Seriously, that's what you have. That what was, is immoral, exploitive and illegal. Talk to the many thousands of female student athletes who have their entire college education, lodging, food, travel and tutors paid for. The vast majority who will never ever play beyond college. Ask them if they were exploited. I would bet the answer would floor you. Please tell us how these young athletes were exploited. We now have what you seem to think is nirvana in college sports. Did the old system need to be changed and updated? No doubt it did, like a lot of changes' things have gone from bad to worse. At UConn it will take longer for unlimited money and a free for all transfer portal to rear its ugly head. About as long as Genos last day on the job. Then we become another LSU or any of the other schools who we speculate about. How many $ we dangle to entice HS players or transfers to play pro ball at UConn. If the players want and have unlimited freedom of movement and money just maybe the players should be charged for their apartments, travel, food coaching and gym time. Only seems fair to me, unless you want the schools to be exploited while being used, lied to and pooped on like you feel the players have been. After all, when all is said and done, I guess that almost half a mil invested in a student is nothing. Yes the system needed changes and will change again very soon, cause what you seem to think is right means that any contract the athlete signs with any school is just dust in the wind.
The athletes, particularly the women, who labored and achieved excellence are and continue to be inspiring. Their preparation and participation are what continue to draw many of us to the sport(s) they play. It would be a mistake to romanticize the role played by the NCAA - the room and board and tuition support were provided by the individual colleges, in may cases in spite of the NCAA. The arcane and insane rules and regulations that the NCAA imposed across college athletics are remarkable, in may ways similar to the IRS -
Remember it was Title 9 and most certainly NOT the NCAA that began the long journey to today.
"The NCAA became concerned by what it perceived to be the potential weakening of its position as the dominant and controlling body of intercollegiate athletics. If Title IX was to apply to intercollegiate sports at all levels and women were to be elevated to a status equal to the men, its financial assets and political power were threatened.
The first approach of the NCAA, when faced with the threat of equality in intercollegiate athletics, was to attempt to limit Title IX’s application. The NCAA tried to offer its interpretation of Title IX (Acosta & Carpenter, 1985). It encouraged a narrow interpretation of the law, excluding athletic departments from the scope of Title IX. The NCAA argued that because athletic departments did not receive federal funds,
they should be excluded from compliance."
A History of Women in Sport Prior to Title IX
The current transitionary state of college athletics is certainly not nirvana, merely an improvement over the past.
The long over due changes are disorienting and challenging, but the empowerment for the athletes who compete at the level of Uconn is long, long overdue.
We all remember the history of women's sports before Title 9 and after. Of women sleeping on gym floors when on the road, Pat Summit's early experience in coaching is informative.
So, we can agree to disagree - progress is often challenging to those accustomed to the past and to the myths constructed by those in power. In my mind, only the naive would consider the NCAA other than a malignant.
While Slate is a media source that has issues or problems in reporting and editorial direction this article comes close to capturing the insidious nature of the NCAA
'Almost nobody likes the NCAA. Plenty of people like college sports, in the same way plenty of people like the NFL or the NBA. But very few like “the NCAA,” the governing body that oversees America’s college athletic contests. For many, that’s because when the NCAA isn’t working to prevent athletes from being paid, it’s working to make sure women’s sports are treated as something less than men’s sports. "
How the NCAA Has Been Screwing Over Women’s Sports for Years
Slate goes on in the article above to point out
"And the NCAA’s high-profile failures around the 2021 women’s tournament expose how much the bosses cared about that event compared to the men’s tournament. NCAA president Mark Emmert
called the disparity “inexcusable,” and of course he did. It is!
But Emmert failed to admit that this tournament’s failures rhyme with how the NCAA treats women’s basketball every other day of the year. It goes beyond money."
So, no nirvana today in women's sports, merely progress.
