Extremes always hide the truth. The truth is generally somewhere in the middle.
Over the past generations, power has shifted away from the sports establishment toward the players. Remember the "Reserve Clause" in major league baseball? Patently unfair, an injustice that ownership got away with for years thanks to a complicit Supreme Court. Eventually, the reserve clause was overturned and players were allowed free agency--the right to bargain their talent in an open market, just like all the rest of us. So with the NBA. Of course, salaries went through the roof, the while owners continued to see huge appreciation in the value of their franchises..
And now the same is happening in the NCAA. The cynical phrase "student athlete" has for years masked the fact the colleges are making tons of money off the "student athlete" while basically treating these athletes unfairly--not only not paying them nearly their market value (see the billion dollar contract for the Big Dance), but also restricting their ability to be "free agents" in the marketplace. In a way, the old transfer rules are a dull reflection of the old reserve clause that bound a player to one team for his entire playing career. Coaches come and go and yet players were always obligated to stick it out--or spend a year of their four year tenure not playing.
What happened to Gaskin on his transfer was absurd. He had to sit out a year in what seemed a capricious decision by the NCAA, while other kids in similar circumstances got to play, no problem. Same thing happened to Steadman. Why should he have had to sit out a year? Do you have to sit out a year if you change jobs?
Now those rules are changing. In effect, the market is going to the talent--as it always does.
With this background, you either adjust to the new reality of the sports world, or you whine and complain about. And for somebody like DeCuire, who is "old school" in so many ways (the three point shot being one biggie), this adjustment seems to make him sore, a source of extended complaint. Meantime, we haven't heard a peep out of any of the many players who've transferred out of this program. I'd like very much to hear about their experiences playing for DeCuire.
I see "Old Runner," our good friend from Weber, has chimed in. I presume from his name that he too, like so many on this board, are "old school" when it comes to the treatment of "student athletes." Most of you here are DeCuire fans, and support him absolutely. And make no mistake, I too am a DeCuire fan.
But we must acknowledge the new realities of the sporting world, even as it affects our Griz basketball program. You might not like the changes but change is the one constant in life. Either you adjust--or you get left behind. That's the end all and be all of the way the world works.