Hardwood83

No, it's not hypocrisy. That is claiming one thing and doing something else. He mentioned the "upper class" creating the amateur model to "exclude lower classes." Sounds like class warfare which prompted my "commie stuff" comment. I am all for capitalism and have stated a few times already PRO SPORTS ALREADY EXIST. You can play for pay. No one, including me, has argued against that. I don't mind if LeBron makes $50million a game, if someone is willing to pay it. Our apparently insurmountable difference of opinion is that you think anyone doing anything of economic value has to be paid top dollar or it's a moral outrage. I think that is patently (and demonstrably) ridiculous. Everyday millions of people volunterr to do millions of things for free because they enjoy them, for others benefit, they feel obligated, etc. They don't want or expect to be paid, even though they are offering something of value (time, effort, expertise.) For a long time college athletes played only in exchange for a scholarship and possibly to develop into a pro (for the the elite players.) However, the vast majority did it for the love of the sport. Over the course of time the schools and others started to profit greatly from this arrangement. Is that "fair"? I think so. They signed up for that arrangement, no one was enslaved and forced to play college basketball by the NCAA. They coulda dropped out of school and done anything else at any time.That is the break-down in your comparisons, playing college sports is not the same as being in a gulag, it's completely voluntary. Was the system corrupt? Absolutely. Are we putting the genie back in the bottle? Not likely. So congratulations, you win, we now have a couple more bastardized pro-sports leagues. I could go on, but that is more than enough and I'm not changing anyone's mind, so I'll let it go.

There is a lot wrong with what you wrote. You seem confused that there is a right to play organized sports. Also, "amatuerism" is merely non-professional, not that made up commie sounding stuff you copied from wikipedia. According to you we should all pay our wives for marital relations, since EVERYTHING has to be a professional relationship... I disagree, but I'm still charging you $50 for replying to this nonsense. Again, did you refuse to watch the Olympics or college sports in the before time? No, of course you didn't. So you don't even believe what you are stating. It's ok, no reason to bicker anymore, we're not changing anyone's mind and IU's professional students won the Rose Bowl, so let's enjoy that.

I'm not demanding anybody do anything for free or otherwise. No one has a gun to their head, do they? No? Then you have no point. No one is making them play ball. I think it's funny that none of you "professional" guys boycotted NCAA sports 25yrs ago because of your moral outrage over the gross financial inequity either, right? So drop the righteous indiignation, we're all hypocrites. You still didn't answer my question- can amatuerism exist?

Late to this party, but my thoughts are even though the traditional system was flawed it was: A) successful B) not compulsory. So the position that college (or Olympic) athletes "were taken advantage of" is exteremly hard for me to accept. Sincere question: Can there be willing amatuers in anything? Aren't blood donors getting screwed? My kids sold candy as a fund-raiser and got squat, are they owed a piece of the action? Everyone is gonna put the line somewhere and some of you think that since college sports are popular and make money, that it must be shared with the players. Ok, I'm 100% pro free market too......but we already have professional sports. If players don't want to "donate" their time & talents to a college they can go play for the NBA, NFL, MLB, in Europe, etc. Colleges don't owe them the right play. So, I reject the argument that amatuer sports can't exist because someone, somewhere is making money. Also, there are tons of ethical issues, like why are state run education institutions sponsoring professional entertainment? Practially, none of that matters since the cat is out of the bag and not likely it's going back. I played college football and it was a sacrifice, but I still love college sports and am sad they are disappearing.