If Congress actually gets involved, the combination of this sort of inconsistent enforcement and governance (USC, UNC, Penn State, smaller schools, Ohio State), the Northwestern lawsuit, the various lawsuits about conference realignment, the fact that football is incredibly dangerous to one’s long term health yet the NCAA and its institutions are seemingly doing nothing about it, and the fact that the “education” piece is as big of a sham as the term “student” in student athlete is enough of a cocktail to potentially bring down the NCAA.
I for one wouldn’t mind it one bit. One of two things need to happen:
1) Complete overhaul of the system with benefits provided to student athletes. These benefits may not be salaries, but may be part of the royalties, include disabilities, etc..
2) Complete change of the system to return to no benefits whatsoever. Let the kids go straight to the professional leagues at any age.
I’d actually be all for #2. Doing the first would be a situation where the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. I suspect due to all the money involved, it would be #1.
As for UNC, nothing is going to happen to them. If Congress gets involved, knowing that being found “guilty” of inconsistent enforcement would be another nail in the coffin for them, the NCAA is going to really circle the wagons to protect how they handled the UNC case.
