Just because you’re entering the industry to be trained doesn’t mean you can’t get paid. It’s not like the players are going to be paid millions, they’re going to get a stipend, and most importantly they will be allowed to sell their own image and signature for money as opposed to now when everybody but them gets to sell their image and signature.
Given that 98% of the players never transition to the pros a year of playing basketball or football is worth NOTHING in future earnings.
Attendance figures aren’t static for games. When the university is fielding a bad team revenues drop, people don’t JUST attend because of the name of the university, a particular group of players IS relevant. Minor leagues won’t spontaneously spring up, you need the major league to be vested in the idea of a minor league so that it becomes a valid destination for prospective players where they can still be noticed. Football and basketball don’t have that, the place to get noticed for them is college, and there simply won’t be enough 18 year olds with the talent and the will to fight the college system and risk their careers in doing it to spontaneously make a minor league.
Manziel’s first game had an audience because of the university, his next season had the audience because of him. And he was paid (against NCAA rules) for his signature because of him. And you can tell the NCAA knows their current system is ridiculous and won’t stand up in court by how they “punished” Manziel for selling his signature. They’re willing to push around kids from a poor background, but give them a kid whose parents can afford real lawyers and all of a sudden the punishment is laughable. His incident more than any other shows why players should be allowed to earn money while playing in college.
Football attendance is more or less static .basketball too .especially for the big “U of “ schools. The fluctuation is very little. The revenues fluctuate very little. The TV contracts are drawn up before the players who are impacted are even enrolled.
The current crop of athletes in college has almost nothing to do with the revenues produced while they are there. And you fell into my Manziel trap he’s an outlier, and anyone with a brain knows you don’t make policy on outliers...