NCAA Shafts College Players

Billion-dollar industry rides on unpaid kids who won't see NFL, NYT op-ed says

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 11, 2007 1:48 PM CST

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NCAA Shafts College Players — Black Coaches Association executive director Floyd Keith speaks during a news conference held at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis in this Oct. 21, 2003 file photo. Keith is frustrated by the lack of minority head coaches in college football and said Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, his group will consider... (Associated Press)

Each season, NCAA football teams score millions in profits, but the players neglecting their education don’t get a dime, writes Michael Lewis in a NY Times op-ed. Colleges say their football programs are an outgrowth of their academic mission and not commercial business. Yet top schools earn more than $60 million, shelling out top dollar to nab coaches and erect lavish stadiums.

The real losers, Lewis writes, are the mostly poor black players who spend little time in class to entertain mostly rich white audiences. The NCAA stiffs players through anti-market policies that sound like “simple theft.” Less than 1% actually go on to play pro ball, but “their hope is eternal, and their ignorance exploitable.” (More Ohio State Buckeyes stories.)

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