Virginia Commonwealth University’s magnificent run to the doorstep of the NCAA Basketball Championship was an excellent showing. Kudos! Cheers! They did very very well.
Still, I hardly watched a shot.
I disagree with most everyone I know. I don’t like college sports.
I’ll watch the pros all day long, but getting interest in colleges I didn’t attend never quite clicked. Sometimes regional pride kicks in and I’ll go to an ODU game and wonder what it takes to be a quarterback in college football, but that’s mostly to hang out with friends than actually watch the epic struggle of top-level competition.
I watched the opening minutes of the VCU – Butler game and it was very competitive. These teams were giving their all.
Meanwhile, millionaires got richer while these players fought their guts out for not a single penny.
The NCAA is tax-exempt. It’s a non-profit organization.
The television contract for the March Madness tournament is worth 10.8 billion dollars.
That’s a heck of a lot of money for a venture whose workforce works for free.
Oh yes, they get “scholarships” which aren’t counted as salary, and why I have no idea. In politics, if someone give you a contribution, it doesn’t matter if it’s money or in-kind. It still counts. Rules that say you can give a 4-year education to a player but not a car? At some of these schools, the car would be of more use!
But do they even graduate?
“Of the 68 schools in this year’s tournament, the piece notes that 16 teams graduated fewer than half of their players. Of the Final Four teams, Connecticut graduated 31 % of its players, Kentucky 44 %, Virginia Commonwealth 56% and Butler 83 % according to an annual report from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida (Frontline)
In my neighborhood, that is what they call a “racket.”
The NCAA is laughing all the way to the bank during an 11 billion dollar tournament with millionaires sipping martinis over giant TV contracts while players do the work for free.
That’s really March Madness.
