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Message: [QUOTE="LStudfellow, post: 2352087, member: 5436"] No offense Travelman, but it is this type of attitude where you call the 16, 17 and 18 year-old "dirty" and "lacking character" that is a major reason of how we have allowed this sham of major college athletics to continue to thrive in the first place. I do not blame you, as your attitude is the one that is held by most people... but that does not change the fact that you are just flat out wrong. As much as we, and that includes me, love the romance and pristine view that we have all been sold about the "student athlete" and the virtuousness of college sports, the realty is that it is not the 16, 17 and 18 year-olds who are dirty and lacking character. It is the middle aged, mostly white men, who have set up this system of hypocrisy and exploitation. In practically every other vocation in this country, the 16, 17 and 18 year-old who possesses a skill marketable enough that billions of dollars can be made off that skill, he would be getting a healthy cut. Only in major college sports is that "against the rules"... except of course that the "rules" of this game were set up by the very people who are exploiting the teenagers with the marketable skills in the first place. The 5-star kid is the one who is dirty and lacking character? In any other walk of life we would applaud him for being enterprising enough to be out there seeking, even demanding, the true value for his skills. Never forget... it is not the kids who set up this system of exploitation and greed... it is the adults, who are supposed to be the ones who know better. You and everyone else on here with similar views as yours Travelman should take that into consideration before you go throwing shade at the group who are finally standing up for themselves after being taking advantage of for the last 3 to 4 decades. And before you head down the road of the value of a college scholarship... yes, for the average 3-star prospect, I will give you the argument that a college scholarship is worth their level of talent. But if a 5-star kid is worth 6 or even 7 figures on the open market... then neither you nor I should stand in such harsh judgement of their desire to go out and try to get at least a decent percentage of what they are worth. In fact, I would go so far as to say that is the way a free market system works, when it has not been artificially fixed by the exploiters at the top... isn't that what we are supposed to espose to here in the United States of America? And for the record, I am a white middle aged man who has been a huge UConn fan for over 30 years... but I can see this current major collegiate "system" for what it is... a complete and utter sham, set up by those in power (the administrators, coaches, networks, shoe companies and other leeches making money off of this system) to maximize their exploitation of those (the kids) who have none... Never forget that this sham has NOT been created by the teenage athletes in any way, shape or form. That would be the group of people who, you know, actually MAKE THE MONEY. [/QUOTE]

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