Yay VCU. Boo College Sports.
By Brian Kirwin | Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 | VirginiaVirginia 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.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
12 Responses to "Yay VCU. Boo College Sports."
Get your statistics straight. That’s $10.8 billion over 14 years, or $771 million a year, or $11.5 million a game. So no it isn’t a $11 billion tourney, its a $800 million tourney.
Still its really disgusting what they do. What the universities and the conferences and their “leaders” earn does not equal a college degree from the finest colleges in the world let alone the schools in the final four. Brian didn’t even mention rights from things like the NCAA video games for football and basketball. They are using these kids by holding out to them like bait the promise of playing in the pros.
What you all are now supporting “employee rights” issues? Come on now…
FYI: The Ford Motor Co. President just earned 26.2 million and the employees took cut in benefits and some including local Norfolk one got layed off…
Back to the NCAA: I guess those kids don’t have to play sports… At least they have that right. Employees get the shaft everyday… Why not start them off in college?
Well, no not employee rights, Unions are truly worthless, and yes I agree anytime you work for anybody you are getting the shaft financially. The only way to ever really make money is to work for yourself. However my larger problem is that due to NCAA rules those kids can’t even have a regular job. So in Virginia schools those students right to work is being violated.
The bigger question is what values and character are we teaching our children? Is it money talks and the rest walks? Are we teaching our children only winning counts and if we don’t win we throw a fit? Come on!!!! It’s up to parents to teach our children better. http://dc.sbnation.com/2011/4/3/2088926/final-four-2011-butler-vcu-riot
I am glad VCU “lost” even though they deserved to. At least now, I won’t get continuous “BREAKING NEWS” updates from the Richmond Times-Dispatch about a 2nd rate college basketball team. That the Richmond police had to put down a downtown campus riot last night with tear gas and rubber bullets says it all. And this what we call high education?
I thought the kids were getting paid to play by the taxpayers…it’s called a free education……
Lee made a really good point when he mentioned the video games. The NCAA is profiting specifically off those playes names and likenesses and they get none of that money.
As a former D1 college athlete, I have a ton of issues with the NCAA’s treatment of — everything. First of all, they use their power to engage in political battles. A few years back they forced teams to abandon native-American mascots; they told Syracuse that “Orangemen” is sexist and made them change their name to the Syracuse “Orange.” Most notably, they told the state of South Carolina that they couldn’t host post-season play because they fly the Confederate Flag over their Capitol.
Whether these incidents offend the liberal, Ivy-League elites at the NCAA or not should be a non-issue. Their purpose is to ensure fair athletic competition at the collegiate level. Period. I don’t care what the NBA has to say about social security reform or abortion, and sure as hell don’t care what the NCAA has to say about Native Americans or secession.
But Kirwin, you’re missing the bigger issue here. I hope that everyone has seen the movie “The Blind Side” because in addition to being an exceptional (and true) story, it is a scathing indictment of the NCAA and its policies. Remember the scene when the NCAA accused Michael’s parents of “only adopting him so he would play for Ole Miss?” They were basically saying that taking a kid with no shot at life, paying for a private school education and putting him on the track to a career in the NFL is somehow a crime because — wait for it — it hurts the integrity of college sports. If more wealthy alumni took an interest in helping under-priveliged kids and got them into college, the world would be a much better place, but not for the NCAA. Michael Oher didn’t sleep in a bed until he was in high school. If it were up to the NCAA, he’d still be sleeping on the street.
I agree that college athletes should be compensated above the level of simply getting their tuition paid. College coaches are allowed to endorse products, take paid speaking engagements and accept gifts from alumni. While straight-up paying college athletes would cause a lot of trouble, it seems reasonable to me that if Reebok sells a million Florida jersies with Tim Tebow on the back, Tim Tebow should be earning a commission.
The union organizers should get off the backs of the states and move on to more fertile territory, like the NCAA. With some getting rich on the backs of the players as a tried and true union mantra, it sounds like the NCAA players are ripe for some Union organization. With contracts, collective bargaining and legal representation, it would be a great educational opportunity to get those young minds full of mush ready for the big leagues. When the fans are waiting for the first mass NCAA player walkout and the drama that would follow would be a warm up for when those youngsters finally get drafted and play with the big boys.
But on the other hand, the players would quickly find out that they should probably go into the legal profession and represent each other to get a shot at the real big money.
College sports for me were a joy, not an occupation. So what if we lost to the likes of Princeton, Yale, Syracuse, or Army; the competition is what I sought. Athletes in conferences like the Patriot League and the Ivy League put athletics into the proper perspective. Ironically, the red blooded americans who support high school and college sports and encourage the public schools to act as minor leagues for athletes so the sport itself does not need to pay for a farm system, yet vote against bond issues for new schools, really take the cake. Frankly, let the NFL and the NBA develop their own developmental leagues, and pay for them, and leave college sports to be for the student athletes.
Mike B.,
So by using the Patriot League and the Ivy League as examples, you are basically saying that there shouldn’t even be athletic scholarships. Screw the under-priveliged kids whose parents can’t afford college right? The pure competition that you speak of is reserved for the wealthy.
The rest of us need athletic scholarships to pay for school. Must be nice living on your side of the tracks with all of the “competition” that you enjoy. The rest of us need to work (or play) for an education.
Leave your response
The comments section is for meaningful discussion. Readers are reminded to post comments that are germane to the article and write in a common language that steers clear of personal attacks and/or vulgarities.
Please take a moment to review our comment policy.