“To spend a lot of time on what-ifs is not really my style,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who what they do is defend lawsuits and put together whatever arguments they have to put together. I get it’s a really significant issue, but it’s just a guessing game where it ends. I’m sure there will be appeals.”

The reason I give thought pieces like this credence, is because there aren’t enough folks on the defendant’s side of O’Bannon thinking like Vanderbilt’s AD.

“I’m a lawyer and there are times when you gamble and times you try to reach a settlement,” said Vanderbilt Athletics Director David Williams, who teaches sports law. “I don’t know all of the details that the NCAA lawyers know and certainly they know more than I know. But it seems to me this is one where you try to come to a solution and go on about our business because I do think it is a big gamble. The consequences could be very, very large.”

Instead, most of the population is made up of the don’t care types like Foley and the don’t know types like LSU’s Joe Alleva.

On the other side of the spectrum, LSU Athletics Director Joe Alleva doesn’t think the NCAA should settle.

“I think the NCAA feels like they have a very good case, but who knows when you get in front of a court and judge?” Alleva said. “If star players could start selling their names themselves and making money off it — selling autographs, selling T-shirts — it could change the landscape significantly for those athletes. It would be market-place driven, obviously. I don’t know what the answer is going to be.”

Coincidently, it’ll be the Foleys and Allevas who will be shouting “why didn’t somebody warn us?” the loudest if things go south.