Shots From The Darkside

I don’t have a favorite for March Madness. It gets harder for me to follow college basketball every season. Call it nostalgia, but thought it was great when college ball was all about playing ball… just some kids, a coach and a lot of Zone Defense. But just like everything else these days, College Hoops has been bastardized by commercialism.

My issue with Reagan and Bush is their unfounded belief that corporations will actually police themselves. It’s nosensacle to believe that deregulating an indistry will produce healthy competition. Were that true, NASCAR would weight cars or measure spoilers after every race. It’s why boxers have weight classes. Granted, overregulation kills competition. But at this junctur, our Foxes are guarding the hen house.
Does this mean I want to trade federal over-regulation for corporate anarchy?

NO.

College basketball is an industry that needs some level of corporate regulation. The NCAA is a nonproft organization - so I’mma need to see their books. I need to see how much money ISN’T influencing my local college. I’ve paid nearly 100,000 dollars to the University of South Carolina in various fees - to include tuition, room and board. I need to know what my money is paying for. There are students currently attending an academic organization I help fund on scholarships who 1) didn’t earn acceptance, and 2) have no hope of graduating. Worry not, this isn’t your same old ‘Pay the Athlete‘ spiel. All I care about is my investment. If I had to chose between some dual threat, stoner WR/Small Forward and an English major with poor - but passing - test scores, the English major would get my money.

I don’t give a damn about National Championships: as long as my money is being diverted to pay for the University of South Carolina, I want it spent like a University rather than like a Ball-club.

No one is fooled, the NCAA tournament is about cash. But I’m fine with that. I am not, however, ok with the tourney being supported by a not-for-profit organization. Should the NCAA continue its tax-exempt status given that it makes billions of dollars a year? The original rationale for it’s tax-exempt was that it the NCAA was an educational institution which supported student athletes. But CBS pays the NCAA $545 million for the rights to televise men’s basketball and, in particular, March Madness. How does this help ’students’? WTF does this this tournament and the enormous commercial revenues it generates contribute to the “student” part of the ’student-athlete’?

• Only 55 percent of football players and 38 percent of basketball players at Division I-A schools graduate.
• The NCAA has increased the number of games that football and men’s basketball teams are allowed to play.
• Tax-exempt status of college sports might be justified by the fact that successful sports teams often trigger increased applications for admission, and donations from alumni and legislatures. But as a federal taxpayers, I have no interest in increasing applicant pools at some Elite Eight school across the country.
• Tax exemption is financing the escalation of coaches’ salaries. Many college coaches are paid more than $1 million annually. Schools also must buy out these contracts when coaches bolt for the NBA or another team.

The real question is: how many schools generate a net profit that goes to something other than athletics? How much of this money from Cingular or Verizon is going to network infrastructural upgrades or better campus security? How many teachers are struggling along with sub par pay while their football coach and his staff make millions?

Who does more for the University of South Carolina: Steve Spurrier - coach of a 6-6 team - or the Dean of the Darla Moore School of Business which consistently ranks #1 in the world in International Business?

Think on that.

As a tax payer, how angry should I be that more of my taxes support a non profit, tax exempted organization sports organization than the institution its a part of?

Meanwhile, Gamecock tickets just went up another $10 a seat and we still suck. The money paid to our coach - Dave Odom - should have been donated to the School of Business. They are successful. They put out winners.

They key here, and this is a minority view, is that we need to regulate this industry and control spending. Many people hold the belief that spending money will make money. Thats a comfortable axiom and it almost makes sense. But basketball can be played anywhere. It doesn’t require a million dollar weight room or a olympic swimming pool. A well coached team could win in a parking lot with a chain-hoop. So where does the money go?