The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) just "scrapped the draft," said The Wall Street Journal. Player drafts have long been a "cornerstone of American pro sports," but the NWSL signed a new collective-bargaining agreement that lets new athletes entering the league automatically become free agents. No more waiting to see which team chooses them. Players will get to choose from "among their preferred teams, negotiate a deal and start playing." 

The new agreement "reflects NWSL's unique challenge" of competing for players with European pro leagues, said Sportico. The Women's Super League in England and Liga F in Spain "don't feature a draft," which has made it easier for teams in those leagues to directly sign top talent. 

Will the new NSWL model be adopted by other sports leagues? "Maybe it should," Howie Kussoy said at The New York Post. In American leagues, the worst teams get to pick the best players first. That means college sports' top players are "penalized for their success" when they enter the pros.

Rebuilding a bad team
The NWSL has thrown the draft "in the trash where it belongs," Luis Paez-Pumar said at Defector. Would leagues like the NFL and NBA be willing to follow suit? Probably not. Both leagues are committed to "maintaining control of player movement." But nixing the draft would empower players to find teams that are better fits for them.

"Imagine a world where teams are incentivized to try only to … win?" Mirjam Swanson said at The Orange County Register. Middling pro teams often "tank" their seasons to get a higher draft pick and their chance at the best possible players. And bad teams that don't tank have an easy crutch to get better. 

'Effective revenue generators'
One obstacle? Drafts are big events for the big pro sports leagues, "effective revenue generators" that bring more money, said Time magazine. The NFL Draft, for example, "keeps fans engaged during the offseason." That's partly because football and basketball players entering the pros are usually already well-known stars in college. Women's soccer players are less well-known, making it easier for the league to make its move.

The nation's 107 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are in the spotlight due to surging enrollment. Also, you may have heard, Vice President Kamala Harris, a Howard University grad, is running for president.

The first couple of HBCUs were established before the war while slavery was still thriving. And over the next century, dozens of HBCUs were established throughout the country. In Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Congress officially defined an HBCU as an accredited institution established before 1964 with the principal mission of providing an education for Black Americans. 

'Engines of upward mobility'
HBCUs have spent 180 years establishing themselves as "engines of upward mobility for students who, due to systemic racism and discrimination, had limited access to other higher education options," the White House Council of Economic Advisers said in an "Economics of HBCUs" brief. Despite representing only 3% of colleges and universities, HBCUs play a massive role in the cultivation of the Black middle class, producing 40% of all Black engineers, 50% of all Black teachers, 70% of Black doctors and dentists and 80% of Black judges. 

For more than a century, HBCUs have produced many prominent graduates, many of whom have made history. Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice, attended Lincoln University and Howard University Law School. Fellow Bison Kamala Harris, who graduated from Howard in 1968, was the first HBCU grad to be elected vice president and is now the first to lead a major party ticket for the presidential election. 

HBCUs in the 21st century
While some might question the necessity of HBCUs since the desegregation of the school system, interest in the institutions has spiked in recent years. As the number of undergraduate college students in the U.S. dropped during the pandemic, HBCUs saw a historic enrollment increase. 

In a climate where racial politics seem to clash with academics, there's a "growing recognition of the unique cultural and educational experience that HBCUs offer," said Jennifer Price, the vice president of enrollment management at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida. They provide a nurturing environment in which "students can thrive academically and personally, surrounded by peers, staff and faculty who understand their backgrounds and experiences."