The main problem is the powers that be have decided that players can't get paid. There is this facade of amateurism. And in college (American) football, you literally can't go to the NFL until you've been out of high school for 3 years. The NBA is 1 year. So (American) football players have no choice but to go to college, while basketball players can risk playing overseas, or go to college for 1-2 years before entering their name in the draft.Understood. Very succinct explanation. I suppose coming from the UK where the Oxbridge boat race is our big sports event for universities, it's difficult to get my head around the idea of what a university is over there as opposed to here. Big cultural schism.
Not sure I'll ever be comfortable with it but at least I now understand.
In the revenue producing sports, we don't have an established minor league system/academies (or lower level/younger club teams tied to the professional teams) so if you're an athlete, essentially you have to go to college to continue your playing career and have any hope of playing professionally.
So you end up with people at a university who hold a grudge against kids in a system that they can't really avoid without forgoing their dreams. We've tied their talent to college, even though they may not be interested in more school. I'm not sure educators' fully accept/understand/appreciate that.