"The organization and its member universities were making a fortune while the players whose talents and bodies fuelled college sports got nothing, or close to it. The Southeastern Conference had just become "the first to crack the billion-dollar barrier in athletic receipts," Branch wrote, in The Atlantic. "The Big Ten pursued closely at $905 million." TV rights had driven the deluge, along with "a combination of ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise, licensing fees.""
"The panel heard testimony from Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike marketing executive who, in 1984, had signed a pioneering shoe contract with Michael Jordan, the U.N.C. superstar who had just left for the N.B.A. Branch described Vaccaro cheerily telling the commission, whose members included the N.C.A.A. president and several university presidents and chancellors, "You sold your souls, and you're going to continue selling them.""
The NCAA and its member universities generated massive revenues from TV rights, ticket sales, concessions, merchandise, and licensing, while many players received little or no pay. Conferences such as the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten reached near-billion-dollar athletic receipts. Concerns about runaway commercialism emerged during Knight Commission hearings, where a Nike marketing executive warned that universities had 'sold their souls' in pursuit of profits. Two traditional NCAA principles—amateurism and the 'student-athlete' concept—functioned as legal constructs that enabled universities to exploit players' skills and fame. Recent rule changes now allow student-athletes to receive pay and make independent name, image, and likeness deals, transforming the economic landscape of college sports and affecting program-building efforts.
Read at The New Yorker
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