Jesus dude. When did you become such an extremist?
In the instance of college football, in the past there was no need to pay for walk ons at all. They were provided an opportunity to pay for school and try out for the team. Now there is a need for boosters, their businesses and other supporters to pony up millions each year to help pay these “walk ons”. That,in an of itself, is going reduce the number of Johnny Tryhards given a chance, even if there is no minor league or separate division of 65, or whatever number of major college football. No coach is going to want to manage a roster of 150 players and no school is going to be able to afford to pay that many players a “salary” if it does go to a minor league.
They're not going to, nor do they want to. It's one thing to say you want to develop players, its another to say you can develop all players to be actual contributors. Fvck, this is not little league baseball where every kid has to play 2-3 innings and you bat the entire order. As someone said, this isn't intramurals.
I'm all for kids getting paid, we all know athletics is a year around commitment. When my son was playing D-1 baseball, his sport demanded so much time, and school work was required, as it should be, but it took a backseat to baseball. The sport first, the education second.
Without question, there are some very serious student/athletes, i.e. aspiring doctors, engineers, etc, but the bottom line is, their ass better be there and ready to go to battle when it matters. Athletes that are highly motivated find a way to do both parts at a high level.
I don't get the participation ribbon bullshit of college athletics. In business, to be successful you have to employ productive personnel. It's not like the government where you can just have dead wood for employees at every level. If you produce, you have a chance to succeed, if not, business fails and along with it many individuals and families are affected.
Scholarship players are that for a reason, same with walkons, and of course there will always be exceptions. But, what maintains programs? The more talented and productive scholarship kids, or the +/- 5% of walkons who actually are on the 2 deep depth chart?
I'm not trying to denigrate walkons, but there is a position skill level required in this and every other competitive sport. Now's the time to dwindle down the total number of walkons. As the direction the sport is headed, you can manage it now by choice, or later when you are given no choice. No manager of a program should be punished for seeing the direction an "industry" is headed and being proactive.
I respect everyone's opinion on this topic. I just fall on one side of the equation. What can you help us do to win games and maintain/increase revenue? It's always gonna be about money and making the best use of it.