The Real Pat Blair

Who Profits From College Sports? asks the Wall Street Journal.
Apparently Congress is starting to wonder about this big non-profit organization known as the NCAA, and wondering how things like “tax-exempt” and “$545 million basketball TV deal” are ending up in the same sentence. My question? What took so long? The mafia (not that they exist) must be jealous of the NCAA, which has to be the biggest, boldest racket of all time. You know what NCAA REALLY stands for? No Competition, Absolute Authority (wielded with all the grace of a drunken rhino, if I do say so myself).
It’s good that someone is finally asking some questions about this, and it’s good that some changes are on the way, but it’s too bad that the Federal Government is leading the charge, and it’s too bad that no one will make the correction suggestion: it’s time to start paying student athletes. OVER the table. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but D-1A College sports are a for-profit business, and the participants are getting paid. For crying out loud, Reggie Bush made more money in his last year at USC than I made in my entire career in the insurance agency. I’ve heard stories from reliable sources of non-star football players at D-1AA schools getting a weekly unofficial stipend of several hundred dollars. If Rhett Bomar and co. were not careless idiots, he would have made $18,000 last summer for NOT WORKING. Even the supposedly squeaky-clean Roy Williams arranged to have players paid cash and given clothes.
Right, right – just because people are breaking the rules doesn’t mean that we should change them. But the widespread disregard for the rules demonstrates that there is a market value for players, and that in a non-regulated climate, they would be fairly compensated for their services. No, a scholarship doesn’t count. Just shut up, you are silly and making yourself look bad. You are arguing that a National Merit Scholar, such as myself, provided as much value to Iowa State in 2000-2001 as Marcus Fizer or Jamaal Tinsley. Yup, that’s absurd. Can we move on?
USC received a $14.9 million payout for appearing in last year’s BCS championship. Well, the conference did. After what the NCAA skimmed off the top. During the Bush/Leinert era, estimates are that USC gained an additional $35 million in football ticket revenue alone. That doesn’t count things like jersey sales and merchandise sales, additional TV revenue, not to mention intangible publicity and recruiting for the University. The top 20 D-1A football programs average a 60% profit margin. 60%. Wall Street execs are, as you read this, weeping at the thought of such gaudy possibilities. USC coach Pete Carroll, making an estimated $2-$3 million annually for the next 4 years, has built quite a personality for himself, but he’s not the reason that USC is averaging over 85,000 in attendance.  No, its stars like Bush and Matt Leinert, who get a scholarship that’s worth about $25,000 per year.  You do the math.
Bush and Leinert are both going to make lots of money playing in the NFL, but not all of their teammates, who helped generate the money for USC, will get the opportunity.  A lot of these guys major in “Football” and minor in “Partying Like a Rock Star,” only 55% of them will graduate (yup, that’s right, half – check the WSJ article), and will leave with not much to show for it.  That’s morally reprehensible.
Break up the NCAA.  Make it a for-profit and publicly traded.  Pay college athletes.  Create NFL-style salary caps: combined with already existing factors like playing time, TV exposure, geography, etc. it should HELP parity in D-1 big-time college sports.  Create clearly-define ways for boosters to contribute to these caps, or, if they choose, to non-revenue sports, in order to continue to provide scholarships to the real STUDENT-athletes.  Enhance the penalties for boosters, players, universities, and, most importantly, COACHES who cheat.  If a coach leaves the school, the penalty should follow him.  Increasing both rewards and punishments for the players will go a long way to make the system less corrupt than it currently is.
And, seriously, start paying these guys.  Watch Bowl Games, watch the Final Four, and tell me that college sports aren’t a real business.  They are, so let’s pay the guys creating the revenue.  There’s no reason not to.