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You can't be this obtuse by gregmorrissey

There has to be some benefit to you to let athletes -- all 140,000 scholarship athletes and not just seniors -- lose a year of eligibility. You seem to give it away with the transfer to D2/D3 suggestion.

I am purposely not considering the financial impact of no football/basketball revenue because it's impossible to predict the impact and just how much the current landscape will change. Also, because it wasn't the purpose of the original question posed? And, it is completely and totally irrelevant to whether you want to let athletes use their full four years. If there are only 70,000 scholarships (50% reduction) come Fall 2021, who do you think will get them? Only those kids at schools that didn't drop their programs while the 70,000 from programs that were dropped are out in the cold? Or do you think there will be a mad rush of roster management (grayshirting/blackshirting/moving former scholarships to preferred walk-ons) so that the top 50% of those 70,000 can be brought into a program on scholarship?

Here is a simple hypothetical...

Clemson and Alabama both drop their football programs. 170 top tier athletes are now available. Are you suggesting there isn't a coach at another program willing to "understand the financial impact, ... understand the impact on recruiting, ... understand the impact on the remaining athletic programs" in order to try to get some of those athletes on their team? Surely, you will concede they will. And, I'd bet they'd be just fine dropping the scholarships of their bottom 4 or 5 guys to accommodate them.

Now, to continue with this hypothetical, will all of the Clemson and Alabama players find a home? Probably not. Some will decide to stay at Clemson/Alabama as non-athletes because they enjoy the university. Some may have to transfer down to D2/D3 because there aren't any D1 schools that want them or have scholarships for them. Some may choose to transfer to another D1 school as a preferred walk-on. And the rest may be ready to start their adult lives and just move on.


Now, to try to bring it back to my original point, I don't think it is fair to penalize the 140,000 current D1 scholarship athletes a year of eligibility because of COVID. I have already conceded multiple times that "most schools will let their seniors go" and "they aren't going to cut younger guys in favor of a middle of the road guy". No shit, Sherlock! My point is that maybe that middle of the road guy that Notre Dame doesn't want can land at Illinois or Northwestern and get an MBA from a top tier school while still playing a game they love. What do you find so difficult about giving them that option?