THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: College athletics can be fixed — but will it?

There’s a problem with turning college athletes into professionals.

Well, actually there are several problems.

Even if you think it’s just fine for UConn money people to outspend Duke’s rich alums for that super shooting guard, figuring out HOW to make the process work is a nightmare.

Let’s start with the biggest issue: Are college athletes amateurs or pros?

I mean, the ones who are in demand.

It’s obvious that you can be a walk-on in the Gonzaga women’s basketball program and remain an amateur — simply because no casino or fast-food joint feels like handing you money to stick around Spokane.

Then there’s the other side of the street.

Drew Timme never said exactly how much he was getting in NIL cash (name, image, likeness), but he DID note that he was better off financially by staying in school — as opposed to turning pro and competing in, say, the G-League.

That would put Timme in a bracket earning around $250,000 per season.

Or considerably more.

Meanwhile, there’s a lawsuit (the first of many) currently churning along in the case of whether USC athletes are actually school employees.

Watch this space.

YOU MAY find this entire system grubby, or perhaps you think it’s simply fair-market capitalism.

If someone will pay for Timme’s services, what’s the problem?

Um, there are a few.

If a group of wealthy people (or companies) decides to recruit for Alabama by paying its players, that’s called a collective.

One clear speed bump is that those trucks of money are going to the athletes, who happily pocket it. 

However, these young men and women then create huge amounts of revenue for the university — which keeps it.

You don’t see many schools turning down the cash on moral grounds.

Quite the opposite.

We’ve just watched several of the largest collegiate conferences turn themselves inside out to get larger TV deals.

I have an overriding problem with this.

It just seems wrong that many of America’s most famous universities are simply operating professional sports franchises.

Was that why these academic institutions were founded, to win the College Football Playoff?

We can all admit that some big-time stars — especially in football and men’s basketball — have been paid for decades.

It was then called cheating.

Do you think Wilt Chamberlain dreamed of playing for Kansas while he was growing up in Philadelphia?

THERE’S confusion in this bold new era, however.

Most fans tend to lump the transfer portal and NIL together.

Yes, they can overlap in REALLY unpleasant ways.

You think collectives from one school aren’t blatantly recruiting athletes enrolled somewhere else?

Assume there are a couple thousand athletes in the portal each year.

You think they’re willing to find new homes — sorry, classrooms — simply for playing time or nicer weather on campus?

Hah.

I’ve heard from plenty of coaches that the first question they hear is often the same: “How much?”

Gonzaga brought in a batch of players for this hoop season, and lost a corresponding batch.

If you think money wasn’t involved, you’re being naïve.

This unfortunate cash transfer is probably here to stay, one way or another.

But let me ask about another part of the system.

Why did the transfer rule change?

Why allow kids to hop from school to school, say hello and just suit up to play?

THE IDEA of sitting out a year — for academic, cultural and social reasons — was correct all along.

Oh, I can hear the howling from players, parents and agents: “A redshirt year would prevent these young people from earning income.”

There would be threats of anti-trust lawsuits.

Wait.

Hang on a minute.

Why not let the collectives representing the various schools pick up the tab for lost cash during a redshirt year?

We’ll look the other way, just like always.

As for the money handlers and the schools they’re repping, let ‘em wait a year to reach the Final Four.

Players in serious demand would STILL be in demand if they sat out a year, going through regular team workouts and — if they’re in that special, elite tier — preparing themselves for the NFL, the NBA and other leagues that are out there, waiting.

Hey, folks, the fox is already inside the chicken coop.

The least we can do, in this mess called college athletics, is make him wait a while to eat.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”