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It truly boggles the mind how unprepared and ignorant they were on this. Their arguments presented in court in defense of their amateurism "model" were so pathetically clueless that all of them should have been replaced. I can't even fathom the lawyers who agreed to run with these. And it's no one's fault but their own that we have gotten to this disgusting mess that we're in.

All of this could have been avoided with a few simple solutions:

1 - Allow the athletes to pursue independent endorsement deals. Gatorade, Powerade, Nike, etc. There's no reason that Tommie Frazier shouldn't have made a few bucks doing Pepsi commercials. You simply require the athletes to report all endorsement deals to the compliance office, who in turn can confirm that none of such deals are in any way connected to the school they attend (i.e., Alabama's quarterback can't be making $1MM endorsing Nick Saban's Mercedes dealership). Anyone caught taking under-the-table booster money is ineligible to play and gets reported to the I.R.S.

2 - Allow the scholarships to cover full cost of attendance. Tuition, room, board, meals, health insurance. And yes, a basic stipend paid to all athletes from the money generated by all college sports. If that meant coaches would make $8MM instead of $10MM, they'd have to figure out how to scrape by.

3 - Require the students to be academically eligible in terms of G.P.A. and tracking to graduate in 5 years.

4 - Allow a one-time transfer without sitting for a year.

It was plainly clear to everyone else in the country that things were changing as far back as 2014. I don't know why the governing body thought they could ignore it instead of being proactive. Instead, they planted their collective head in the ground and waited until lawsuits dragged it into the highest court in the land. What we have today NEVER would have happened had they simply followed the Olympic model.