I hope down the road the academic requirements are lifted and players don't have to work towards a degree. No more scholarship either but there would be no point to it as all an athlete would have to do is focus on their sport. The school provides a venue to showcase their talent.
I mean, afterall, we've been told countless times now the scholarship is essentially worthless in terms of what players want. So just let them train, play, sell stupid looking t-shirts and showcase the fruits of that labor for a professional deal. If it doesn't pan out (as it won't for 99%) then join the work force as a "High School Graduate/Some College" like anybody else.
After a few cycles of this we'll see how "worthless" the scholarship is.
I see what you did there. You slipped in a strawman and beat it down. All due respect, but you don't have to take everything to extremes. You are implying that just because the players want to have rights to their own images and names, and have access to a bigger piece of the billion dollar pie they help create, they are ingrates or something and don't value education or a scholarship.
First off, not all players and schools are the same. Don't lump everyone together. One of Rutgers' big recruiting selling points, in football in particular, has been that the kids get degrees and good jobs if they don't make the NFL.
Some of them do just want to be professional athletes. And some schools and conferences (SEC) are on board with that also. The Big Ten is trying to brand itself as the academically oriented conference with actual student athletes. I'm all for it. And if the schools and conference are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, I think the players making it rain should get some too.