But it took how long for "TRUSTS" to become illegal??? I do not know if they will be legal or illegal in 10 yrs, but my point to you was, what may be legal today may become illegal tomorrow. Think of it this way, currently Major League Baseball is an operating monopoly that the U.S. government currently allows. But if fans or the population was to suddenly for whatever reason to be against MLB, congress would step in as they have in the past and threaten to take away this "legal" monopoly until they changed their ways. (For the record no one believes it will ever be taken away but if MLB pushed on an issue that our U.S. congress was against - well who knows how that would play out).
I can't believe you are using the music industry as your example, I don't know of a more corrupt business other than the MOB. Sure the music industry is operating under "legal" pretense but lets not have out educational institutions aspire to such a shrewd, crafty, winner takes ALL and more business model that makes us think of high pressure tactics when we are now talking about the welfare of student athletes. I think the GOR as others have stated has yet to be challenged which is why no one knows for sure how this will play out. But with respect to the GOR, what does the student athlete get for signing with a team that allows a GOR to exist? Afterall, whose name is on the back of the jersey and worse whose body is taking the "punches" on the field. So please, and ND is going to talk about a GOR - please did ND sign the GOR? and if so, did it include football? So when this is all about football, please don't talk to me about the justification of a GOR citing of all things the music industry. ND, obviously is not going to have their football program subjected to it. And once again, ND is helping to defend or craft rules that they themselves will not be required to live by? When in the Old Big East, how many times did ND vote for something that was counter to the growth of the conference but served their own needs? Sure good shrewd business sense and now there are the GOR's, thanks ND, you helped destroy what was likely the best regional basketball conference in the U.S. and certainly the only one that ever captured NYC on a regular basis. Note to be clear I said Helped - I do not blame the Judas University solely but they definitely had a much bigger hand in it than they should have been allowed. Maybe the ACC, NBE, or the BIG will do this but they will never have been first and so they will always be compared - ALWAYS!!!
As a UConn fan, I do not plan on counting on the concept of a GOR being challenged as our only hope. Sure it could get things really moving, but I think conference realignment has a few more after-shocks before it settles. I think UConn will be involved in one of them and that is all I care about. A GOR being challenged and failing would be off the Richter Scale and the tectonic shift would be massive - so I think this will be avoided but I cannot assume it will never be challenged and if it is, what the outcome would be.