Nailed it. I've said much of this as well. We can paint this however we'd like, but this is about "social justice" and nothing more. People thought it was ridiculous when the skiing kid from CU lost his scholarship, but there wasn't enough uproar to move any needles. This is just the latest installment of "it's not fair", specifically for a particular demographic. And as always, it will only exacerbate the problem. Not a year goes by that some NFL/NBA star doesn't go bankrupt in one of those almost unbelievable stories. And those are adults, with agents and others trying to help them manage their money. This will be 17-20 year old kids, often from humble backgrounds being handed large amounts of money. It will not go well, and anyone saying otherwise is fooling themselves.
Another point is that the more this becomes a business, not an amateur sport, you will inevitably see contracts. Right now that booster has no coverage because the 20k he gave to the signee isn't legal. The moment some business throws 100k the way of a 5* athlete for his likeness, *ahem* signature on the LOI, there will be clauses that allow them to claw that back or cancel if certain conditions aren't met. So when Brenton Cox tells Athens Ford he's transferring to Florida, does anyone think they'll just let him walk with the funds, no recourse? It may happen. Once. In a similar vein, if it becomes a true business, then like any business, weak links will be cut. So the kid from Pahokee that doesn't work out and isn't as good as UF expected him to be gets sent back to the muck with nothing, not even the degree he was promised. After all, that's how businesses work. And this is yet another way that UF and its current administration is in no way prepared to handle this new reality. Because we will keep the Justin Williams of the world for 5 years out of benevolence, while the cut throat programs we're currently trailing won't, giving them even greater roster advantage.
Like you said, start a farm system if that's what some of these kids are demanding. Let the kids who want to play a sport while getting a degree continue to do so. But in any event, that's obviously not happening. So now it's about watching how disastrous it becomes.
