Can our sports be fixed?

By Bob Gaydos

When I read that the U.S. Senate had voted overwhelmingly to fix college sports, my first reaction was, "Great!"

As an old sports editor, I had given up trying to figure out portals and transfers and where a player was this year and what conference that school was in, how many schools were now in the Big Ten and how much a college athlete could earn by having his or her face plastered on some product.

It used to be that a standout high school athlete could "earn" a college education by getting a full scholarship to play football or basketball or whatever sport that college emphasized. That was the payoff. And the opportunity to let the pro teams see you play. But with expanded playoffs, TV coverage, legalized sports gambling and the increased flow of money, colleges were cashing in. Football coaches especially were cashing in for multi-million-dollar contracts and athletes were left hoping to be a top draft choice in the NFL or NBA. They complained that they weren't sharing in the profit. The free ride was no longer enough. They sued and won.

Now, this is mainly a football and basketball issue because those professional sports use colleges as their minor leagues. Soccer is also affected. Baseball has its own expansive minor league farm system to develop young players. Football and basketball depend on the colleges.

Back to the Senate. Seventy-seven senators voted to set limits on college transfers, set standards on how players could get paid and to protect the National Collegiate Athletic Association from anti-trust lawsuits. This bipartisan (and historic) agreement immediately raised questions in some quarters about whether senators should even be bothering about such things and from civil rights groups that the legislation unfairly penalized black athletes by limiting their mobility and earning potential.

So I paused to take a second look and see what I missed.

Beats me. The current system really is a revolving door with young athletes constantly shopping for a college to transfer to so they could get more playing time and make a better impression and maybe make more money. That makes it difficult for coaches to plan for next season. To discourage school shopping, transfers were usually required to sit out a season at their new school. The new legislation would reinstitute that feature.

The bill is called the Protect College Sports Act. I don't know if it can protect it or save it. Or even if it can be fixed. In fact, the bill may not get passed because the House of Representatives won't be back in session until after the November election and that may be a lame duck Congress full of members who will not be there in January and may not care about fixing college sports.

This college sports merry-go-round is only one of my gripes with the current sports scene. Baseball puts a runner on second base to start the 10th inning so people can get home from the ballpark quicker. Arguing with the umpires is now a lost art thanks to instant replay. Infielders have to make sure they don't step on the outfield grass.The statistics fanatics are mesmerized by how fast the baseball gets off the bat into the outfield or into the stands rather than the fact that the best hitter on the team struck out 100 times last year. Pitchers get a pat on the back when they last six innings.

I think hockey is still OK, but basketball is a run-and-gun three-point festival. And all sports are now captive to the legalized gambling addiction that lets "fans" wager on individual moments, not just who will win or lose. And that also brings temptations for players and those for whom the joy of winning is secondary to the joy of cashing in. And while I'm at it, it's probably not a coincidence that both the New York Times and Washington Post eliminated their sports departments.

When I moved out of sports, I eventually became an editorial writer for a daily newspaper. As such, I came to think of my job as trying to connect the dots for readers. A generous friend recently thanked me for "providing a compass" on current events.

Sorry, Nollie, when it comes to whether or not sports, college or professional, can be "fixed," I'm lost.

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Editor's note: Please feel free to share any suggestions you might have about how sports on the college or professional level can be fixed.