A Jan. 1 Associated Press story, “End of the amateur athlete in college,” aptly describes the recent acceleration of changes in college sports induced by a “steady flow of money” and liberalized laws and regulations. This has allowed large payments to players, displacing the “quaint … notion” that student-athletes play “only for pride, scholarship and some meal money.” I do hope those players, mostly winners of nature’s biological lottery, appreciate the extent of their good fortune. Millions of students and graduates of colleges, universities and vocational schools, laboring under mountains of debt, might be excused for thinking that a scholarship is worth a fortune in itself, and that education is the “only” central purpose of school, not professional sports. They should take pride in that view. There is nothing “quaint” about it.
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Letter: Nothing quaint in NIL
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