I hate it when Doyel makes me agree with him

Because they, more or less, have to unless you want to play professional baseball.
The NBA and NFL both have rules you can't be eligible to play until you hit a certain number of years past high school.
Some basketball guys have jumped to Europe to avoid the rule with varying degrees of success.
Those are your only options for revenue sports.
For the non-revenues being an All-American in tennis or some such just means you weren't good enough to hit the pro circuit as a teenager.
The NBA and NFL have worked very hard to protect a minor-league system they have no financial interest in but that same system is about the only way they can get players.

 

A question: If a college basketball player leaves early to enter the NBA draft, hires an agent, he is no longer eligible to play in the NCAA. But if he goes undrafted, can he return to Tech U and still be on scholarship to earn a degree?

 

So when does the Doyel-Jay Glazer steel cage match occur?

 

Sadly, they need parking more than they need baseball.

 

Mark Ingram doesn't make money for Alabama. Whatever generic schmoe suits up in a football uniform makes money for Alabama. A free ride and the ultimate 4-5 year ego stroke is more than enough compensation.

 

This.

 

I was paid a stipend for working on the student newspaper.

And I didn't sacrifice my body to contribute to a multi-gazillion dollar enterprise in which everyone is paid lavishly but the players.

And, yes, college scholarships are nice, but in a lot of lottery states, if you are a reasonably average student, you can get a scholarship to at least one of the state schools. Many elite private schools are "need blind." There are a lot of students who are going to school for free for doing nothing more than being slightly better than average at academics.

 

I wish that was the case when I was in school. I had a partial academic scholarship ($2500 a year) and paid for the rest myself because my rich divorced parents fought over who would pay for college and the answer became nobody. My mom helped me a little, mostly after the fact.

 

So you don't think more people watched the Rose Bowl in Jan. 06 because of Reggie Bush and Vince Young? You don't think CBS and the merchandising folks reaped any additional windfall from Tim Tebow?

 

There's always somebody. Will always be somebody.

 

They didn't watch because it was Vince Young vs. Reggie Bush (not that that hurt) they watched because it was Texas vs. USC.

I didn't watch Bama-Texas to watch Ingram or Colt McCoy. I watched it because it was Bama and Texas.

 

Arkansas-Alabama on Saturday didn't get awesome ratings for CBS because it was Piggies vs. Tide.

It got incredible ratings because it was Heisman Trophy candidate Ryan Mallett vs. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram in a game with national title implications.