Let’s stop playing games. For accountability sake, Congress needs to regulate the NCAA.
There’s nothing unique about the story I’m about to tell. There’s a larger storyline—a historic storyline—that goes like this. A self-focused organization does things it’s way, hell-bent on maintaining power and control. But when external pressure builds to the breaking point, the organization is forced to change.
It is passed unanimously in both branches of the CA legislature.
That storyline played out recently between the NCAA and states across the country. With strong bipartisan support, state legislatures either passed laws or were preparing to pass laws to make it possible for college athletes to receive compensation for the use of their likeness and image. In response, the NCAA—an organization that typically works at glacial speed—voting to start a process that will achieve that end.
The NCAA avoided a firestorm by taking quick action. And while I’m thankful for that, I’m also smart enough to know that the NCAA dodged a bullet. When things quiet down, the betting money has it that the NCAA will return to business as usual. And why not? Three powerful forces exist to sustain the NCAA’s unilateral control of college sports.
First, the NCAA is a membership organization that serves the interests of member universities and conferences. Members benefit significantly from athletics through revenue, media attention, and the like. The system in place works for their purposes, and members generally like things the way they are. The NCAA makes tweaks here and there, but not to the basic model. College sports reform? It’s not on the agenda.
Courtesy: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Second, college sports fans–the NCAA’s base–are ok with the status quo. Fans have never demanded or organized for change. From customers, the NCAA doesn’t face pressure to change.
Third, with the exception of recent legislative intervention to regulate fantasy sports betting, the general public has little appetite for legislatively-enacted sports reform. Why? The country faces more significant problems. Witness the fact that the public didn’t exert much pressure on state legislators to enact the recent NCAA reform. Most of the pressure came from athletes and former athletes, like LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from special interest groups, comprised mostly of athletes and former athletes, such as the National College Players Association, and from other organizations and individuals who have been pushing for change.
But before we conclude that major college sports reform is unlikely, let’s make the case that it’s entirely possible. How? The Federal government has a history of regulating industries, especially industries that operate as cartels. And let’s be clear about this: college sports is an industry that functions as a cartel.
Courtesy: Stopcartels.campaign.gov.uk
An industry exists when a number of similarly organized enterprises engage in a formally organized effort with commercial intent. There is a product and/or service to offer. A market of consumers is available. Revenue source(s) can be tapped. And the employment structure/production system is generally the same. Major college sports in America is an industry.
And the NCAA is a cartel. The NCAA, like other cartels, represents “a collection of otherwise independent businesses…that act together as if they were a single producer…to fix prices for the goods they produce and the services they render without competition.”
With that, the Federal government should treat the NCAA that way it has treated other industries-cartels–demand accountability through public oversight. That would come by way of monitoring industry performance and mandating needed reforms. And as I’ve written on these pages previously, four areas cry out for attention.
Courtesy: Race and Equity Center, University of Southern California
First, the NCAA oversees a neo-sweatshop system. Players enrich ‘owners,’ namely, the NCAA, the universities, coaches, staff, and media, while players work for discounted tuition, room and board, and cost-of-living. In employment terms–and that’s what revenue-based athletes are, employees— players work without salary and for fringe benefits only.
Second, the NCAA oversees a neo-plantation system. Young black men–the majority of football and men’s basketball players–are recruited and play for major schools. Many neither graduate nor play professionally. The predominance of black athletes in college sports today stands in stark contrast to the landscape of college sports pre-integration (the mid-1960s for basketball, early 1970s for football) when many teams–and all southern schools–were lily-white.
Third, the NCAA oversees a racist employment system. In the ‘collegiate major leagues,’ 90% of university presidents, athletic directors, and conference commissioners are Caucasian. 75-90% of percent of football and men’s basketball head coaches are White (with proportionally more White coaches in college football). That profile has remained in the same year after year, decade after decade, even after revenue sports were integrated on-the-field and teams became predominantly diverse.
Huff Post & Chronicle of Higher Ed
Fourth, the NCAA oversees a fiscally irresponsible system. While top-tier, sports-playing schools, like Ohio State, balance the books athletically, only about 65 of 200+ major public universities occupy that category. The others need significant help to stay in the black. Those resources come primarily from student fees and/or transfers from general university funds. According to USAToday, last year the median contribution of subsidies at America’s 230 major public universities was 66% of total athletic revenues. Most schools can’t pay for athletics without securing the majority of inflows from non-athletic sources.
These are four areas of grave concern. No U.S. industry would be allowed to operate in this way, especially a cartel that specializes in self-dealing. Yet, for reasons that aren’t rational, rules that apply elsewhere don’t apply to Alma Mater.
And it’s not as though those four areas are the only areas of concern. Just ask any of the public interest groups that monitor issues in collegiate sports, such as The Drake Group. which focuses attention on academic integrity in college sports.
The stakes are high. If the Federal government doesn’t oversee college sports, then the cartel wins. We’ll cheer small victories–if and when they come–but we’ll mostly grit our teeth because of NCAA intransigence.
Legislators need to keep the pressure on–at the Federal level, this time–and follow the recent lead of Sen. Chris Murphy. An excellent next step would be to reintroduce The National Collegiate Athletics Accountability (NCAA) Act.
Regulate the NCAA!
