Over at HorsesAss there has been an interesting discussion, why not fully professionalize the Huskies?
The idea posted at HA is pretty simple. The UW Huskies, along with other college branded farm teams, would be privatized. This new company, perhaps a non profit, would hire professionals, including players. The only limitation would be that the only students allowed to play for the farm team would be UW students. These true student athletes would, as far as the UW goes, be like any other student who has a strenuous part time job …. albeit a very well paid job!
Money from this new entity would come to the UW under a license agreement .. just like the UW gets paid now when you buy a Husky-logoed hoodie. This income would be designated to support TRUE intercollegiate athletics, that is AMATEUR intercollegiate sports. Alumni who wanted to contribute to the pro farm teams would now be free to invest rather than donate funds. The IRS, rather than the NCAA, would be responsible for assuring that wealthy investors stayed within the law!
The opportunity for truly outstanding UW student athletes to play in a real professional environment would be awesome, though few students would be likley to make the cut. Instead the pro farm teams would have an ability to recruit, limited only by their ability to make a profit. As with baseball, one assumes whole industries of aspiring pro Huskies would grow up in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Samoa. The quality of these farm team professionals would soar, vastly exceeding anything possible under the current NCAA limitations.
The fans? Imagine the enthusiasm when the level of Husky play soared to these new levels!
today i was kind of saddened to learn that uw athletic director woodward got a 5 year extension and big bucks on emmert’s last day on the job, a real golden parachute for woodward by his big uw and lsu buddy.
how is it right that an outgoing president commits his successor for so long and so many dollars to an athletic director so closely tied to the preceding president????
and an athletic director with seemingly questionable judgement, witness his comments about u. oregon, his role in the hiring of the preceding athletic director, and last but not least the hiring and firing of tyrone willingham.
Do you people have a facebook fan page? I looked for one on twitter but could not discover one, I would really like to become a fan!