Necessary Roughness

This is not a topic with which I regularly engage on these pages, the ups and downs of major players in the world of sports.

Having said that, I am one who is guilty of enjoying watching really good college teams, but at the same time
am appalled at the hypocrisy of those who condone and look the other way at secretly remunerating college players, when it's clear that they are aiding and abetting college athletics as essentially a farm system for professional sports.

One has only to read the reports about the CEO's, (that's calling a spade a spade) of  NCAA Division I institutions on their comments about what conference in which they want their teams to compete.

Sadly, as usual, it's all about money, in the form of attendance revenues, but mostly TV contracts. 

Perhaps there will come a time when there are enough people who, like me, have enjoyed watching real talent perform at the college level, but who take off the blinkers when it comes to looking the gift horse in the mouth.
Too many college athletes have been sacrificed at the altar of the almighty dollar, cast aside, scholarships cancelled, when they didn't perform as expected or when the NCAA eligibility ran out.

How is that different in principle from professional athletes being let go by the teams which have become disilussioned with their performance.  Fact is each has been fired.  The part about getting a college education is of no consequence, and is ignored. 

So far the NCAA/College referees have called such actions "Necessary Roughness".

Once again I think that when  historians write about our era they will likely conclude that the word, Hypocricy
might capture the human element.

Leanderthal