NCAA R-I-P

The BS-ishness of the “amateur” ideal in college sports always seemed pretty obvious to me. Maybe this will make it obvious to everyone else.

In the October issue of The Atlantic, Taylor Branch predicts lawsuits will soon drown the NCAA in its own hypocrisy. His conclusion:

“Scholarship athletes are already paid,” declared the Knight Commission members, “in the most meaningful way possible: with a free education.”

This evasion by prominent educators severed my last reluctant, emotional tie with imposed amateurism. I found it worse than self-serving. It echoes masters who once claimed that heavenly salvation would outweigh earthly injustice to slaves. In the era when our college sports first arose, colonial powers were turning the whole world upside down to define their own interests as all-inclusive and benevolent. Just so, the NCAA calls it heinous exploitation to pay college athletes a fair portion of what they earn.

These athletes are obviously professionals; basically playing for NFL and NBA farm teams. Pay them.