximum of $50,000.

Finally, no coach or player should be allowed to accept any money from any sports equipment manufacturer. If Adidas or Nike want to give the team shoes, great. But no payments to any individual for the use of any sports equipment. Period. If a college wanted to accept money from such a corporation to have their teams use certain types of footwear, clothing, etc., fine. And if corporate America wants to pay for new or upgraded stadiums, arenas, swimming facilities or whatever, great. But no payments to individuals associated with the teams themselves.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the reforms needed, but it’s a start.  Are these things likely in the near term? Nope. But as the classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington reminds us, lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.

Maybe not the only ones. But, in this case, certainly a worthy one.

By the way, as of this writing, the 2017 Husky football team is now 6-0. Just sayin’ …