Not to get all Chicken Little here, but if a recent New York Times story is accurate and there are agents truly flooding the ranks of high school athletics, then we really are reaching a point where some kind of intervention, probably from a federal governmental agency, is going to happen and will almost certainly be warranted.

True, as the Times piece points out, this kind of thing has been going on, more or less, since Kevin Garnett skipped college to go straight to the NBA 13 years ago, and seems to be focused on elite-level athletes, but it still threatens the integrity of high school sports, which are still perceived to be relatively pristine.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a kid showcasing his skills to try for a college scholarship, but all he or she should get from that is a varsity letter or a trophy, not cash. Don't forget that the NCAA's roots came from then President Theodore Roosevelt's warning that he would clean up college sports if the schools themselves didn't. The states have simply got to do more to police high school sports, or else they'll find the federal Department of Education, or even worse, Congress, getting involved.