Jackson Free Press

The following will not be a popular opinion—but I have never cared if my opinions were popular.

I've spent the last few weeks reading about the Oklahoma State scandal, the controversy over SEC players taking money, Arian Foster admitting in an interview he took money at Tennessee, and the "All Players Unite" protest. I think it's time.

It is time to blow up the whole NCAA system.

Notice I said "blow up," but I didn't mention anything about rebuilding the system. That is because I believe the system shouldn't be rebuilt. This should be the end of college sports as we know it.

Instead of athletes getting scholarships to go to school, they can push for pro leagues to develop minor-league systems for them to practice their athletics. If athletes want to be treated like professionals instead of college students, then let's make them go out and be professionals.

It is time for college sports to move to an Ivy League or Division III model. No athletic scholarships.

The idea of paying players would just bring more headaches than solutions.

Who should get paid? Only starters? Only stars? Only football and men's basketball players (aka those in revenue producing sports)? Or all players?

Each of those solutions creates problems. Only paying starters and stars would create rifts between teammates, and non-paid players would largely out-number the players getting paid.

Paying just football and basketball players also brings up major problems: Title IX and fairness in college sports. Do women athletes sacrifice less than their male counterparts? I would say no. What about those that play for their school in baseball, bowling, gymnastics, swimming, soccer and others?

Some of my most progressive friends believe schools should only pay football and men's basketball players because they produce revenue. Equality be damned, when it comes to sports.

The idea of paying all players sounds great when you talk about the SEC, Big Ten, Big-12, Pac-12 and ACC. The problem is what to do in the smaller conferences and FCS schools.

Take our state, for instance. Ole Miss and Mississippi State might find a way to meet a payroll for college athletes with SEC money. What happens at Southern Miss, Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State?

Those schools would either have to cut sports or, worse, drop football and basketball all together. For schools already struggling to fund athletic departments, it might be better to just get out of the business of college sports than go deeper in debt.

Because of Title IX, schools with less financial resources would have to drop men's sports or football just to stay afloat. Fall would look vastly different around the state if the only college football game to go see was at Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

The Big Ten has already threatened to move to Division III and de-emphasize college athletics like the Ivy League did years ago. Former Big Ten member University of Chicago already did this in the 1940s.

Maybe it is time for all of college athletics to follow the Ivy League and get back into the business of education, not athletics.