Is the NCAA on its death bed?

[ragtimejoe1]

As you can probably garner, I think the events of today's college football landscape are historic and just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know where this is going, but I've tried to read more about the NCAA in general. I'm not sure it survives much longer. Here are some of the things I found interesting...

The association in fact got its start because, at the time of its creation, football was in danger of being abolished as a result of being deemed too dangerous a sport. During the 1905 season alone, 18 college and amateur players died during games. In response to public outcry, Theodore Roosevelt, an unabashed fan of the sport, gathered 13 football representatives at the White House for two meetings at which those in attendance agreed on reforms to improve safety. What would later become known as the NCAA was formed shortly after on the heels of this unifying safety agreement.

I thought this was interesting because the US government actually had a hand in forming the NCAA; I didn't know that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-treadway/johnny-manziel-ncaa-eligibility_b_3020985.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As for the smoking gun (or soon to be), IMO, is the article in Inside Higher Ed. If you haven't read it, you should.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/09/11/ncaa-cant-be-reformed-congress-should-replace-it-essay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Their proposal is:

Given the current state of NCAA and institutional mismanagement of highly competitive football and basketball programs, the U.S. Congress should immediately act to establish a federally chartered organization to replace a dysfunctional NCAA to protect college athletes in the same way that it did to protect open amateur sports athletes in 1978. Failure to become a member of the new organization could render the institution ineligible to receive federal funds under the Higher Education Act of 1965.

I've been pretty doom and gloom about where we are heading. However, if this latter thought gains traction, the plutocracy of the NCAA could be dissolved. This is the hammer we need to hope gets installed. Ray of sunlight in the dark future or just smoke?

 

[The Virginian]

Here's a Washington Post article about Teddy Roosevelt's involvement in creating the NCAA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/05/29/teddy-roosevelt-helped-save-football-with-a-white-house-meeting-in-1905/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[ragtimejoe1]

Here is an OTA article about prosecution of student athletes...
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13065247/college-athletes-major-programs-benefit-confluence-factors-somes-avoid-criminal-charges" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From 2009 to 2014, male basketball and football players at the University of Florida and Florida State University avoided criminal charges or prosecution on average two-thirds of the time when named as suspects in police documents, a result far exceeding that of non-athlete males in the same age range, an Outside the Lines investigation has found.

NCAA and revenue sports keep being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

 

[WyoBrandX]

I've been thinking this for years. There is a huge inequality in college athletics. Lots of colleges raking in the cash from athletics and being non-competitive (think Florida not playing a game outside of Florida in how many years?) while receiving federal funding seems ludicrous.

Seriously - they are making so much money that they either need to return the federal funding they get or return some of the cash they have generated via athletics.

College football is the wild west these days. Hell, even the NFL has budget and salary caps. College football gets federal funds plus ridiculous amounts of cash from tv deals - etc.

Oh well, people are cutting the cable faster than ever. This may have a big negative impact on some of these rich asshole schools.

 

[fromolwyoming]

I've been thinking this for years. There is a huge inequality in college athletics. Lots of colleges raking in the cash from athletics and being non-competitive (think Florida not playing a game outside of Florida in how many years?) while receiving federal funding seems ludicrous.

Seriously - they are making so much money that they either need to return the federal funding they get or return some of the cash they have generated via athletics.

College football is the wild west these days. Hell, even the NFL has budget and salary caps. College football gets federal funds plus ridiculous amounts of cash from tv deals - etc.

Oh well, people are cutting the cable faster than ever. This may have a big negative impact on some of these rich asshole schools.

And yet, many of these schools in the P5 are somehow in the red despite the influx of all this money. Really quite baffling.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

The reason schools go for this?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberttuchman/2015/03/18/universities-lose-millions-for-a-shot-at-the-ncaa-tournament-title/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A fool's errand? Apparently most Universities think not.