Business decisions

Say this much for LaVar Ball: When he burns the playbook, that puppy is cinders.

America's most annoying/arrogant/narcissistic sports dad pulled his second son, LiAngelo, out of UCLA this week, less than a month after he and two other knucklehead ballers were arrested and indefinitely suspended for shoplifting in China (and after Our Only Available President was allowed to believe he "saved" them from the iron clutches of Chinese justice).

True to the Book of LaVar, he did it without consulting anyone on the UCLA coaching staff. The plan, if it can be called that, is to spend this winter prepping LiAngelo for the NBA Draft -- which seems laughable when you consider LiAngelo is by all accounts the least talented of the three Ball brothers, and thus the least likely to be snatched up next June.

In which case ...

Well. This is where it gets interesting.

Because what if this actually works, of a fashion? What if LiAngelo spends all winter in private workouts, then gets drafted? And even if he doesn't -- the far more likely scenario -- what if he then winds up playing overseas somewhere, because there's more money to be made in more places playing pro buckets than there's ever been?

What sort of chills do you think will go down the spines of college coaches if that happens?

If that happens, after all, suddenly you've got a business model for future basketball prodigies that bypasses college basketball altogether. And it will be college basketball's own doing, because (just like college football) it's become a corporate enterprise entirely driven by business interests and not by the academic mission of the universities it purports to represent.

Sure, you can bash LaVar Ball to a fare-thee-well for selfishly messing with his kids' futures, but what if he's not doing that at all? What if he's simply following a path laid out for him, inadvertently or otherwise, by coaches and administrators and everyone else involved in the power structure of big-time college athletics?

You've got coaches now, after all, who make more money off their side deals than they do for molding the character and education of their student-athletes. You've got coaches who regularly bail on their commitment to their universities and the kids they've recruited because a better business opportunity -- i.e., a more prestigious, higher-paying job -- has come along. Why should we expect those "student-athletes" not to follow their example?

This is, after all, supposed to be about getting a college education. And so when Jimbo Fisher leaves Florida State for Texas A&M -- a lateral move at best he made simply because A&M threw $75 million at him -- it's the ultimate teachable moment.

It was a purely business decision purely motivated by self-interest, because Fisher abandoned his Florida State kids before they'd even completed their season. And so now we have high-profile players  starting to do the same thing, choosing not to participate in their schools' bowl games in order to prepare for the NFL Draft. In so doing, they're merely making the same sort of business decision Fisher just made, and that drives major college athletics as a whole.

Yes, sir. Sounds like these student-athletes have learned their lessons pretty well.