The NCAA’s Mess: It’s the Colleges, Not the Kids

Alright, let’s be real – the NCAA is kinda like that one friend we all have who’s always in some kinda drama, right? Except this drama involves billion-dollar TV deals, athletes with more Instagram followers than some small countries, and enough rulebooks to put a library to shame. But here’s the thing: we’ve been focusing on the wrong culprits. It’s not the kids getting those sweet, sweet NIL deals that are the problem. It’s the big dogs, the universities themselves, who are throwing a massive wrench in the whole shebang.

The Real Problem: Universities Gone Wild

See, the NCAA is basically run by a bunch of major universities, and they’ve turned college sports into this high-stakes game where winning, no matter the cost, is the only thing that matters. We’re talking cutthroat competition, folks, the kind that would make Wall Street blush. And the worst part? These are supposed to be non-profit organizations, dedicated to, ya know, education and all that jazz. But somewhere along the line, they started acting more like Fortune companies than institutions of higher learning.

Think about it: when a university president gets a bigger bonus for their basketball team winning a championship than for, say, improving their graduation rates, you know something’s seriously out of whack. It’s like they swapped their academic gowns for those cheesy coach’s polos and went all-in on this whole “sports entertainment” thing.

The “Eat-Everything-You-Can-Possibly-Kill” System

So, what happens when you let a bunch of universities loose with a blank check and a thirst for victory? You get what I like to call the “eat-everything-you-can-possibly-kill” system. It’s a system where:

• Universities are raking in cash hand over fist, way more than any other non-profit sector. We’re talking billions, people, with a “B”! But where’s all that money going?
• Well, it’s definitely not going into those dusty old classrooms or making college more affordable. Nope, it’s funding fancy new stadiums that look like spaceships, paying coaches salaries that would make your eyes water, and basically turning these athletic programs into mini-corporations.
• And meanwhile, the whole “education” part of this “student-athlete” thing? Yeah, that’s kinda gotten lost in the shuffle.

It’s like the NCAA is stuck in this weird time warp where they’re clinging to this image of amateur athletics and student-athletes while simultaneously operating like a multi-billion dollar industry. Something’s gotta give, right?