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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...nst-the-ncaa-chokehold-on/?page=all#pagebreak
True story: Before a game between Syracuse University and Kansas State in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, Wildcats forward Jamar Samuels was suspended for accepting $200 from his old Amateur Athletic Union coach to buy food on the road. Why the punishment? Because Mr. Samuels‘ actions were against NCAA rules — the money part, not (for now) the eating part.
The NCAA has regulations governing whether coaches can serve their players bagels (sometimes) with cream cheese, jelly and other condiments (an “improper benefit” until this year). It has rules that cover when coaches can text message recruits and when Gatorade should be served instead of chocolate milk; rules that prevent rowers from betting their racing shirts against each other and coaches’ wives from sending Christmas cards to new recruits; all of them part of a 434-page (!) rulebook that has existed since the Eisenhower administration — the sacred scrolls of a Kafka-esque culture of bureaucratic irrationality and red tape.....
....“Without NCAA rules, the private market would be more than happy to fill [athletes’ financial needs],” Mr. Luchs said. “Why should we let the NCAA force these kids with good earning potential to apply for a form of taxpayer-funded welfare?”
Conservatives preach bootstrapping self-reliance. Big-time college athletes embody this ethos — working hard to develop their abilities, competing on the basis of measurable merit. Their reward? A reverse wealth transfer with unsettling racial implications.
Let Mr. Becker explain.
“A large fraction of the Division I players in basketball and football, the two big money sports, are recruited from poor families; many of them are African-Americans from inner cities and rural areas,” Mr. Becker has written. “Every restriction on the size of scholarships that can be given to athletes in these sports usually takes money away from poor athletes and their families, and in effect transfers these resources to richer students in the form of lower tuition and cheaper tickets for games.”
True story: Before a game between Syracuse University and Kansas State in this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, Wildcats forward Jamar Samuels was suspended for accepting $200 from his old Amateur Athletic Union coach to buy food on the road. Why the punishment? Because Mr. Samuels‘ actions were against NCAA rules — the money part, not (for now) the eating part.
The NCAA has regulations governing whether coaches can serve their players bagels (sometimes) with cream cheese, jelly and other condiments (an “improper benefit” until this year). It has rules that cover when coaches can text message recruits and when Gatorade should be served instead of chocolate milk; rules that prevent rowers from betting their racing shirts against each other and coaches’ wives from sending Christmas cards to new recruits; all of them part of a 434-page (!) rulebook that has existed since the Eisenhower administration — the sacred scrolls of a Kafka-esque culture of bureaucratic irrationality and red tape.....
....“Without NCAA rules, the private market would be more than happy to fill [athletes’ financial needs],” Mr. Luchs said. “Why should we let the NCAA force these kids with good earning potential to apply for a form of taxpayer-funded welfare?”
Conservatives preach bootstrapping self-reliance. Big-time college athletes embody this ethos — working hard to develop their abilities, competing on the basis of measurable merit. Their reward? A reverse wealth transfer with unsettling racial implications.
Let Mr. Becker explain.
“A large fraction of the Division I players in basketball and football, the two big money sports, are recruited from poor families; many of them are African-Americans from inner cities and rural areas,” Mr. Becker has written. “Every restriction on the size of scholarships that can be given to athletes in these sports usually takes money away from poor athletes and their families, and in effect transfers these resources to richer students in the form of lower tuition and cheaper tickets for games.”