Media MonsterNCAA BasketballNCAA Football

Stephen Colbert: College Football Players Should Think Of It As “An Internship With Concussions”

Historian Taylor Branch’s much-talked-about harsh critique of the NCAA is now an e-book, and last night, he went on The Colbert Report to talk about it. Stephen Colbert (in character, of course) gave Branch his best grilling, and fittingly, at one point, America’s ballsiest pundit urged Branch to “grow a pair.” And yes, he even found a way to work in “job creators”:

While the back-and-forth between Colbert and Branch was amusing, there’s been an interesting, more serious back-and-forth going on since Branch’s original story in The Atlantic, between those who agree and disagree with Branch’s premise. The biggest potential counter to Branch’s argument that athletes should receive much, much more compensation than they do is what SI’s Seth Davis pointed out: most schools’ athletic departments don’t actually turn a profit. They take in plenty, yes, but then they dish it right back out.

However, that doesn’t take away the bad taste of dishing the money back out to…well, pretty much everyone but the players who are primarily responsible for generating the money in the first place. Indeed, plenty of people weren’t swayed a bit by Davis’ piece: among other things, economist Andy Schwartz noted, one needs to assume that all the athletic departments that say they lose money actually do, and that most college athletes are currently overpaid. Schwartz, you may have gathered, doesn’t agree.

And even more easily, one could look at the fact that: 1) athletes aren’t compensated beyond scholarships, and 2) athletic departments still lose money and say: “Excellent – all the more proof dramatic reform is needed…or at least that the revenue pie needs to be split up differently.” (Additionally, Branch himself responded to Davis here.) It’s difficult to get behind a system that won’t even allow kids to sell their memorabilia on their own for a few extra bucks – and even harder to say that, even if no proposed reform to the current system is perfect, reform isn’t necessary. When Stephen Colbert is calling your system an “internship with concussions,” it’s probably time to re-evaluate.

[The Wiz of Odds]