American higher education is unique: it is the only country where colleges and universities devote vast resources to undergraduate athletic contests against rival schools.
American Colleges Literally Invented Football and Basketball
Not only are the American obsession with football and basketball part of the collegiate scene, but the colleges literally invented the sports. The last quarter of the 19th century was a period of rapid university growth in an increasingly prosperous nation, and young students sought or required vigorous physical exercise alongside book learning. At an YMCA training facility in Springfield, Massachusetts, that has since morphed into Springfield College, a Canadian instructor named James Naismith invented basketball. Football’s origins are a little more complex—growing out of related European sports like rugby—but the name most associated with its invention is Walter Camp of Yale University. Early college football was nasty and brutal, with 19 players dying in 1905 alone, leading to a national outcry led by big sports fan President Theodore Roosevelt, bringing needed rule changes.
The sport assumed a far larger role after 1920, propelled by soaring college enrollments and the construction of massive stadiums—most famously Michigan’s “Big House,” opened in 1927 and seating well over 100,000. The arrival of radio, followed by television, amplified the shift, as broadcast revenues proliferated. Bowl games and, later, championship playoffs stretched the football season, while basketball’s March Madness became a national ritual. What had once been justified as wholesome recreation for young men—and eventually, in basketball’s case, young women—evolved into a major commercial enterprise.
The Professionalization of the Past Decade
Fast forward to the present. In the past decade, a revolution has occurred in high-level college sports. The “amateur” status of “student-athletes,” well established until about five years ago, has dramatically changed. While less than a decade ago, top football and basketball players at successful schools were “big men on campus,” their compensation for their labor services was still largely limited to scholarship assistance and a bit more. Yet, some superstar players probably added perhaps two or three million dollars to their school’s revenue, but received less than five percent of that amount in compensation for their services, unlike in professional football and basketball. A big hunk of the enhanced revenues went to coaches. Thus, Nick Saban at Alabama once earned over $10 million annually, considerably more than most NFL coaches. In the fall of 2023, Texas A&M wanted to fire football coach Jimbo Fisher, but doing so cost the university $75 million—the amount remaining on Fisher’s long-term contract. That came to more than $1,000 for every student attending the College Station campus. More recently, Louisiana State University (LSU) decided to oust one-time Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, with news reports indicating he would receive a $53 million payout—more than $11 per Louisiana resident.
Have booming audiences, soaring media payments, and longer schedules brought large profits for college sports? Apparently, not. Players, too, are starting to be paid meaningful amounts—major teams are paying out $20 million annually in compensation, in addition to NIL (name, image, likeness) revenues—ending even the pretense of “amateur” status. Some athletes transfer via the “transfer portal” to a different team each year, further reducing the “student” image of essentially professional players. Meanwhile, coach salaries remain high. The cost squeeze has led Big Ten athletic commissioner Tony Petitti, a former Major League baseball executive with a minuscule prior association with higher education, to tentatively negotiate an intricate agreement in which Big Ten teams would assign vast future revenues to a private equity company in exchange for $2.4 billion to reduce mounting financial woes. Should universities be taking out what seems like the equivalent of a payday loan? Some of the conference universities, especially the University of Michigan, seem to think that the arrangement is inappropriate. Still other potential rising costs may be on the horizon: medical lawsuits from middle-aged men suffering long-term effects of debilitating college athletic injuries, greater pressure for equal pay for female athletes, etc.
Betting and the Moral Cesspool It’s Creating
A 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the door for states to legalize betting on sporting events, with a large majority doing so—the most significant exception: California. Betting on sports by college athletes, previously forbidden by the NCAA athletic cartel that has largely determined college sporting rules, was apparently becoming widespread, with surveys showing that a majority of college students generally participate at least occasionally. Players have the power to alter the competitive outcomes of games, especially in sports like basketball, where even a missed free throw can alter the outcome enough to change who profits from a bet.
Not surprisingly, this has led to an upsurge in scandals threatening the very integrity of college sports. “College Sports Shaken By Mafia-Run Betting Scandal – 14 Charged in Explosive $2 Million Scheme Involving Athletes, Friends and an NBA Agent,” reads a November 14 headline from Total Pro Sports. This follows the 2023 revelation that Alabama head baseball coach Brad Bohannon had been fired for alerting a gambler on an Alabama–LSU game that an ace Alabama pitcher unexpectedly could not pitch because of an injury, and for subsequently refusing to participate in the NCAA’s investigation. Players, coaches, and professional gamblers have been increasingly implicated. NCAA members, increasingly concerned about the financial as well as moral implications of this, rescinded a proposed NCAA rule change that would have allowed athletes to bet on professional sports days ago.
Other Issues
The landscape of collegiate sports is changing rapidly, and it is unlikely that the changes are nearly over. A few years ago, the possibility that increasingly professional college athletes would unionize was first raised. It happened to professional leagues like the NBA and NFL, so why not college sports? While women’s basketball is gaining popularity, the pay disparities between highly paid male superstars in both basketball and football may lead to contentious lawsuits. Long term, the rise in soccer’s popularity at the high school level may morph into an important new commercialized activity. Student athletes receiving concussions and other serious injuries in college may suffer debilitating long-term health problems, leading to increased legal expenses in the coming decades.
Even more ominous, perhaps, is the notion that college sports have grown in popularity over the years, increasing the fan base. But college enrollments are actually lower today than they were 15 years ago, and the decline in the birth rate, beginning early in this century, is reducing the pool of new potential students. Some industrious high school students are electing to become welders, plumbers, or home health care specialists instead of attending college.
Will the fierce loyalty that enhances college sports’ popularity begin to decline? Using honest accounting methods (e.g., including stadium depreciation costs), almost all schools are losing money on college sports. At my school, Ohio University, I am virtually certain the annual loss appropriately measured well exceeds $20 million annually–almost $1,000 for every on-campus undergraduate student. In an era of enrollment stagnation and possible decline, is that a luxury that colleges can afford?
Plato, more or less, once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” “Necessity” might lead schools out of desperation to do innovative things, such as selling or leasing their valuable stadiums and parking lots to new or existing professional sporting organizations, perhaps creating the equivalent of the minor leagues in professional baseball. Yet as my friend, Wall Street Journal columnist Bill McGurn, reminded me recently, the appeal of college sports is largely emotional, rooted in loyalties formed during one’s school years.
Shrewd athletic directors and university presidents try to monetize the value of those emotional attachments. Therefore, I would be surprised if the distinctive institution of American collegiate sports disappears from the American scene anytime soon.
Image: “Michigan Stadium” on Wikipedia
