Those of us who have worked on college sports reform have seldom even taken the opportunity to explore what our educational and sports landscape might look like with this rule change. We should take a close look at this. Our current institutional structure forces us to try to maximize educational quality and athletic excellence, each of which, inevitably, impinge on the other. After this reform proposal passes, because of the chain of events this change causes, these goals can coexist and not impinge on each other. The Knight commission's finding that presidents and regents should have more control over their athletic programs was like having an expensive commission find, after several years of study, that guys should stop beating their wives.
Real reform is needed.
If we do not stop the linkage between minor league professional sports participation and college class attendance no significant change will have occurred and the scandals will just continue. We have built a system in which good people end up working at cross purposes on our campuses. Then, when they do their jobs, we claim the conflicts are the result of some lack of character. We need to do much less hand wringing about some imagined loss of character and much better analysis of how significant structural change can solve our problems. Compare this solution to the structural analysis process that led to a separation of powers in our government at the time of the birth of our democracy.