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Message: [QUOTE="Fairfield Fan, post: 4104505, member: 6911"] Of course, virtually everyone in the Olympics was a professional. Look at the eastern bloc teams. All paid by the state for no-show jobs, while they really trained year-round for their specific sport. Olympic athletes in the United States suffered from loss of career prospects, from difficulty even putting a roof over their heads. Much of this hardship has gone away because true professionalism has been permitted. And a lot of the hypocrisy. In college sports, the industry hoovers up billions of dollars a year. Coaches make millions, assistant coaches hundreds of thousands, universities in big-time conferences collect tens of millions. It is a massively lucrative business. Except for the athletes themselves. And let's not pretend that they're not professionals. Most of these big-time sports machines don't permit their athletes to actually study, or earn real degrees. How many athletes are earning meaningless "communications" or "sports management" degrees that require no study, little in terms of actually attendance in class, and aren't really considered actual degrees? And the system is beginning to crumble as a result. Football players are beginning to balk at playing in bowl games where they could suffer career-ending injuries, just weeks or days before they're drafted into the pros. Lack of pay has resulted in a one-and-done system for men's basketball that has certainly decimated great teams, and resulted in match-ups of barely trained freshmen. And that's the way that women's basketball would be going as well. Yes, the lack of money in the WNBA is a factor keeping women from going pro- as well as WNBA rules forbidding them from doing so. But that rule is about to come under attack from the payers' union soon. And Europe's increasingly successful pro teams beckon for standouts like Paige and Clark. This no-pay system is falling apart on its own. And there's no stopping its demise. Time for women to earn what they deserve. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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