:: Why not just force the pros to set up minor leagues for football & basketball. ::
Because the colleges would never go for it. Too much money. Thus, the focus of this thread.
They can either throw out athletics all together (never happen) or embrace the fact that they ARE the minor-leagues feeding The Show.
If they legitimize the flow of money involved by offering a curriculum that isn’t “adjusted” for scholarship student-athletes, all good things will survive. Besides, the really good players will get drafted before their degree.
I know that.
And they can’t legitimize “the money” without admitting the hypocrisy of the “student-athlete” concept as least as far as football & basketball go. You start paying “student athletes” the next shoe to fall will be paying graduate students, think college is expensive now wait until that happens! (Those that are on stipends are paid less then minimum wage for semi-professional work! Many are not paid at all- don’t even get tuition wavers and are still expected to do the same work!)
As far as your curriculum idea its already been done in many places through the PhysEd departments - called Sports Management, Recreation Studies to name a few. They are just feel-good no-content no-work degree programs that look better on TV when the players name is flashed then General Studies. A new degree program is not going to turn non-college material students into college material students!
I am actually a college football fan but I have no illusions about it’s hypocrisy & corruption.