College sports are fun to watch, but there are some problems with the system. The big basketball elimination tournament going on now generates about 90% of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s operating budget. The fourteen top NCAA executives were paid almost $6 million dollars last year. The president of the NCAA was paid $1.1 million.
CBS gets almost $1 million a minute for the Final Four broadcasts. Over $100 billion (yes, billion) goes through Las Vegas on March Madness betting. And what do the “college athletes” get?
An article in The Nation (April 1, 2013) proposed some reforms.
- workers comp protection for athletes who are injured.
- scholarships guaranteed for four years.
- ceilings on coaches’s salaries, and stipends for the athletes.
- minor league NBA and NFL teams, so colleges don’t have that responsibility.
- abolish the NCAA. It is not about college education. I think we all know that. It’s a business that exploits its athletes.
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