logo is available at http:// International Inc.William R. Jellison, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer(717) 849-4243. Back in the early 1990s, my uncle, then a senior dean at Northeastern University  in Boston, tried to argue that the price fixing he and his colleagues pioneered  through the sharing of scholarship award data for undergraduate students (see Economic Scene: Fixing price’s for Virtue’s Sake, NY Times May 13, 1992) was for the good of the students.Paraphrasing: “We want to make sure the student chooses the right place for him or her without considering the cost influences.”Bizarre, indeed.In the end, the Ivies and 15 other Universities abandoned the idea under the threat of a U.S Justice Department series of suits. Schools now compete on pricing as well as academic reputation, and whatever else a prospective applicant might find germane and we are all better for it.In fact, this week's papers discuss the disarray in University admissions offices this spring, as pricing has become more competitive, with certain Universities opening the endowment purse strings for the first time for middle and upper income students.How can anyone believe that this pricing transparency has not benefited consumers enormously in this case, potential students?As such, why must today’s undergraduate athletes labor under similarly misquided opaque pricing?It makes no sense to me. Let’s pay the athletes what they are worth and let the fun begin.You would probably need to develop University athlete contracts of some sort to make this a reality. Perhaps if an athlete agrees to attend a certain institution, he/she  must commit to staying a certain amount of time for a certain amount of money that sort of thing.I am a Duke alum and lifelong Tobacco Road hoops fan. If Duke were to decide it could no longer compete in  ACC basketball because it valued potential athletes at less than the market price to garner a top recruiting class, so be it.This might be the mechanism to realign the universities into national leagues that made more sense anyway, sport by sport.For example: Stanford, Rice, Duke, Northwestern, and the like might play football in a brand new league because they have similar team based academic requirements, are only willing to pay so much to a prospective athlete, and will require that the athlete stay for at least three years.In essence, this is instituting the Ivy league concepts sport by sport.

A University could always elect to participate at a higher, more expensive level, if it served the purposes of the institution.Perhaps Hopkins would elect to pay its lacrosse players at the market rate to compete in a conference with Princeton and Navy, because the institution believed it mattered for its success, but would not do the same for its football or track athletes.And maybe the hockey players of the Beanpot trio in Boston would be paid the same as those at Wisconsin and Michigan, since the local colleges in New England need something entertaining for the students during the long cold winter months.Only the institutions themselves can understand what sport and what price demands investment and at what level. These trustee-level decisions would be no different than deciding that a new building or department should be formed or expanded…or shut down, best I can tell.Markets always deliver a better product more cheaply, assuming adequate transparency. It sure would be entertaining to see what transpired among these Universities and Colleges with the NCAA shackles a part of quaint historical lore..  This week, the wrestling world was shocked to hear the news that RAW General Manager, and King of the Ring winner William Regal was suspended for violating the WWE Wellness Program. Regal will serve 60 days for his second infraction.WWE serves a 30-day suspension for first-time offenders, a 60-day suspension for a second violation and termination from the company if suspended a third time.  Fans knew something was up when William Regal lost a “Loser Gets Fired” match on Monday Night RAW against Mr Kennedy.

Indeed, the next day Regal’s suspension made headlines. In midst of a huge push with a King of the Ring victory, and a power heel on RAW as the General Manager, Regal’s suspension put an abrupt end to all that.This is just coming off of Jeff Hardy’s return from his own 60-day suspension for his second violation of the WWE Wellness Program. Jeff Hardy’s suspension came right before the biggest show of the year Wrestlemania. He was one of the most popular superstars during his quest for the WWE Title, and had just qualified to compete in the “Money in the Bank” match at the Citrus Bowl.However, on RAW, Hardy lost the Intercontinental Title to Chris Jericho, and the next day the news came out that he was suspended, putting an end to his major push.These two major suspensions have had a lot of mainstream coverage.

It has even gotten some much-needed positive reaction to the WWE’s willingness to go through its own Wellness Program and suspend anyone who violates it. Even top superstars in the middle of a major push are not exempt, as Jeff hardy and William Regal know very well.In August of 2007, the WWE made the decision to suspend 11 superstars who were linked to substances in violation of the Wellness Program. The list of superstars linked to this scandal included top guys like Edge, Randy Orton, Mr. Kennedy, John Morrison, Chavo Guerrero, Booker T and more.But there are still critics of the Program. What if top Superstars such as Triple H, Batista, The Undertaker or John Cena tested positive, would they get suspended too? Or would it be swept under the mat?Canadian fans are quick to point out the situation involving D.H Smith. Smith, who is the son of Davey Boy Smith and related to the Hart family, made his much-anticipated WWE Television debut on Monday Night RAW on October 22nd, 2006.

But on November 2nd, it was reported that D.H Smith was suspended for 30 days for violating the Wellness Program.With news of Smith’s suspension, fans in Canada were disappointed. But disappointment turned to confusion and anger when it was learned that Smith actually failed his drug test BEFORE his TV debut on RAW. This meant that the WWE knew about this and brought him up anyways, just to suspend him after.Since his return from suspension, Smith has been stuck on “Heat” or doing jobber duty on RAW. Was D.H Smith just a way to set an example?As we see, the WWE Wellness Program is doing a lot of good.