Tax Exempt D1 Football and Basketball Makes Liars of Us All
Ever since the Supremes said aloud what we all knew since the Cotton Bowl ruling, that big time college basketball and football is big business just like the NBA and NFL, D1 sport has been a mess. Its like the NFL and NBA with free agency for every single player. Every single year. From one year to the next, you can’t tell who plays for which teams. Because the market is openly hunting and devouring the profit potential that’s always been there. That market doesn’t give a rat’s behind about the educational impact of D1 football or basketball. Its just a wide open bidding war every year around this time. We’ve been lying about it ever since we said Mobile was the Cotton Bowl’s sponsor, not an oil company buying advertising space from a professional sports league.
Tax exemption is most appropriate, according to Hank Hansmann, when the market fails to provide a good or service. There seems plenty of supply and demand right about now. No market failure here. And hardly any free riding anymore. Not since those on whose backs we rode for so long were allowed to sell their name, image, and likeness. Allowed to sell themselves to the highest bidder, like everybody else has been doing all along. And it doesn’t much matter that D1 football and basketball are basically feeders, providing millions, after head coach and athletic director salaries, to support authentic charitable activities. Like Mueller Macaroni to NYU way back when. Paying for new science labs or a new student unions or something. D1 football and basketball is pretty clearly an unrelated business to educational charities. We just don’t mind lying about it.
So it is no surprise that 7 states — Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia — filed suit last week claiming the NCAA rule restricting students from transferring violates anti-trust law. I know nothing about it but an industry that limits the free flow of labor to its highest and best use seems anti-competitive to me. A charity might have justification but charity left D1 football and basketball a long time ago.
darryll k. jones