I genuinely didn’t know about this until this morning, but my limited understanding is that it will allow college athletes to profit off branding and endorsements, for their name and face, effectively, like professional athletes. This came in from July this year.
Personally, I think this is a terrible decision that will ruin the whole... Function, and spirit, of college sports, and will further the narcissism and “social media obsession” of millennials and zoomers. Everything I’ve seen about it is just... I fucking hate it.
However, I appreciate that a) colleges were making bank out of exactly this, without the money going to the “athletes” directly (can we remember they were meant to be students first, and that was THE WHOLE POINT of sports scholarships, in the first place??!), and b) America... Does this shit differently. Your “peak capitalist” (lol) system, and your... Culture, treats student athletes completely differently to anywhere else in the world. I get that.
Nonetheless, I just think this is a fucking stupid decision. I really do.
Thoughts? Every article and news piece I can find is totally one-sided, supporting this. But... That’s the media for ya. Question everything.
Not to be all "mUh eXpLoItAiTiOn oF WoRkErS" but colleges make so much money off of their players it's absurd they basically can't get paid with anything other than a free scholarship when they'll probably never even use their degree. So I think this is a good thing.
As for what college is supposed to be, I agree with you there but it's already been ruined anyway. College sports are just a way for universities to make money. Every major college just has a side business of running a 4 year training camp for football and basketball players. The only solution I see to that would be to make it so tickets to the games are free and they can't sell merch for profit. Which would be fine with me but it'll never happen.