Good Read on the NCAA

[Subob1]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/1/

 

[Cadillac]

Fascinating stuff.

William Friday, the former North Carolina president, recalls being yanked from one Knight Commission meeting and sworn to secrecy about what might happen if a certain team made the NCAA championship basketball game. “They were going to dress and go out on the floor,” Friday told me, “but refuse to play,” in a wildcat student strike. Skeptics doubted such a diabolical plot. These were college kids—unlikely to second-guess their coaches, let alone forfeit the dream of a championship. Still, it was unnerving to contemplate what hung on the consent of a few young volunteers: several hundred million dollars in television revenue, countless livelihoods, the NCAA budget, and subsidies for sports at more than 1,000 schools. Friday’s informants exhaled when the suspect team lost before the finals.

If a significant band of football schools were to demonstrate that they could orchestrate a true national playoff, without the NCAA’s assistance, the association would be terrified—and with good reason. Because if the big sports colleges don’t need the NCAA to administer a national playoff in football, then they don’t need it to do so in basketball. In which case, they could cut out the middleman in March Madness and run the tournament themselves. Which would deprive the NCAA of close to $1 billion a year, more than 95 percent of its revenue. The organization would be reduced to a rule book without money—an organization aspiring to enforce its rules but without the financial authority to enforce anything.

 

[shantydaze]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/1/

I scanned the first couple of pages, but did not read the article closely. I get frustrated every time the argument is made that college athlete's should be paid and I consider the $100,000 in student loans I had when I graduated from SU and the fact that it has been 11 years since I graduated and I am still making payments. While I do not disagree athletes should receive a cash stipend from the schools to allow them to enjoy being college students. If I recall correctly, financial aid is based on the cost of attending school, which included miscellaneous expenses. A full scholarship should be for the same cost of attending school.

 

[BlackKnight76]

Fantastic article