Originally Posted by
99Bison
NCAA should start planning organized professional leagues, with tiers - something like how soccer is organized in Euro countries, eventually feeding into the NFL/NBA/etc being the top tier.
“Member Schools” have the stadiums, rights to pay for players/transfers/etc. Schools can offer the players schooling as a compensation option (eg. all non revenue sports), but not required.
Players get paid according to market value, and endorsement value just like anyone else, they may or may not attend the school as it’s entirely optional.
NCAA could generate significant amounts of revenue (like it does today) by organizing, facilitating the leagues, tourneys, sponsorships, etc at all levels.
Younger than college players are also entirely eligible for this as well. So perceived top players in what’s current AAU, HS and the likes can go into the profession early, similar to the hockey/etc leagues.
—-
Note:
This requires the ncaa to honestly admit what’s going on and find a real solution. So very likely this will not happen by the accord of the ncaa. Cue yote53s comment... the have/have not gap widens, and slowly people stop caring about their mediocre school athletics in the popular sports and maybe cheer remotely for another school/semi pro team, or find something else to do.