First, you are never going to change college sports. Aside from the (huge) direct money that comes from it, a very wise college president once said "sadly, most people in most states who never went to college think the quality of an institution is directly proportional to the quality of its football team". This is true. If the US had college sports similar to, say, Canada's, most ordinary people in, lets just pick a state, say Ohio, would be only vaguely aware of Ohio State and the difference between it and Ohio U. Unless you, or your kids, went there, you would no more care about it than you would any other state bureau or department. The simple fact is that state universities uses sports to promote themselves in a never ending funding war between the various schools in a state.
It is sports that make non-alumni people think of North Carolina, Alabama, Texas, or any other "named for the state" school as "we".
Try this. Pick any 20 people and ask them to name a really "great" college. After a few Ivies, you will get a list of Division I-A football schools. Ask them to name the "best" college in their state and 19 out of 20 will name the named for the state Div I-A football power. Now in some cases (Michigan, Penn State, UNC, etc) it is true that the state has a "selective" system of admissions and the smartest kids go there and others have to settle for other schools, but its more common that "state U" and and all of the various directional state colleges around a state are pretty much the same, and a Ohio State degree is about the same as a Miami degree is about the same as a Cincinnati degree is about the same as a Youngstown degree.
That said, I am tired of people talking about the "exploited" college athlete. Free tuition and all of that at these schools (some of which they would not be admitted to, as noted above, under normal circumstances), is a great deal. The college makes money? What is the biggest money maker for most colleges? Sports? No, health care. The Big Centeral State Referral Hospital. Where the hard cases are sent. Ever know anybody who went into healthcare. Years of free work at those hospitals to be a nurse, pharmacist, therapist, whatever. Not to mention an MD. Two years of totally uncompensated work followed by 2 to 4 years of 100 hour weeks as a resident for a token salary. All to be, no earlier than one's mid 30s, making upper middle class money, not the 1/10th of 1% highest bracket that an athlete is paid.
For that matter, get an advanced degree in anything. A legit Master's or a PhD. You will spend several years teaching undergrads and doing research that the college will own the rights to, for no money at all.
Cry me a river about college athletes and their explotation.
Now, all that said, I do not see the problem with all of this current agent stuff. Taking money from a booster is wrong. It is cheating by the college. It is being a professional in an amateur sport. But why is a booster slipping a guy money a big deal. The agent could care less what college the guy went to, he is just fronting him some money on the promise of future payments. To continue my medical analogy, I had a friend who was a pharmacy student. Pharmacy is a great major because of high demand and the fact that a pharmacist one day out of school is just as good to the drug store chains as one 50 years out of school, probably better. Now he got entertained during his senior year by all these big companies. What is so different from being entertained by various prospective agents?
