* There is tremendous pressure to juice for any athlete who hopes to go pro or even be competitive.
* People gamble heavily on collegiate athletics. Of course you have to worry about fixed games.
* Look at USC, Miami, or just about any major sports school: The players barely have to attend class to remain eligible.
* No, they're making money. Take a look at the salaries of coaches, athletic directors, and college presidents and think again. If universities cared about endowments, they'd spend the athletic dollars on academics, investing in contributions from future alumni.
I highly recommend "What's My Name, Fool!", specifically the section on collegiate athletics (page 230).
It seems to me that your view of the 380,000 U.S. student-athletes is heavily skewed toward on the 200 people you see on TV. Creating policy based on this view is the equivalent of designing child protection laws to benefit the one missing white girl on CNN.
To take an example from the source I cited, Maurice Clarett wouldn't be very profitable without the other 54 players on his team, or the opponent for that matter.
College basketball + College baseball + College football = thousands of players. Even though it might be a small percent of the total, it's still a significant amount of people.
I don't think we're talking about all student athletes, here, but specifically the higher profile athletic teams (men's basketball, football, hockey).
Try to get a million+ to finance the fencing team, or women's wrestling, or (har) ultimate frisbee, or any other worthwhile, but not extremely popular, sport. The 200 people you see on TV get a disproportionate amount of the funding.
* There is tremendous pressure to juice for any athlete who hopes to go pro or even be competitive.
* People gamble heavily on collegiate athletics. Of course you have to worry about fixed games.
* Look at USC, Miami, or just about any major sports school: The players barely have to attend class to remain eligible.
* No, they're making money. Take a look at the salaries of coaches, athletic directors, and college presidents and think again. If universities cared about endowments, they'd spend the athletic dollars on academics, investing in contributions from future alumni.
I highly recommend "What's My Name, Fool!", specifically the section on collegiate athletics (page 230).
http://books.google.com/books?id=ut3M85a6yTMC&dq=What%27...