I don’t have a favorite for March Madness. It gets harder for me to follow college basketball every season. Call it bitter nostalgia, but I thought it was great when college ball was all about playing ball… just some kids, a coach and a lot of zone defense. But just like everything else these days, College Hoops has been bastardized by commercialism.
College basketball is an industry that needs some level of corporate regulation. The NCAA is a nonprofit organization - so I’mma need to see their books. I need to see how much money ISN’T influencing my local college. I’ve paid nearly 100,000 dollars to the University of South Carolina in various fees - to include tuition, room and board. I need to know what my money is paying for. There are scholarship student-athletes currently attending the academic organization I help fund who 1) didn’t earn acceptance to the school, and 2) have absolutely no hope of graduating. This isn’t your same old ‘Pay the Athlete‘ spiel. All I care about is my investment. If I had to chose between supporting some dual threat, stoner WR/Small Forward or an English major with poor - but passing - test scores, the English major would get my money.I don’t give a damn about National Championships: as long as my money is being diverted to pay for the University of South Carolina, I want it spent like a University rather than like a Ball-club. It’s not the University of Basketball.
I hope no one is fooled, in reality the NCAA tournament is a cash hustle. I’m fine with that, though. I am not, however, ok with supporting a tourney held by a supposed not-for-profit organization making a billion dollars a seson. For a billion dollars, more of these kids should be graduating from college. These students have special housing on campus with tutors and academic centers in-house. They’re giving special exemptions from class to attend games and practices. The original rationale for it’s tax-exempt was that it the NCAA was an educational institution which supported student athletes. But CBS pays the NCAA $545 million for the rights to televise men’s basketball and, in particular, March Madness. How does this help ’students’? WTF does this this tournament and the enormous commercial revenues it generates contribute to the “student” part of the ’student-athlete’? Should the NCAA continue its tax-exempt status given that it makes billions of dollars a year and fails at 85% of it’s purpose?
The NCAA has increased the number of games that football and men’s basketball teams are allowed to play. Yet only 55 percent of football players and 38 percent of basketball players at Division I-A schools graduate. Tax-exempt status of college sports might be justified by the fact that successful sports teams often trigger increased applications for admission, and donations from alumni and legislatures. But as a federal taxpayers, I have no interest in increasing applicant pools at some Elite Eight school across the country. Tax exemption is financing the escalation of coaches’ salaries. Many college coaches are paid more than $1 million annually. Schools also must buy out these contracts when coaches bolt for the NBA or another team.
The real question is: how many schools generate a net profit that goes to something other than athletics? How much of this money from Cingular or Verizon is going to network infrastructural upgrades or better campus security? How many teachers are struggling to survive with sub par pay while their football coach and his staff makes millions?
Who does more for the University of South Carolina: Steve Spurrier - coach of 6-6 Carolina Gamecocks - or the Dean of the Darla Moore School of Business which consistently ranks #1 in the world in International Business?
Think on that a minute.
As a tax payer, should I be pissed that more of my taxes support a non profit, tax exempted sports organization than the student-athletes it claims to support?
Meanwhile, Gamecock tickets just went up another $10 a seat and we still suck. The money paid to our coach - Dave Odom - should have been donated to the School of Business. They are successful. They put out winners.
They key here, and this is a minority view, is that we need to regulate this industry and control spending. Many people hold the belief that spending money will make money. Thats a comfortable axiom and it almost makes sense. But basketball can be played anywhere. It doesn’t require a million dollar weight room or a Olympic swimming pool. A well coached team could win in a parking lot with a chain-hoop. So where does the money go?