The NCAA Does Something Right?

Okay, well this topic is probably a few weeks past its shelf life, but hey, I didn’t have a forum to express opinions back then.

If you watched the NCAA men’s basketball tourney, then you likely saw at least a hundred commercials highlighting the fact that there are TENS OF THOUSANDS of students participating in NCAA athletics. Although the actual commercials left a little something to be desired, they make an important point.

For some reason, sports journalists and columnists have made it something of a cause the past several years to talk about how unfortunate college athletes are because they’re not being paid, yet no one ever talks about what it would really mean to pay these athletes. Do we only pay basketball and football players? Do we only pay the handful of players that actually have the talent to play the sport professionally?

Does the NFL benefit from the NCAA? Yes. Does that mean that the whole NCAA system that provides a free education (or at least a reduction in cost) to tens of thousands of athletes is flawed? No.

Now clearly the NCAA has a thousand unbelievably moronic rules in place (such as not allowing athletes to have jobs or the Jeremy Bloom case in which the NCAA won’t allow the athlete to receive endorsement money from skiing and modeling), but providing an education to thousands of students is not one of them.


Contact El Duderino (I'm NOT into the whole brevity thing) at jaipf@hotmail.com.