Schools with mega-basketball programs like UConn should really be allowed to offer a sports major stripped of all the show GE classes that these student-athletes fail or don't even bother attending.
Allow the teams to spend more time on practice and skill development for players that are hoping for pro careers. End the foolish charade of pretending most top-tier prospects are attending school for any reason other than training and exposure. Those that want a liberal arts education in addition to their basketball goals and double major or work out a hybrid program.
I sympathize with this, but my problem with it is that under the current system, players at least have the option of getting some college education while playing. A lot of them might not take advantage of that but many of them do, and I think you can't underestimate the value of that. Even at a top program like UConn not every player is going to play professionally at all, let alone in the NBA.
Letting schools like UConn abandon the whole student-athlete thing gives them an advantage, which pressures other schools to follow suit, which quickly creates a situation where good players have to choose between the best basketball programs and being able to get any kind of education. Your "double major" would never happen unless a truly elite recruit demanded it - run of the mill D-I guys would never even be given the option. And if they aren't even pretending to get an education, why should they play for free?
I get the rationale, but it seems like it would open an even bigger can of worms than the one it's trying to seal shut.
Guys have gone back to school as pros to complete degrees. Guys who want to do both liberal arts/science studies simultaneous to playing sports have done so. What I'm suggesting in no way impedes them. There would be no restrictions on what classes they could take.
Rather, for those athletes that signed up to play basketball, get better at it and hopefully move on to a career in it, why not give them the option of getting more time with basketball training professionals instead of taking (and in UConn's case failing) Philosophy 101 and a Physics lab course?
If you're serious about your post-collegiate basketball career (and you're not that good at anything else), weightlifting, nutrition, drills, opponent scouting and learning the playbook are all going to be more useful than finite mathematics.
That's not pretending to get an education, it is getting one. If anything, it puts less pressure on schools to pay for athletes because they'll actually be offering something of value to their higher-level recruits. Consider Brandon Jennings: don't you think he might have reconsidered getting his butt kicked abroad if he could have gotten full-time, world-class basketball training at a hometown school like UCLA without the charade of a full-time GE course load? How about Jeremy Tyler?
And, yes, there would certainly be a lot of basketball hopefuls who flamed out post-college. But how is that different from anyone post-college? How many people waste $10k+ on freshman years only to drop out and never return to finish? How many people with degrees are bussing tables or working jobs that have nothing to do with anything they studied?
I'm a film major working in non-profit development. My Master's Degree (in Anthropology) mom works in a coffee shop. My degree-less wife works in marketing. My brother's a college drop-out who makes 5 times as much as me. A college education is not some mystical career determinant. It's just training. The more relevant the training to what you want/can do, the better.