are allowed to participate in ventures that can make a profit (i.e. city owned public golf course). Since WVU and Marshall are both public universities, the more money they earn from other sources then the less taxpayer dollars have to be used to support them. It is naive to think that people aren't spending millions (may even billions) of dollars betting on sports. For colleges that is a potential gold mine of untapped revenue. It would not surprise me if in the future more states or the federal government decides to legalize sports gambling.

Now whether schools should go down this road or not is definitely debatable. There is definitely a potential increase in problems and pitfalls that comes with this path. Also, I don't disagree that college athletics needs a good reckoning. Heck you probably could include pro athletics and the pro-college relationship in the reckoning. When it comes to athletics, the US culture has developed into believing that college athletics is just as important as pro athletics. If a reckoning did come, then it would be like saying this unique mindset was wrong and the rest of the world was right when it comes to the roll of pro and college athletics as forms of entertainment.

Then there is the economic impact that the reckoning would have not only on the schools, but also the businesses that are associated with college athletics (i.e. sponsors, media coverage, etc) and the businesses that are depended upon the dollars people spend attending collegiate athletic events. If VT announced today that its athletic department was either splitting off from the rest of the university in order to compete as a pro team in all sports and a the Intramural Department was being becoming the new athletic department so VT could continue competing in sports at a club level (aka no more athletic scholarships), then how do you think the Hokie fanbase would react? How about if the athletic department was eliminating athletic scholarships and competing in ever sport at the pro level?