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Hey folks, do you see and hear all of the hype, hoopla, and hypocrisy about the event otherwise known as “March Madness?” As far as I am concerned, “March Madness” is a kind and benevolent name for money “hungriness,” greed and corruption. But there are also a few additional issues that seem to get stuck in my “craw.” What is the average cost of clothing, feeding and educating a child from birth until age twenty-one? According to a family management study last conducted by Virginia Tech in 2007, “the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 increased from $170,460 in 2001 to $204,060 in 2007. Who compensates the parents for all of the blood, sweat, tears and dough that they put into, Johnny, Joseph or Josephine before they step onto the stage of college athletics? Boys and girls, trust me. It does not cost 200 grand or more to provide a pillow, mattress, a meal plan and books for a performing athlete for four years of study at an accredited NCAA institution.
According to cbslocal.com, the NCAA tournament’s new 14-year TV deal is worth $10.8 billion.
Even the usually stoic and semi-conservative Michael Wilbon had this to say in a July 28, 2011 column, “I used to argue vehemently against paying college athletes. Tuition, room, board and books were compensation enough. And even if, increasingly, it wasn’t enough and virtually every kid who accepted a scholarship was in the red before Christmas of his freshman year, the notion of pay-for-play was at best a logistical nightmare. Where exactly would the money come from? How could you pay college football players but not baseball players or members of the women’s field hockey team? And how in the world would you pay men in a way that wouldn’t violate Title IX? So you know what caused me to do a 180 on the issue? That $11 billion deal — OK, it’s $10.8 billion to be exact — between the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports for March Madness between 2011 and 2024. We’re talking $11 billion for three weekends of television per year. What if people in the business of money took $1.3 billion off the top, invested it, sheltered it and made it available to provide a stipend to college athletes, how could anybody stand on principal and argue against paying the people who make the events possible in the first place?”
Let me declare up front I wouldn’t be the slightest bit interested in distributing the funds equitably or even paying every college athlete. I’m interested in seeing the people who produce the revenue share a teeny, tiny slice of it. That’s right, football and men’s basketball players get paid; lacrosse, field hockey, softball, baseball, soccer players get nothing. You know what that’s called? Capitalism. For more than five years, I have been writing, screaming, whooping and hollering, protesting and jumping up and down on my now destroyed soapbox lobbying for a pay-for-play system in major college sports.
There are many devious and dark administrators from the NCAA and their member schools drawing perverted salaries and gleaning all types of economic advantages from collegiate sports. Parents must form a national coalition and protest movement to protect their children. Just like the labor unions of the early 20th century, the guardians of our children must all simultaneously demand equal pay for equal play.
When I look at the NCAA definition of the word “amateur” I initially cringe and then I immediately become livid. As far as the NCAA is concerned a student/athlete violates their amateur status if they are paid (in any form) or accept the promise of pay for playing in an athletics contest; sign a contract or verbally commit with an agent; ask that your name be placed on a draft list (Note: in basketball, once you become a student-athlete at an NCAA school, you may enter a professional league’s draft one time without jeopardizing your eligibility provided you are not drafted by any team in that league and you declare your intention in writing to return to college within 30 days after the draft); use your athletics skill for pay in any form (for example, TV commercials); play on a professional athletics team; or participate on an amateur sports team and receive any salary, incentive payment, award, gratuity, educational expenses or expense allowance (other than playing apparel, equipment and actual and necessary travel, and room and board expenses). The NCAA is an organization of professional con-artists whose sole purpose is to control the economic structure of all of college athletics and now that power must be wrestled from them as Malcolm X would say, “by any means necessary.” My late brother Jonathan “Jody” Bruce who was an excellent billiards player had a rebuttal for those who ran off at the mouth about their pool game. He would say, “quit talkin and start chalkin.”
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412-583-6741.)
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