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 Basketball Factories
by Tom Campbell
April 1, 2010
When the late Everett Case brought big-time college basketball to North Carolina State in 1946 the relationship between sports and the university changed. Case, a fierce competitor who played to win, constantly pushed the regulatory envelope, resulting in State being put on probation twice for infractions.
Fan and media popularity peaked with the Dixie Classic, a tournament featuring the Big Four North Carolina teams against the best in college basketball. This surge in popularity also attracted big-time gambling, point shaving and life threats against college players who didn’t follow through after being paid to throw games. The tournament was canceled, prompting Case and UNC’s Frank McGuire to resign rather than accept tighter controls. Even so, television, corporate sponsorships and fat-cat donors elevated college basketball in North Carolina and the nation to emotional levels usually found only in tent revivals.
Today’s reality is disillusioning. Division 1 basketball coaches make millions of dollars a year. The schools earn millions off tickets, apparel sales and TV revenues. Fewer than 1 in 100 college athletes ever enjoy a professional career. We thought we could take consolidation that at least these “student-athletes” would end up with a college degree, but the newly released report, "Keeping Score When it Counts: Graduation Rates for 2010 Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Teams" punctures this illusion. Many of the teams in the 2009 NCAA tournament like Wake Forest (100 percent), Duke (89 percent) and UNC Chapel Hill (86 percent), had high graduation rates, but too many, like Clemson (29 percent) and Maryland (10 percent) don’t and when you examine graduation rates for African American athletes, few schools graduate 70 percent.
There is talk about colleges losing their non-profit status because of the millions in profits they make on sports. A growing number, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, believe schools that fail to achieve graduation rates of 40 percent or more should be banned from postseason play. It is no surprise the NCAA and colleges don’t like the proposal. It would restrict the field of teams eligible for March Madness.
Colleges should be ashamed. They take young players, work them hard and then use their skills to fill their arenas and generate big bucks, ultimately sending most of these players on their way with no pro career and no degree to fall back on. At the least players should be paid decent wages. Too many colleges are little more than basketball factories that obviously care less about the player than they do the bucks.
Immediate changes are needed. The rules for basketball should be changed to more closely resemble the relationship between colleges and professional baseball. Any student accepting a college scholarship should stay in school at least three years before being eligible for the draft. We would add that the school must graduate a minimum of 40 percent of players, with the differentiation between black and white student graduations no more than 15 percent. These are reasonable standards. Schools failing to meet them should be put on probation.
The NCAA needs to stop counting their dollars and start being better stewards. We count on them to be the moral and legal compass in college sports. If they don’t fix these problems, we predict the Congress will do so. |
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