The NCAA Cannot Fix College Sports
Student athletics may be the one area that would benefit from academics in charge.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ncaa-cannot-fix-college-sports-1520898141?mod=ITP_opinion_0&tesla=y
On Sunday the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the 68 men’s basketball teams that made it into this year’s Division I tournament. On April 2 in San Antonio, one team will emerge as national champs.
In theory, that is. In reality, today’s NCAA guarantees the game is never over no matter how the score turns out.
In Orwell’s “1984,” Winston Smith throws news articles into the memory hole when past truths no longer suit Big Brother’s present needs. The NCAA version is called “vacating wins.” Although intended to punish schools for rules violations, the idea that an NCAA decree can erase what was won on a playing field is at once creepy and ridiculous.
Louisville is the most recent university to find its wins thrown down the memory hole. After the NCAA determined that a member of the men’s basketball coaching staff had provided prostitutes to players and recruits, it stripped the team of 123 victories—including its 2013 national championship title.
What an appalling way for institutions devoted to truth to right wrongs. And it leaves unaddressed the NCAA’s real problem—the professional nature of college athletics, especially the two big revenue sports, men’s basketball and football. The NCAA’s website claims it “prioritizes academics so student-athletes get the most out of their education.” Does anyone believe that?
As critic after critic has noted, in college basketball today the coaches pull in millions, the schools pull in millions, and the NCAA pulls in millions—while the athletes on whom it all depends get very little. For example, March Madness now provides the NCAA with the bulk of its revenue, nearly a billion dollars from TV rights, marketing rights and ticket sales.
The disparity between what the athletes get and what everyone else gets has led to lawsuits and appeals for the National Labor Relations Board to intervene. The economists’ answer is simple: just pay the players and eliminate the pretense that they are actually students. Alas, the economists’ answer is untenable, because the appeal of big-time college sports is built on the fiction that the athletes are, in fact, students.
Which is why it’s such a scandal that so many athletes never see a degree, or get one that isn’t worth anything. Although the NCAA says graduation rates for college athletes are improving, not everyone is buying the happy spin. For example, a study from the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center concentrated on black male athletes from the 65 schools that dominate the NCAA’s Division I sports. It found that only 55.2% of these athletes graduated within six years.
To put it another way: At a time when the NCAA and the universities are profiting mightily from these young men, little more than half will likely see a college degree.
College sports may be one of the few areas in American life that would be improved if academics had more say. Richard Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics at Ohio University, reminds us that there was a day when college coaches didn’t always have the final say, even on sports. “In 1961,” Mr. Vedder points out, “an undefeated Ohio State team won the Big Ten Championship and was eligible to go to the Rose Bowl but the invitation was rejected by the faculty council.” A Toledo Blade story at the time reported that Big Ten regulations gave the faculty council the “final authority in academic matters.”
The idea that the NCAA can reform itself, Mr. Vedder says, is absurd. Such a change would have to start with a college president brave enough to insist that what an athlete does in the classroom is more important than what he does on the playing field. But even Mr. Vedder concedes that the challenge today is probably too great for one college president to pull off on his own.
That’s why he has hope for the conferences. Just as the Ivy League has largely maintained its academic integrity, he believes other conferences—the Big Ten, for example, which includes academic stalwarts Northwestern and Michigan—could go their own way and form an association run by school officials who set their standards high. “The recent Big Ten network deal suggests they could work out their own arrangements with television,” Mr. Vedder says.
Today the dollars speak to what the universities value. To take just one example from this year’s top seeds: The University of Virginia will pay its incoming president $750,000 in salary plus $150,000 in deferred compensation, against $2.1 million a year for men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett.
Of course, the idea that players are giving all and getting nothing in return is true only if the cost of their education—roughly $83,000 in tuition plus room, board and fees for a four-year state university, and $187,800 for a private one, according to the College Board—is ignored, along with their increased lifetime earnings. The athlete’s exchange with his university is worth it only if his degree is an honest one and within reach of those admitted.
College sports has not done well relying on the NCAA for integrity. Maybe what we need is college presidents with enough pride and backbone to set their own academic standards higher.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
Appeared in the March 13, 2018, print edition.
Student athletics may be the one area that would benefit from academics in charge.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ncaa-cannot-fix-college-sports-1520898141?mod=ITP_opinion_0&tesla=y
On Sunday the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the 68 men’s basketball teams that made it into this year’s Division I tournament. On April 2 in San Antonio, one team will emerge as national champs.
In theory, that is. In reality, today’s NCAA guarantees the game is never over no matter how the score turns out.
In Orwell’s “1984,” Winston Smith throws news articles into the memory hole when past truths no longer suit Big Brother’s present needs. The NCAA version is called “vacating wins.” Although intended to punish schools for rules violations, the idea that an NCAA decree can erase what was won on a playing field is at once creepy and ridiculous.
Louisville is the most recent university to find its wins thrown down the memory hole. After the NCAA determined that a member of the men’s basketball coaching staff had provided prostitutes to players and recruits, it stripped the team of 123 victories—including its 2013 national championship title.
What an appalling way for institutions devoted to truth to right wrongs. And it leaves unaddressed the NCAA’s real problem—the professional nature of college athletics, especially the two big revenue sports, men’s basketball and football. The NCAA’s website claims it “prioritizes academics so student-athletes get the most out of their education.” Does anyone believe that?
As critic after critic has noted, in college basketball today the coaches pull in millions, the schools pull in millions, and the NCAA pulls in millions—while the athletes on whom it all depends get very little. For example, March Madness now provides the NCAA with the bulk of its revenue, nearly a billion dollars from TV rights, marketing rights and ticket sales.
The disparity between what the athletes get and what everyone else gets has led to lawsuits and appeals for the National Labor Relations Board to intervene. The economists’ answer is simple: just pay the players and eliminate the pretense that they are actually students. Alas, the economists’ answer is untenable, because the appeal of big-time college sports is built on the fiction that the athletes are, in fact, students.
Which is why it’s such a scandal that so many athletes never see a degree, or get one that isn’t worth anything. Although the NCAA says graduation rates for college athletes are improving, not everyone is buying the happy spin. For example, a study from the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center concentrated on black male athletes from the 65 schools that dominate the NCAA’s Division I sports. It found that only 55.2% of these athletes graduated within six years.
To put it another way: At a time when the NCAA and the universities are profiting mightily from these young men, little more than half will likely see a college degree.
College sports may be one of the few areas in American life that would be improved if academics had more say. Richard Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics at Ohio University, reminds us that there was a day when college coaches didn’t always have the final say, even on sports. “In 1961,” Mr. Vedder points out, “an undefeated Ohio State team won the Big Ten Championship and was eligible to go to the Rose Bowl but the invitation was rejected by the faculty council.” A Toledo Blade story at the time reported that Big Ten regulations gave the faculty council the “final authority in academic matters.”
The idea that the NCAA can reform itself, Mr. Vedder says, is absurd. Such a change would have to start with a college president brave enough to insist that what an athlete does in the classroom is more important than what he does on the playing field. But even Mr. Vedder concedes that the challenge today is probably too great for one college president to pull off on his own.
That’s why he has hope for the conferences. Just as the Ivy League has largely maintained its academic integrity, he believes other conferences—the Big Ten, for example, which includes academic stalwarts Northwestern and Michigan—could go their own way and form an association run by school officials who set their standards high. “The recent Big Ten network deal suggests they could work out their own arrangements with television,” Mr. Vedder says.
Today the dollars speak to what the universities value. To take just one example from this year’s top seeds: The University of Virginia will pay its incoming president $750,000 in salary plus $150,000 in deferred compensation, against $2.1 million a year for men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett.
Of course, the idea that players are giving all and getting nothing in return is true only if the cost of their education—roughly $83,000 in tuition plus room, board and fees for a four-year state university, and $187,800 for a private one, according to the College Board—is ignored, along with their increased lifetime earnings. The athlete’s exchange with his university is worth it only if his degree is an honest one and within reach of those admitted.
College sports has not done well relying on the NCAA for integrity. Maybe what we need is college presidents with enough pride and backbone to set their own academic standards higher.
Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.
Appeared in the March 13, 2018, print edition.
