"They're playing with the lives of the players to do this."

Ryan Herrington ponders how changing PGA Tour Q-School to the Sponsorless-Tour-Formerly-Known-As-Nationwide Qualifying Tournament would impact college golf. First, there is this, which Herrington calls a quick aside but it's one of the fundamental questions that the PGA Tour Policy Board should have asked before green-lighting the concept.

A quick aside: with the PGA Tour heavily marketing all the great new young players and the excitement they bring to the game, along with the fact that several of them have won on tour this year, doesn't it seem rather strange that the tour would then make it that much harder for them to actually get PGA Tour cards? The answer to this likely lies in the fact the Nationwide Tour is in need of a sponsor in 2012 and by making the Nationwide Tour the real path to earning a PGA Tour card, it enhances the value to a new sponsor. Sad though they're playing with the lives of the players to do this.)

As for whether this will encourage college players to stay in school or leave early, common sense says more will stick around and get their degrees. And we know how useless common sense can be when applied to instances like this one.

That said, I also wonder this current proposal might have the opposite effect in the short-term, that maybe it will accelerate the decisions being made by collegians right now as to whether to turn pro early or not. Judging from past experience, it will take a while before the PGA Tour actually adopts this plan (or any for that matter). By a while, I can't imagine it getting approved until the fall at the absolute earliest. Thus, I think this year's Q school proceedings won't be affected. Perhaps, however, the 2012 Q school will be this totally different animal and thus players (for instance Morgan Hoffmann) might decide to get in while they know they can have a direct path to the tour.