Let's Dissolve the NCAA!

Get it? It's dissolving.

From the Johnny Manziel signing scandal to the Northwestern Football Unionization, there is one issue that is pretty resounding through college sports: Should we pay these kids?

The NCAA says resoundingly No. Because they are student athletes and it would ruin integrity and blah di blah blah blah.

I happen to agree that athletes should not be paid by the Colleges and Universities which they attend. Not because they don't deserve it, but because there is no logistic way to make it work (please comment below with all your logistic ways to make it work).

Do you pay the football team more than the basketball team? Swim Team? Do you pay the starting quarterback more than the third string offensive lineman? What happens if the quarterback gets injured? Does his money get allocated to the backup? And once you do pay athletes, how much is enough? How much is enough that they won't feel the need to take more money if they can get it? (spoiler: it will never be enough)


These are the questions (plus like a bajillion more) that all have to have concrete answers before any kind of a plan can be instituted. Plus the NCAA has to allow it.

But I've got a better idea. The Average Bro Plan if you will. Let's dissolve the NCAA!

I mean why can't we? Nobody really likes them. If we all just stopped listening to them what could they do? Kick a school out of a conference? Too bad none of the other schools in that conference are listening to the NCAA either!

Now I know this isn't a new or radical idea. People always want to get rid of the NCAA. But I want to get rid of them for a very specific reason. Student athletes may not be able to be paid by their colleges, but they should be able to be paid for whatever other means they can be.


Johnny Manziel wants to sign a thousand autographs for $5000? That's cool. Terrelle Pryor wants to get some tattoos in exchange for his own memorabilia? Do it up! John Smith from ABC University wants to open the John Smith Football Camp during the summer to earn some extra money? What is the harm in that?

You'll never catch me being a "fiscal conservative" except for in this case. It's far too complicated for Universities to figure out what the different levels of payment should be, so let the free market decide. Your starting QB clearly will have more star power and will probably get more money from the general public. Your OL? He'll still create some buzz if the team is good, if only in his hometown. No, he probably won't ever get the same amount as the QB, but if he wants to play in the NFL, he should probably get used to this fact anyway.

If a student does something that's defaming their team or their institution, let the school handle it. Did an athlete sell memorabilia that belongs to the school? Charge it as a theft (or however else the school wants to brush it under the rug).

The fact of the matter is, these athletes are adults. If they were in an engineering class and developed some new kind of technology, they would be able to sell it. If they were creative writing students and they wrote poetry, they could get it published and make money off of it. Some outside organization can't step in and say, "If you sell this technology, you're really damaging the integrity of student engineers everywhere." America has become a country infatuated with the idea of entrepreneurship, especially when people start at a younger and younger age. Why are sports any different?

I'm sure there's something I don't know about how the NCAA does amazing things for students everywhere. Maybe I'll get a bunch of comments about how fiscally this doesn't work either. But I think getting rid of the stubborn senseless old NCAA is the first step to helping to solve some of these problems.