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NCAA Shafts College Players
Billion-dollar industry rides on unpaid kids who won't see NFL, NYT op-ed says
By Wesley Oliver
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Posted Nov 11, 07 1:48 PM CST
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(Newser)
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Each season, NCAA football teams score millions in profits, but the players neglecting their education don’t get a dime, writes Michael Lewis in a NY Times op-ed. Colleges say their football programs are an outgrowth of their academic mission and not commercial business. Yet top schools earn more than $60 million, shelling out top dollar to nab coaches and erect lavish stadiums.
The real losers, Lewis writes, are the mostly poor black players who spend little time in class to entertain mostly rich white audiences. The NCAA stiffs players through anti-market policies that sound like “simple theft.” Less than 1% actually go on to play pro ball, but “their hope is eternal, and their ignorance exploitable.”