February 21, 2005

The NCAA Monopoly Strikes Again

Inside Higher Ed reports of the University of Minnesota:
"The university's athletics department announced Friday that it had suspended two men's tennis coaches with pay after concluding an investigation into possible wrongdoing in the tennis program. Minnesota said that it had turned over the results of its investigation to the NCAA, and that it expected the association to begin its own inquiry tomorrow.

University officials declined to elaborate on the internal investigation, except to say that the 'alleged violations do not involve academic issues.' (A report in the Star-Tribune said the wrongdoing revolves around money paid to two players for summer internships before the work had been completed.)"

The crime: compensating student athletes. Why, exactly, is this so awful? Answer: even in lucrative sports like football and basketball, the NCAA monopoly requires the universities to treat their (usually non-graduating) "student" athletes like slaves. The ultimate crime is to pay them. At least it's not officially forbidden to teach them to read.

Maybe they don't have to forbid this, because it happens so seldom. And the dirty little secret is that most of the non-graduating stars are black.

Time for the Department of Justice or some enterprising antitrust lawyer to get seriously involved!

No comments: