The NCAA's Exploitation of March Madness Athletes

Amid the intense college basketball action that comes along with the annual NCAA tournament, there is a looming sentiment of how the NCAA may or may not be exploiting it's players. As with every year in March, the conversation about whether players should be paid or not comes to the forefront. Regardless, of which side of the argument you subscribe to, there are several crucial facts that must be acknowledged.

John Calipari makes 5.5 million times more than any of his players

For starters, the NCAA tournament is one of the largest generators of commercial revenue in all of sports. When watching the games of one of Turner Broadcasting's channels (a company which spent an incomprehensible sum of money for the rights of the tournament), the amount of advertising fit into 40 minute games is borderline obnoxious. Everything down to the net-cutting ceremonies are brought to you by a major corporation. Now the question becomes where does all of this money generated by collegiate athletes end up. Well, a large portion of it ends up going to the teams that are generating the most attention. The NCAA hands out tournament revenue to conferences based on performance. For example, Kentucky is estimated to have made at least 5.5 million dollars for the SEC in their run this year. Add in their own ad revenue, merchandise sales, and ticket prices and you can see why Kentucky's basketball program generated 35 million dollars in 2014. Again, a basketball team that lives off of a university meal plan made 35 million dollars for their school in just one year. Their coach, John Calipari was rewarded with 5.2 million in that year. The other 29.8 million will likely go towards paying other staff and some unnecessary expenses in an effort to hide the massive amount of money that 12 college kids are making for school those that are exploiting their talent.

It is important to not look at the issue of paying players naively as many do. Athletes are not recruited to major universities to become students as the NCAA would like you to believe. Their academic abilities are not of concern to the coaches and University Presidents that profit off of them. They are there to perform on the field and what they do after the four years they spend helping promote the school's product is inconsequential. The fact of the matter is that a lack of understanding from most fans and consumers has allowed the NCAA to take advantage of tens of thousands of athletes for decades.