Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Who gets the universities windfall?
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I believe a lot of it goes back into sports, so it's good for sports that don't have a big following, especially a lot of the female sports. But some does go to other programs in the university as well. And of course a large portion goes back into the football program (I'm obviously thinking football programs here, not other college sports, as football is by far the most profitable, even over basketball).
The big problem I have with it is the coaches and executives get paid ridiculous amounts of money and it leads to the kinda conduct you saw in the Penn State scandal. When you have as much money as is involved, people don't want to rock the boat often turning a blind eye to unethical and even illegal behaviour.
Now I'm not saying all the schools have pedophile coaches causing untold horrors, but you do hear of unethical and illegal behaviour far more often than you should in some of these programs. Perhaps a cap should be set on executive salaries. It might not only discourage bad behaviour, but create more of a level playing field for the schools.
The fact of the matter is that college sports, especially football, is very big business, and many people are in it for the money, not the love of the game. So, it's hard to ask players to live up to a certain standard, when a lot of the people around them are not. If the players are expected to work as hard as they do for their education and the love of the game, how is it fair that the coach, who supposedly is doing it to help these students, is making millions? Or an executive, who just happens to be able to put on a bowl game is running his business tax free?
Here's a list of the highest paid coaches:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...ery-fbs-school
Also, a lot of the money also goes to NCAA executives and the bowl executives, that basically run the bowl games like non-profits.
'The reason bowl profits aren’t taxed “is because it’s supposed to be serving a public purpose,” Gary Roberts, dean of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, told the Arizona Republic. The bowls, Roberts said, are not supposed to “squander this money that is not taxed.” And yet, since the BCS began, average pay for the CEOs who run each bowl has more than doubled and now exceeds $500,000 a year, the Republic found. The Sugar Bowl, which has cash reserves in excess of $34 million and until recently benefited from tax subsidies from the Louisiana government, pays its CEO more than $593,000.'
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...-taxes-part-1/
As has been talked about a lot recently, and even lampooned in shows like South Park, it seems to be a case where a lot of people are making boatloads of money off these students and it's getting to the point where it's just not right and is in fact causing problems. Don't get me wrong, I do think these people should get paid, just that all balance has become lost.
Is the answer spreading the wealth around a bit by giving the players some money? I'm not sure that's the answer, as I do think a free education and the chance to do what you love is a pretty good deal. But the system does seem to be broken, so if the league has no better ideas on how to fix the economics of the sport, then maybe it's a decent option.
Personally, like a lot of these corporation run amok stories that are so prevalent in the States right now, I think some part of the answer is to go back and rework the tax code and make sure these colleges which have become businesses, pay their fair share.