The industry does not like the rules of the game today.
The college football season is at hand and the poohbahs of the college sports industry haven’t gotten the help they requested from Congress or the courts to help regulate its industry. The poohbahs wanted Congress to write a law that would allow the college industry to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act and put a cap on the amount of money that a college athlete can make. On July 2nd, 1890, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The college sports industry wants to act as a monopoly and only Congress can make that possible. In late July, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver ruled that the 2022 high school class of athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season in 2026-27. The poohbahs didn’t want that and are appealing. Of course, a college’s admissions board could say no to allowing an athlete to matriculate at the institution.
The poohbahs probably are longing to turn back the clock to the 1950s when student-athletes met with boosters who greeted them with golden handshakes. Money being handed to student athletes has been around longer than the term “student-athlete” which was coined in the 1950s by the NCAA to get out of playing workman’s compensation if an athlete was severely injured or died from injuries suffered during an athletic event. There have been stories of golden handshakes between boosters and athletes with a booster creating a you don’t have to show up job for an athlete. The schools’ heads thought an athletic scholarship and a chance to get a college degree in exchange for a player’s services was enough of a deal. The charade of amateurism has always been an NCAA hallmark despite the business being purely professional from day one.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
