The corrupt NCAA monopoly: "American society is lying to itself about the virtues of its favorite form of entertainment."

Joe Nocera was mentioned at NAC for the first time in January, 2012.

Weekend reading update: College sports reform, J. Edgar Hoover and hypocrisy.

It's been four years, but I am delighted to see that LEO's Yarmuth has caught the college sports reform bug. Preach it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: No more student-athletes, by Aaron Yarmuth (LEO)

As a lifelong U of L Cardinals fan and someone who loves college sports, I know this may sound shocking: I propose removing the word athlete from the term student-athlete. The time has long passed to divorce organized athletics from the institutions of higher learning, which serve as host subjects for a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. Students should play intramural sports, and young men and women interested in a career in sports should not do it in college but pursue that path in an open and honest way by attending an academy of sports. And hey — if it doesn’t work out for them, they can always go to college.

Let me explain.

Finally tackling "the hypocrisy at the root of the big-time college sports system."

There's nothing inherently wrong with the notion of college athletics, even if the system makes a mockery of any sensible notion of "student" athlete, because America is irony-free .... but ONLY if the human beings actually creating the megabuck value are remunerated fairly. This has not been the case for decades, and whatever might be done to change it, should be commenced immediately.

Delicious commentary is here:

With Judge’s Rebuke, a System Built on Hypocrisy Is Wobbling, by William C. Rhoden (NYT)

... Representatives of these power conferences complain about allowing athletes a share of the revenue. They want it both ways: The rich universities want to break from the pack and set up their own rules, but they object to sharing the revenue with the athletes who generate the wealth.

Wilken’s ruling put a price on the cost of doing business.

The judge's decision is here:

N.C.A.A. Must Allow Colleges to Pay Athletes, Judge Rules, by Ben Strauss and Marc Tracy (NYT)

In a decision that could drastically reshape the world of college sports, a federal judge ruled on Friday that the N.C.A.A.'s decades-old rules barring payments to college athletes were in violation of antitrust laws ...

... Advocates for student-athletes declared it a major victory.

“The decision goes behind the curtain of amateurism and says there’s nothing there,” William Isaacson, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said. “It’s a remarkable step forward for decency for college athletes.”

More on the "college athletics charade."

I've been here before, oft times.

Down with the NCAA? Sounds wonderful to me.

Diggin' it: "Lawsuit Declares NCAA An 'Unlawful Cartel' That Illegally Restricts Athlete Earning Power."

REWIND: A labor theory of basketball value.

But rather in keeping with the notion that guns make them free, Americans do enjoy their fiction -- the virtues of "amateur" athletics being high on that list.

Column: Enough with the college athletics charade, by Paul Newberry (Yahoo)
By PAUL NEWBERRY

It's been another glorious week in college athletics.

Alabama's Nick Saban finalized a new contract worth nearly $7 million a year, only to get one-upped - or should we say million-upped? - by Kentucky's John Calipari, who'll make even more on an annual basis with his seven-year, $52.5 million deal (at least until Saban's next raise).

Then, on Friday, came a report in which former North Carolina star Rashad McCants claimed he took a bunch of sham courses during his time with the Tar Heels, supposedly with the full knowledge of coach Roy Williams.

All in all, a good reminder of what's really important in our alleged institutions of higher learning.

Clearly, it's got nothing to do with learning.

Indiana University Southeast on athletic diversity: "If You Can Play."

I rarely do college sports touts, but this one's an exception.

Why discuss student-athletes when there's money to be made?

As noted here previously, the first requirement for the meaningful reform of a core-rotten edifice is for its devotees to acknowledge the prevailing hypocrisy.

Show Me the Money, by Joe Nocera (New York Times)

The annual IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, held last week in Midtown Manhattan, is the kind of meeting where football games are routinely described as “product,” television networks are “distribution channels,” and rooting for State U. is an example of “brand loyalty.” The university presidents, conference commissioners, athletic directors and corporate marketers who attend spend very little time mouthing the usual pieties about how the “student-athlete” comes first. Rather, they gather each year to talk bluntly about making money.

Pro vs. college sports: "Wherever fans are, give them a choice — they'll gravitate toward the best."

Louisville is located in Kentucky, and Kentucky recently rejected Barack Obama by one of the largest margins of any state. With this knowledge firmly in hand, let's consider pro and conservative views of college football.

College Football: Pro and Con(servative) Views, by Frank Deford (NPR)

... But a caveat. The sectional adoration for college sports may have no relationship whatsoever with either political or Chick-fil-A preference.

It may simply be that wherever honest grown-up professional sports abound, attention to second-rate, NCAA shamateur sports gets diminished. The Southeastern Conference, in particular, may be so popular primarily because Dixie possesses so many fewer pro teams compared with the East, West and Midwest ...

... Basically, sports is primarily a class thing, and the pros are simply a higher class than the colleges. It's a better product. Yes, yes, I know college games can be entertaining, and there's loyalty and tailgating. But wherever fans are, give them a choice — they'll gravitate toward the best.

To repeat Deford's central hook: "Basically, sports is primarily a class thing, and the pros are simply a higher class than the colleges. It's a better product."

Rather like Obama in the election.

Now, let's turn to the group of concerned parties currently engaged in lobbying against the very thought of the NBA in Louisville.

Media executives revealed as chairs of anti-NBA group, by Joe Arnold (WHAS-11)

The co-chairs of Home Court Advantage, a group aimed at discouraging Louisville from pursuing an NBA team to share the KFC Yum! Center with the University of Louisville, have revealed their involvement in a letter to business leaders.

Keith Hall, a former Insight Communications executive, and George Demaree, the General Sales Manager of Main Line Broadcasting, tout their media experience in the letter, saying, "our own personal pocketbooks have often been dependent on good investment decisions regarding athletics of all kinds on all levels."

Attached to the letter is a study commissioned by the group, revealed by WHAS11 earlier this month, which concludes that the costs associated with attracting and retaining a National Basketball Association franchise for Louisville outweigh the benefits.

Hall is a former member of the University of Louisville Board of Overseers. A U of L spokesman has said that the university was not involved in the study and, to his knowledge, had not requested it.

The argument here is that the interests of Louisville's public university (U of L) outweigh numerous other inter-related civic and business decisions aimed at bringing the NBA to Louisville. Okay, that's fine, except these university "interests" pertain solely to basketball (and a sliver of volleyball) tenancy in Yum's still under-utilized arena.

Now, if these media execs were interested in U of L as a SCHOOL, they might be credible witnesses. As it stands, the tail still wags the dog.

To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield: "Who made U of L basketball pope of this dump?"

(discussion thread at Facebook)

Billy Reed on Penn State football: "Universities do not exist mainly to sponsor teams."

Billy Reed still can bring it. His essay at louisvilleky.com comes close to matching the gold standard set by Charles Pierce last fall: Penn State child rape deception: "One more lie to maintain the preposterously lucrative unreality of college athletics."

Reed: Death to Penn State Football, by Billy Reed

In the name of simple decency, Penn State needs to give itself the death penalty. Cancel the 2012 football season. It won’t begin to atone for the atrocities that the late Joe Paterno refused to see through his thick glasses, but it will be a symbolic gesture that shows the university understands how disgusting and shameful the tragedy is.

Weekend reading update: College sports reform, J. Edgar Hoover and hypocrisy.

Nocera's eloquent essay summarizes the themes I've been espousing for years (the players are the source of the cash cow, and are not remunerated properly), and also offers a workable solution. Still, the first requirement for the meaningful reform of a core-rotten edifice is for its devotees to acknowledge the prevailing hypocrisy. Before you can be helped, you must want to get better, but don't take my word for it (again). Read the article, please.

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes, by Joe Nocera in the New York Times.

The hypocrisy that permeates big-money college sports takes your breath away. College football and men’s basketball have become such huge commercial enterprises that together they generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue, more than the National Basketball Association. A top college coach can make as much or more than a professional coach; Ohio State just agreed to pay Urban Meyer $24 million over six years. Powerful conferences like the S.E.C. and the Pac 12 have signed lucrative TV deals, while the Big 10 and the University of Texas have created their own sports networks. Companies like Coors and Chick-fil-A eagerly toss millions in marketing dollars at college sports. Last year, Turner Broadcasting and CBS signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal for the television rights to the N.C.A.A.’s men’s basketball national championship tournament (a k a “March Madness”). And what does the labor force that makes it possible for coaches to earn millions, and causes marketers to spend billions, get? Nothing. The workers are supposed to be content with a scholarship that does not even cover the full cost of attending college. Any student athlete who accepts an unapproved, free hamburger from a coach, or even a fan, is in violation of N.C.A.A. rules.

Meanwhile, hypocrisy of another form is charted by Summers: The malevolent career of J. Edgar Hoover. Where were anarchists like Leon Czolgosz when we really needed them?

The secret life of J Edgar Hoover, by Anthony Summers in The Guardian/The Observer.

J Edgar Hoover was a phenomenon. The first Director of the FBI, he remained in office for 48 years, from his appointment after the First World War to his death in 1972, achieving fame and extraordinary power. For public consumption when he died, President Richard Nixon eulogised him as: "One of the giants… a national symbol of courage, patriotism and granite-like honesty and integrity." He ordered flags to fly at half-mast and that Hoover's body lie in state in the Capitol.

In private, on hearing that he had died, Nixon had responded merely: "Jesus Christ! That old cocksucker!" Months earlier, closeted with key advisers, he had held forth on the need to persuade the elderly Hoover to resign. "We have on our hands here a man who will pull down the temple with him, including me."