ESPN senior writer Darren Rovell reported the ACC will shatter the record for most money earned from the NCAA’s Basketball Fund. According to the report, the conference will earn a total of 25 units for the amount of games its representative teams play in this year’s college basketball tournament. The units are reportedly worth at least $39.9 million.
The money comes from the television deal the NCAA negotiated, the latest a 14 year $10.8 billion deal, with CBS and Turner. At its core, the television networks pay the NCAA money for the exclusive right to broadcast its labor product, in this case the men’s division I college basketball tournament.
Is the NCAA really going to continue with this sham? So, these “student-athletes” play in games and units are earned as a result. And the units add up to a monetary value that is then shared between the conference’s member schools. And the players, who are the labor force that these deals are built on, receive no money? I know, they get paid with a free education, right? But do they? You should read Taylor Branch’s article on the shame of college sports.
Do you still think this is amateur sports?