Not so long ago, college sports were for amateurs, which is to say, played by student athletes. Of late, however, professionalization is taking over and things are moving rapidly.

In today’s Martin Center article, Graham Hillard looks at the trend and finds it unhappy.

He writes:

College sports have collapsed into anarchy in the absence of a single, dominating authority. Whereas (former) University of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava would have been smote from the face of the planet had his recent saga unfolded in, say, 2019, the sporting world barely blinked when the young man forced his way out of Knoxville earlier this spring following an unsuccessful “Name, Image, and Likeness” money grab. Similarly, the NCAA of old would have had Bill Belichick tarred and feathered before it let him give his 24-year-old girlfriend even unofficial duties at UNC.

These days, lawsuits claiming that rules somehow violate the constitutional rights of players are common.

“Will Congress, the president, the courts, or a hobbled NCAA stand up to such madness? I suppose it’s possible. Yet the schools themselves almost certainly won’t. All of the energy — all of the incentives — are flowing in exactly the opposite direction,” Hillard continues.

The University of Kentucky has broken new ground by creating a completely separate entity called Champions Blue for its sports enterprises.

One small school, Saint Francis University, has decided to drop out of the “financial arms race” that college sports have turned into, by leaving Division I in favor of Division III. The school’s president says that the money saved will be better spent elsewhere. Hard to disagree with him.