My issues w/the NCAA today....
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THE NCAA: Making it easy to see how money simply makes the world go round. (With a little help from magnetic pulls, gravity and a bunch of other scientific crap)
While I personally despise the NCAA, I think what it all boils down to is a majority of people, are actually pretty satisfied with the product the NCAA unveils each year. At least that’s what they say with their wallets. Sure, we b!^@h about the punishment or lack thereof that some teams receive, the exorbitant amount of money involved in collegiate athletics, the exploitation of student athletes, and the various glitches in the championship systems; but when all is said and done, we still watch the games, buy the gear and support the NCAA. If people weren’t satisfied with the product; fans wouldn’t watch the games, schools wouldn’t make their money, and therefore the NCAA wouldn’t receive its cut and would cease to exist. The fact that they are profiting from the mess of a job they perform, speaks volumes for the way they market and the product they provide.
The NCAA is all about money and the same could be said for the schools that make up the NCAA. However, as long as the money keeps pouring in there will never be any changes in regards to an adequate governing body. As it would be for any business, as soon as the money dries up, either changes are made or the business dries up to. Everyone knows the NCAA isn’t governing collegiate athletics like they were originally intended, but what governing body does? Power will be expanded, rules changed to benefit those with the most clout, and special interests will run rampant until someone decides enough is enough. If those affected by the decisions are satisfied or even if they are not, but still support the governing body, no changes will ever be made. As with any business, change has to come in the form of profit losses and the only way is to ensure that, is to stop supporting the NCAA, stop supporting the teams that makeup the NCAA and stop supporting the events that the NCAA sanctions.
Competition is the only way to ensure the ill-effects of a monopolistic industry are squashed, so would it be too much to ask, for an organization whose sole purpose is to ensure fair competition on the playing field, to also be open to competition in the business field. What’s to stop any one person or group of people from starting a new governing body or petitioning his or her favorite school, the fans of their school, their conference, the fans of their conference, neighboring conferences, and fans of neighboring conferences to either start or support a new governing body or reject the policies and regulations of the NCAA? Nothing, except for time, money and the fact that most people still support the NCAA.
If enough people got fed up, stopped supporting NCAA teams, schools lost revenue and the NCAA started losing business; I guarantee you, things would shape up and change quickly. How much of a presence would it take before school presidents and conference administrators realized the current process wasn’t working and therefore needed to change? That would entirely depend on how much each school or conference valued the support of their fan base. Since any sporting organization is funded mostly through fan support, I’m guessing it wouldn’t take much to get their attention. If fans really were all that worried about the evils of the NCAA they would either withdraw their support from the NCAA or even better start or support a competing governing body. If not, they shouldn’t expect anything to change and instead expect for the problem to get much worse.
(I for one don't intend on heeding my own advice and instead, will still be watching and supporting the Huskers this year. Though with a little research, I may take a look into and maybe encourage the school to start an athletics governing body to compete with the NCAA. Either way, it will only help.)
