<p>I loathe the NCAA and I genuinely think that it aids and abets forces that create an environment rife with the potential to ill use the student-athletes in revenue-producing programs. The data that xiggi have provided do not surprise me at all. With the NCAA and the environment that it establishes, it’s not just about the cartoon-villain exploitation (allowing players to be passed through without genuine attention to their studies just so they can play, etc.), it’s about an entire culture that breathes hypocrisy at every turn. To wit-- </p>
<p>Funny that at the non-revenue Division III level the NCAA harps on travel time/distance to the point where, in some sports (baseball and basketball, for example), “out of region” games can only factor into the selection of at-large teams for playoff bids after numerous other factors have been considered. However, once there’s $$$$$$$$ to be made, out come the mega-conferences and suddenly no one has a problem–except those whiney professors who were probably total losers in school and are only jealous of the athletes, amirite?!–with making students travel long distances (and not always in the most efficient ways), disrupting the social and campus rhythms that can help students adjust, having students miss class, or having students miss opportunities to get the consistent out-of-class support that all students, but especially struggling ones, need. </p>
<p>Transfers are another issue. Many people have long pointed out that coaches may “run free” while any athlete that wishes to transfer must sit out a year unless s/he receives a hardship waiver. The NCAA has long been criticized for its opaque method of granting hardship waivers; the NCAA’s initial decision to deny Kerwin Okoro a hardship waiver so that he could transfer from Iowa State to Rutgers in order to be nearer his family after he lost his father and brother to illnesses in the span of three months was only reversed after national outrage and advocacy from visible figures in the college basketball world, but not every student-athlete who receives a patently unjust decision from the NCAA is lucky enough to have those types of advocates. These types of cases pop up every year–not a good record for an organization that claims to protect the interests of student-athletes.</p>
<p>This isn’t even getting into the NCAA’s hypocritical attempt to pretend that specific student-athletes don’t serve as revenue-generators. Jay Bilas showed them up fairly effectively on this matter with his “search the online NCAA store” experiment that forced the NCAA to change its website–because, remember guys, the people just want to buy an A&M jersey. It has nothing to do with any specific person, no, not at all–any old person would generate all that revenue! </p>
<p>The one thing I can say about the NCAA is that at least it isn’t FIFA…</p>