tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post5420160582393082612..comments2024-03-12T14:31:50.264-07:00Comments on Bits and Pieces: Is the Jig Up for the NCAA?Harry Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-24457286382279031072014-04-03T10:20:30.949-07:002014-04-03T10:20:30.949-07:001) is true depending on your definition of "m...1) is true depending on your definition of "make". Revenues are large and expenses are larger means they lose money, except at a handful of places. Harry Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-16179925965273578252014-04-03T08:54:49.862-07:002014-04-03T08:54:49.862-07:00I've heard two things about college sports tha...I've heard two things about college sports that seem contradictory<br />1) Colleges make lots of money from so called student athletes who are underpaid and treated badly.<br />2) Most colleges lose money on college sports.<br /><br />SO- how to resolve that contradiction?GASARCHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06134382469361359081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-40111316795139756402014-03-31T10:21:38.169-07:002014-03-31T10:21:38.169-07:00Seems to me you are exactly right about the distin...Seems to me you are exactly right about the distinction in your second para, which is why I am kind of amazed that the NCAA didn't figure that out before various legal and quasi-legal authorities started making the same point.<br /><br />The difference with an academic scholarship is that the institution is not making money off the scholar in anything like the way it is making money off the athlete. You can pay students to do all kinds of things -- including extracurriculars. No reason a university could not pay a cellist who performed at some fancy dinner, for example. It's only the athletes who, under current rules, can't be paid -- and they are the only ones generating enough revenues to make realistic the concept of them as a labor force with bargaining power.<br /><br />But you remind me of a funny story a funny fact that an official at another university once told me. The president had gone on a campaign to fight grade inflation -- because the green eyeshade types had run the numbers on how much more every tenth of a point of mean GPA was costing him in merit scholarship money!Harry Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-69138579044755349732014-03-31T09:23:00.509-07:002014-03-31T09:23:00.509-07:00The jig may not be up. As I understand it, the NLR...The jig may not be up. As I understand it, the NLRB governs only private employers, so the ruling will apply only to private colleges and universities, not public ones. It's the big public universities where big money athletics is most prevalent. Private colleges and universities could all go to club sports.<br /><br />If you get your scholarship when you play, and lose it if you don't play, that does sound a lot like an employee. If you get your scholarship whether or not you play, that doesn't sound so much like an employee.<br /><br />What about the student with an academic scholarship who has to maintain a certain grade average to keep it? Is the student an employee being paid to study? We like to think paying student athletes is different than paying student teaching fellows or allowing them to unionize.Left Bank of the Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04494310302328322830noreply@blogger.com