Space Ghost wrote:
The obvious problem with letting college athletes profit from their likeness is that the politicians are imagining that an honest marketplace would establish the value of these posters, autographs, etc. They are imagining that this would allow players a cut of their legitimate value as a sports figure, value that is currently being exploited.
But in the real NCAA landscape, it would take about 10 seconds before boosters realized that they could use this as a mechanism to pay players, and about 11 seconds for them to turn this into a recruiting bonanza.
Hey, recruit, come to UCLA and our boosters will establish a market price of $50,000 for your autograph, even if its actual value is $2.
This would be impossible to regulate. It would be open season.
So what?