The money game

We begin today with this, from ESPN yesterday:

Notre Dame has reached a multiyear deal with SoFi Technologies that will place the financial service company's brand on the Fighting Irish's jerseys in every sport starting this season, the university announced Tuesday.

The six-year deal is worth about $18 million to $20 million per year, according to industry sources, and is believed to be the richest in college athletics history ...

And so it goes, and so it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut was so fond of saying.

So it goes, as our congress critters put their shaggy heads together to figure out what to do about college athletics, now that college athletics has gone full professional. As usual with the politicians, they're about 30 years too late.

See, the road to athletes-for-hire and unrestricted transfer portal warfare didn't begin yesterday, when Notre Dame signed on with a financial services company and Ohio State finalized a $17 mill deal to plaster its student-athletes with (speaking of financials) JP Morgan Chase logos. No, indeedy.

It began the first time a school cut some chunky deal with an apparel company, and turned its student-athletes into billboards for its corporate partners by outfitting them in Nike swooshes and the like. It began when schools started selling some rocket-launcher quarterback's jersey in the school bookstore, and Rocket Launcher didn't see a dime.

It began when the college pashas decided it was OK for video game companies to use images of student-athletes without the student-athletes' permission, and again without any compensation for them. And it began the first time a Nick Saban or Dabo Sweeney signed an eight-digit deal to coach football, or the Big Ten or SEC or Notre Dame inked their own eight-to-ten-digit agreements with ESPN or NBC or Fox or CBS.

So, yeah, it's a money game now for the sis-boom-bah set, and what else is new? Other than the worker bees getting to negotiate their own fat arrangements these days.

Which, let's face it, is why the politicians are suddenly in a dither about Saving College Athletics. Don't recall any of them palavering about College Athletics needing Saving when the universities started paying the Sabans and Dabos like CEOs.

Look. There's no denying the current system is unsustainable, if for no other reason than it's not really a system. Thanks to the NCAA's benign neglect, it's Judge Roy Bean and the Law West of the Pecos now. Which of course is no law at all.

But that's hardly the fault of the "student-athletes," who are only following the example set for them over the years by their colleges and universities. You reap what you sow, and the reaping has scorched the earth. So at least some structure would be, you know, nice.

Letting Congress pokes its nose in, however, is hardly a solution. Especially under the current Regime, which rivals Larry, Curley and Moe in its ability to make a bad situation worse.

You want to "fix" college athletics?

Great. Turn the clock back.

Let the SoFis and Morgan-Chases contribute to a school's scholarship and career development programs without using the student-athletes to promote their businesses. Make the coaches part of the university again by paying them like any other member of the faculty and requiring them to teach academic courses, the way they used to. And tell the ESPNs, CBSes   and NBCs they're welcome to televise the games, but the schools reserve the right to decide where and when.

"Oh, come on, Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "That's totally unrealistic. You might as well  try to bring back the Model T."

Maybe so. But you know what?

At least the Model T was reliable.