On a variety of issues...just thought they were interesting. I remember posting an article on here a few years about a possible players strike and got blasted for it.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...0709313&PID=6146927&SID=ieum3vmcqf001vmn00dth
“I’m glad the unionization process has cooled for right now,†Bowlsby said. “But the fact is — and it probably will be in the sport of men’s basketball — there will be a day in the future when the popcorn is popped, the TV cameras are there, the fans are in the stands and the team decides they’re not going to play. Mark my words. We will see that in the years ahead. We saw some of it for other reasons in the ’70s, but I really believe that we aren’t finished with the compensation issue or with the employee-vs.-student issue.â€
—Transfers: “Almost 50% of Division I men’s basketball players transfer at least once in their career. Almost 50%. That’s an embarrassment to higher education. It makes a mockery of it.â€
—Sales of alcoholic beverage at college sports events: “We are routinely selling alcohol at college games despite the fact that three-fourths of the college undergraduates are underage. Now, they don’t constitute the majority of most crowds. But it’s still highly symbolic in some obvious ways.â€
—Why so many college athletics programs run annual operating deficits: “They spend too much. … Institutions have taken on very large amounts of debt, mostly for facilities. They have paid coaches more than they can really afford to pay, especially in the case of not wanting to lose a coach. As a general statement, they are not particularly well-run enterprises a lot of times. … There are bad decisions being made not only in terms of how much is being spent, but what it’s being spent on.â€
—Conference expansion: He said the Big 12 “no active plans to add members†but has a composition committee comprised of three school presidents “and we constantly monitor the environment. … There are some good reasons to get bigger. There are some really good reasons to stay small.â€
However, in the larger picture, he cautioned: “I think the jury is still out as to whether these larger alignments really deliver anything other than television viewers and money. I think in the end, we’ve created a television product that is very difficult to compete against -- but if the quality of the TV product results in people staying home because they’re less interested, we will have lost significantly even though the money has flowed in.â€
The article I got blasted for a few years ago was this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/
NCAA v. Regents left the NCAA devoid of television football revenue and almost wholly dependent on March Madness basketball. It is rich but insecure. Last year, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting paid $771 million to the NCAA for television rights to the 2011 men’s basketball tournament alone. That’s three-quarters of a billion dollars built on the backs of amateurs—on unpaid labor. The whole edifice depends on the players’ willingness to perform what is effectively volunteer work. The athletes, and the league officials, are acutely aware of this extraordinary arrangement. William Friday, the former North Carolina president, recalls being yanked from one Knight Commission meeting and sworn to secrecy about what might happen if a certain team made the NCAA championship basketball game. “They were going to dress and go out on the floor,†Friday told me, “but refuse to play,†in a wildcat student strike. Skeptics doubted such a diabolical plot. These were college kids—unlikely to second-guess their coaches, let alone forfeit the dream of a championship. Still, it was unnerving to contemplate what hung on the consent of a few young volunteers: several hundred million dollars in television revenue, countless livelihoods, the NCAA budget, and subsidies for sports at more than 1,000 schools. Friday’s informants exhaled when the suspect team lost before the finals.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...0709313&PID=6146927&SID=ieum3vmcqf001vmn00dth
“I’m glad the unionization process has cooled for right now,†Bowlsby said. “But the fact is — and it probably will be in the sport of men’s basketball — there will be a day in the future when the popcorn is popped, the TV cameras are there, the fans are in the stands and the team decides they’re not going to play. Mark my words. We will see that in the years ahead. We saw some of it for other reasons in the ’70s, but I really believe that we aren’t finished with the compensation issue or with the employee-vs.-student issue.â€
—Transfers: “Almost 50% of Division I men’s basketball players transfer at least once in their career. Almost 50%. That’s an embarrassment to higher education. It makes a mockery of it.â€
—Sales of alcoholic beverage at college sports events: “We are routinely selling alcohol at college games despite the fact that three-fourths of the college undergraduates are underage. Now, they don’t constitute the majority of most crowds. But it’s still highly symbolic in some obvious ways.â€
—Why so many college athletics programs run annual operating deficits: “They spend too much. … Institutions have taken on very large amounts of debt, mostly for facilities. They have paid coaches more than they can really afford to pay, especially in the case of not wanting to lose a coach. As a general statement, they are not particularly well-run enterprises a lot of times. … There are bad decisions being made not only in terms of how much is being spent, but what it’s being spent on.â€
—Conference expansion: He said the Big 12 “no active plans to add members†but has a composition committee comprised of three school presidents “and we constantly monitor the environment. … There are some good reasons to get bigger. There are some really good reasons to stay small.â€
However, in the larger picture, he cautioned: “I think the jury is still out as to whether these larger alignments really deliver anything other than television viewers and money. I think in the end, we’ve created a television product that is very difficult to compete against -- but if the quality of the TV product results in people staying home because they’re less interested, we will have lost significantly even though the money has flowed in.â€
The article I got blasted for a few years ago was this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/
NCAA v. Regents left the NCAA devoid of television football revenue and almost wholly dependent on March Madness basketball. It is rich but insecure. Last year, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting paid $771 million to the NCAA for television rights to the 2011 men’s basketball tournament alone. That’s three-quarters of a billion dollars built on the backs of amateurs—on unpaid labor. The whole edifice depends on the players’ willingness to perform what is effectively volunteer work. The athletes, and the league officials, are acutely aware of this extraordinary arrangement. William Friday, the former North Carolina president, recalls being yanked from one Knight Commission meeting and sworn to secrecy about what might happen if a certain team made the NCAA championship basketball game. “They were going to dress and go out on the floor,†Friday told me, “but refuse to play,†in a wildcat student strike. Skeptics doubted such a diabolical plot. These were college kids—unlikely to second-guess their coaches, let alone forfeit the dream of a championship. Still, it was unnerving to contemplate what hung on the consent of a few young volunteers: several hundred million dollars in television revenue, countless livelihoods, the NCAA budget, and subsidies for sports at more than 1,000 schools. Friday’s informants exhaled when the suspect team lost before the finals.
