Beer and Circus (37 page)
Authors: Murray Sperber
All of these fixed amounts, as well as the specific limitations on athletic scholarships, indicate that the NCAA is a cartel, arbitrarily setting the wages for the on-field employees of College Sports MegaInc. Economists have long attacked the cartel nature of the NCAA, and the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-1 decision in 1984, found that the association monopolized the TV revenue from college football games in a cartel manner, the court directing member schools to move to an open market in selling the telecast rights of their games.
Similarly in the 1990s, after the NCAA set an arbitrary salary scale for a group of assistant coaches, the courts found that the association had acted unfairly, and that these men and women should be paid according to the market value of their services. The NCAA had to settle the caseâpaying the assistant coaches for lost wages and damagesâfor a whopping $54 million dollars.
What will occur under the new NCAA “amateurism deregulation” rules if a college athlete sues the association, claiming that the arbitrary sum that he or she receives is, in fact, cartel control over his or her earnings and that market forces should prevail? Why is there an NCAA ceiling of $2,000 on part-time jobs? Why a limit on athletic scholarships? A University of Florida “full ride” in football is worth about $10,000 for an in-state player, but why this arbitrary ceiling, particularly when his services, along with his underpaid teammates, generate millions of dollars for his employer?
When an athlete sues and tries to break the NCAA's cartel control over his or her earnings, will a jury of twelve peopleâafter years of watching
highly commercial college football and basketballâdecide, as undoubtedly the NCAA will argue, that the players are just ordinary students, mainly going to class and playing sports as amateurs? What if the athlete shows that he or she was paid to play sports as a high school student, and then played in professional sports leaguesâall of these experiences approved by the NCAA under its new rulesâbefore suiting up for more minor-league training in an intensive intercollegiate program? The jury would have to be dumb and dumber to buy the NCAA's “student amateur” argument.
highly commercial college football and basketballâdecide, as undoubtedly the NCAA will argue, that the players are just ordinary students, mainly going to class and playing sports as amateurs? What if the athlete shows that he or she was paid to play sports as a high school student, and then played in professional sports leaguesâall of these experiences approved by the NCAA under its new rulesâbefore suiting up for more minor-league training in an intensive intercollegiate program? The jury would have to be dumb and dumber to buy the NCAA's “student amateur” argument.
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Therefore, at the top of the What Will Probably Happen in College Sports Megalnc. list is professionalization: college athletes will be paid, either through the NCAA's own “amateurism deregulation”âits stipends and other payments will growâor the courts will break the association's control over wages.
What Will Happen Then? Most probably, the rich conferences and teams will become fully professional, paying their athletes according to their market value, and all other members of Divisions I and II will have to decide whether they want to compete in professional college sports or not. Of course, because the athletic departments of almost all schools will still be losing money, paying the athletes will cost a fortune. This economic reality should end the dreams of big-time college sports glory for many schools, definitely all those below the NCAA Division I-A level, and even many in that group. The vast majority of institutions in Divisions I and II will have to fold their hands in the NCAA poker game.
In addition, some schools like Rice because of their academic traditions will probably choose not to play professional intercollegiate athletics. Other schools like Virginia will be on the bubble, not wanting to leave the highest level of college sports but also not wanting to field professional teams.
Ironically, the schools that dropped out of College Sports MegaInc. would do better than those that stayed. Probably the dropouts would accept the Division III modelâwhy have expensive athletic departments if you cannot participate in the March Madness or bowl game lottery?âand they would save millions of dollars annually. Most important, they would signal the public, the various levels of government, the private foundations, and other benefactors of higher education that they are no longer in the sports entertainment business. Hopefully, many of these institutions would stress undergraduate education. As a result, if parents wanted their sons and daughters to obtain decent educations, and their children shared this goal, they would look at the non-Big-time U's, all those schools at the Division III level.
On the other hand, for the thirty to fifty schools that remain in College Sports MegaInc., the future becomes more problematic. The commercialism of their professional college sports programs will escalate: they will pay players openly but those athletes, particularly the stars, will have agents (presently they have “street agents”), and the tawdry world of pro sports will dominate college ball. In addition, the Big-time U's will so clearly operate pro sports franchises that the public and the higher education funding agencies will become increasingly skeptical about the academic aspects of these institutions. Inevitably, the collegiate subcultures at these schools will expand, and soon the vast majority of applicants and undergraduates will be students in love with beer-and-circus. This is a bleak scenario for those faculty members and other persons at Big-time U's who care about education, but it is a very possible one.
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The present and future of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, is far different from that of most Big-time U's. In the mid-1990s, a number of people within and outside Emory called for the school to go from Division III college sports to Division I-A. They argued, in addition to the New 3 R's line, that Emory, with its huge endowment from Coca-Cola, was one of the few institutions that could easily afford to move to the top level of intercollegiate athletics. The president of Emory, William M. Chace, resisted the siren call of big-time college sports, and instead worked hard to improve the quality of undergraduate education at his school. Chace's reward was Emory's first appearance in the Top Ten of U.S. News' rankings of national universities.
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As College Sports Megalnc. moves toward the bleak future of professionalization and greater beer-and-circus, the presidents of other research universities should follow Dr. Chace's example, particularly at a time when the U.S. economy is booming. In all probability, they will not.
A decade ago, the book
College Sports Inc
. concluded with the line, “The subtitle of this book is
The Athletic Department VS. the University.”
If College Sports Inc. succeeds in its conquest [of Big-time U's], a future subtitle will read,
The Athletic Department IS the University
. That subtitle now applies to many Big-time U's, and college sports has evolved into College Sports Megalnc.
College Sports Inc
. concluded with the line, “The subtitle of this book is
The Athletic Department VS. the University.”
If College Sports Inc. succeeds in its conquest [of Big-time U's], a future subtitle will read,
The Athletic Department IS the University
. That subtitle now applies to many Big-time U's, and college sports has evolved into College Sports Megalnc.
Unless the trustees, administrators, and other persons in charge of large, public research universities come to their senses, a future book title will read:
Beer and Circus: How College Sports Destroyed Undergraduate Education at Big-time U's.
Beer and Circus: How College Sports Destroyed Undergraduate Education at Big-time U's.
M
any people helped me with this book. Foremost were my friend and agent John Wright, and my sympathetic editors, David Sobel, and his assistant, Anne Geiger. John has helped me with every one of my college sports books, and his timely intervention during the writing of this one saved the entire project, turning a horse close to being scratched into one able to hold the rail and go the distance. Now that the book is completed, I look forward to spending many pleasant hours with John at the track, and accepting his advice on subjects other than writing. (Thanks also to Terry Golway for insisting that I listen to John.)
any people helped me with this book. Foremost were my friend and agent John Wright, and my sympathetic editors, David Sobel, and his assistant, Anne Geiger. John has helped me with every one of my college sports books, and his timely intervention during the writing of this one saved the entire project, turning a horse close to being scratched into one able to hold the rail and go the distance. Now that the book is completed, I look forward to spending many pleasant hours with John at the track, and accepting his advice on subjects other than writing. (Thanks also to Terry Golway for insisting that I listen to John.)
David Sobel inherited this book when its original editor left Henry Holt and Company. Not only did David treat this “orphaned” work as one of his own book “children,” but he provided excellent advice throughout the project. He also remained calm when the author was much less so, and his reassuring e-mails and baritone presence on the telephone soothed very jangled nerves. In another life, he would make an outstanding athletic coach, able to size up his players and intuit what will produce the best effort from each.
Anne Geiger did a marvelous job of line editing the manuscript. She possesses the key quality of a superb line editor: rather than try to impose her ideas of style and argument on an author, she gets inside a writer's prose and subject, and offers astute suggestions on how to improve the manuscript. Considering that the subject of this book was far from her natural interests, her accomplishment was remarkable.
In addition, a word of thanks to Bill Strachan, former editor in chief at Henry Holt and Company, and now president of Columbia University
Press. He made possible my previous books on college sports, and also accepted this one for publication. He believed in the project from the first time he heard about it, and, as a former swimmer at Carleton College, he enlightened me about the world of Division III intercollegiate athletics.
Press. He made possible my previous books on college sports, and also accepted this one for publication. He believed in the project from the first time he heard about it, and, as a former swimmer at Carleton College, he enlightened me about the world of Division III intercollegiate athletics.
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I am also very grateful to the many persons whom I interviewed for this book. First on the list is the late Edward “Moose” Krause, longtime athletic director at the University of Notre Dame. I was fortunate to speak with Mr. Krause before his death, and I am pleased to use some of his comments in this text. (I must also thank my friend and fellow author John Kryk for sharing the transcripts of his interviews with Mr. Krause with me.)
More than one hundred other interviewees helped me with this project. Whether they spoke on or off the record, they were invariably generous with their time and observations. I was able to fit only a small fraction of their words and names into the final text, but they all greatly contributed to my knowledge of student life and college sports, and I thank them. I owe a special debt to the officials of Emory University, where I spent a week during April 1999: among others, President William M. Chace; lecturer in English JoAn Chace; Admissions Director Dan Walls; Athletic Director Chuck Gordon; and the sports editor of the student newspaper, Reid Epstein. Although, in the end, I used only a few of their statements in the text, they provided ample evidence that the Division III model is the best one for intercollegiate athletics, and they will see their point of view reflected in many comments in this work.
Similarly, I wish to thank a number of faculty and staff members of the University of Iowa for making my visits to that school so pleasant. At the top of the list are Steve Weiting, Judy Polumbaum, John Soloski, and Bonnie Slatton. Many other faculty and staff members of other institutions helped me with my work in many different ways, most notably: Aaron Baker at Arizona State University; Howard Bray of the Knight Center at the University of Maryland, College Park; Andy Geiger at Ohio State University; Lynette Carpenter at Ohio Wesleyan University; Alfredo Gonzalez at Hope College; Joe Ricapito at Louisiana State University; Joanne and Chris Eustis, formerly at Virginia Tech; Frank Cioffi at Central Washington University; Mike Oriard at Oregon State University; Hugo Witemeyer at the University of New Mexico; Tom Haskell at Rice University; Gerry Brookes at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Howard Schein at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; John Hess at Ithaca College; Ann Shapiro at Cornell University; Bill Fischer at the University of Buffalo; Richard Purple at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities); Joe Roberson at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Todd Crosset at the University
of Massachusetts (Amherst); and Jeff Fry at Ball State University. In addition, there were many faculty members and administrators at other schoolsâI visited more than forty NCAA Division I-A institutionsâwho aided me greatly but who wished to remain anonymous; I have honored their requests, but I do want to thank them in print for their valuable aid.
of Massachusetts (Amherst); and Jeff Fry at Ball State University. In addition, there were many faculty members and administrators at other schoolsâI visited more than forty NCAA Division I-A institutionsâwho aided me greatly but who wished to remain anonymous; I have honored their requests, but I do want to thank them in print for their valuable aid.
At the University of Notre Dame, where I did research for my previous two books and also this one, I am forever indebted to head archivist Wendy Clauson Schlereth; Charles Lamb, in charge of the archives' graphics collection; and associate archivists Peter Lysy and Wm. Kevin Cawley. I must also thank University of Notre Dame vice president Richard W. Conklin; and university staff members George Rugg, Dennis Brown, Sharon Sumpter, and Bob Thomson.
Special thanks also go to my colleagues in the National Alliance for College Athletics Reform for supporting my work on college sports over the years, listening to my ideas, and arguing so vociferously with me. I have learned more from them about this topic than from any other faculty group in America. Heading this list are Jon Ericson, Allen Sack, Ellen Staurowsky, William Dowling III, Linda Bensel-Meyers, Ed Lawry, Rob Benford, and Andrew Zimbalist. I look forward to working with them in the future, and I hope that NAFCAR can make a difference in the reform of intercollegiate athletics.
At my own schoolâIndiana University, Bloomingtonâmany persons helped me with this project: in the main library, Ann Bristow, head of the reference department, and her assistant Dave Frasier; also thanks to other members of the reference staff, Mary Buechley, Mark Day, Anne Graham, Jeff Grau, Jian Liu, and Frank Quinn, as well as graduate assistants Steve Duecker, Merlyne Howell, Brian Smith, and Joe Tennis. In addition, I must thank Christine Brancolini and Colleen Talty of the IU library's media/ reserve services, who have aided me in so many ways over the years, including on this project.
In the English department of Indiana University, I received assistance from many people, most notably the chair, Ken Johnston, and staff members Reba Amerson, Susan Osborne, June Hacker, Linda Goodwin, and Will Murphy, as well as faculty members Don Gray, Susan Gubar, Charles Forker, Roger Mitchell, Lew Miller, Jim Naremore, David Nordloh, and Albert Wertheim. In other IU departments and the administration, David Pace, Dave Nord, Tim Long, Ken Gros Louis, and Steve Sanders were especially helpful. Special thanks go to the Teaching Resources Center at IUB: Director Joan Middendorf and her able past and present assistants, Alan Kalisch, Jen Bauers, and Kathy Gehr, helped me in many ways with my teaching and with this book.
In addition, I must thank all of the Indiana University undergraduate students with whom I have shared classrooms over the years. I learned more from them about college life and college sports than from any other single source. At this point, after almost three decades of teaching at IU, I have encountered close to five thousand undergraduates in my classes, and I remember the majority of them very clearly and with affection.
I also owe a special debt to the 1,906 students across the country who filled in my questionnaire for this book. They will see their opinions and statements throughout the text, and, without their assistance, this book would be far less informative.
I must also thank all of the readers who wrote to me after reading my previous works or various magazine articles. In an Internet age, I very much enjoy receiving e-mail from them, and I urge them to write to me with their comments about this book. My e-mail address is: [email protected]; my home page is:
http://php.indiana.edu/~sperber
.
http://php.indiana.edu/~sperber
.
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At my publisher Henry Holt and Company, many people helped with this book and my previous ones, and I appreciate the time and effort they extended on my behalf. Special thanks go to marketing director Maggie Richards, publicity director Elizabeth Shreve, her former assistant Robin Bacon, and current assistant, Heather Fain; copyeditor Nora Reichard; and production editor David Koral. At the
Princeton Review
college guidebook, I must thank editors Paul Cohen and Julie Mandelbaum for their help.
Princeton Review
college guidebook, I must thank editors Paul Cohen and Julie Mandelbaum for their help.
Finally, I am forever indebted to my wife, Aneta, for her love, strength, and good advice; in addition, she put my questionnaire on the web, and without this assistance, the project would have suffered greatly. I also must thank my daughter Gigi, and former foster daughters Jayme and Logan, for their patience and understanding, as well as their willingness to sit with me during late-night dinners, and early-morning breakfasts.
Lastly, I acknowledge my eternal debt to my late son, Oliver, who was so inspiring in life and whose memory has kept me company during the long hours in the library, and in front of the computer. Ollie taught me the difference between the trivial and the important, and how sports should be fun and play. To treat sports with deadly seriousness is to ruin them, and to profane the reality of life and death.
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