There is only so much $ to go around when it comes to donations. Maybe you don't realize this, but PSU tuition is already pretty high for an average Pennsylvania family, and the academic rankings have been heading in the opposite direction. And this is a big part of the reason why multiple Branch Campuses are on life support. So we may be reaching a breaking point relatively quickly based on the current state of affairs with so much $ pouring into athletes, 99.9% of whom will never be spoken about again.
Maybe schools should get back to being schools?
Maybe I do realize.
There's 2 different issues here ... 1. how someone thinks things should be, in their perfect world, and 2. how things should be, given imperfect realities.
As to issue 1, I'm the foremost promoter of amateurism in college sports. My perfect world involves prospective student-athletes applying to, and being accepted at, institutions of higher learning completely blind to their athletic participation. They have to get in based on their academics first, before a coach can reach out to them at all. Teams would play other teams within their region ... at least until playoffs. Athletes wouldn't be forced to dedicate over 40 hours a week to their athletic pursuits, because that's a full-time job, in addition to their studies, and isn't conducive to academic success. And so on ...
But I realize that's never going to happen, and all that's been occurring in college sports ... FOR DECADES ... is more and more focus on athletics ... and other than scholarships, virtually none of this is for the benefit of the student athlete. It's all been about how colleges (including coaching staff) can make more money, and get more out of each athlete.
And at every turn, the GREAT majority of fans were cheering those moves on. We ended up with all interested parties making bank off a process that now sometimes starts in the 8th grade of a prospective student-athlete. Grown men paid millions to coax a child to join their program, and take on a full-time job while their academic studies are a secondary concern, at best ... and that grown man can just toss them aside and take away their education if something shinier comes along. Colleges, advertisers and broadcasters all making bank off bigger and badder schedules, conferences, etc. Let's have these kids work all week, then travel all weekend to work some more and what more do they get? Nothing. And then you have all the ancillary "parasites" .. the recruiting services, the camps, the trainers, the instructors, etc. ... that whole athletic development/notice infrastructure that's profiting off these kids, whose parents are footing that bill, so the families are netting out even less and less from the fake/inadequate educational experience. And so on ...
And, finally, we get change that may actually benefit the student-athlete and now it's "whoa! the game is ruined! It's dirty and corrupt! It's not what I remember! This is chaos! It's professional sports now!"
Dude, it's been professional sports, except the person benefitting the least while benefits, overall, have been BOOMING ... has been the student-athlete ... but now it's just a dirty, unpure, uninteresting experience now that kids have some power in this.
So, from my perspective ... if we can't get back toward more of my perfect world scenario ... and we won't, because that would require all the folks making bank off the kids to sacrifice all that money and success for the good of the kids ... and we KNOW that won't happen ... then at least we can give benefits to the kids. Is the current structure great? Absolutely not. They need to modify it, no doubt ... but the focus should be on how to get these kids their due while making it more structured and fairer for all.