Privatize Government Football

With their boom-ballooned, debt-financed physical plants, not to speak of a hothouse tangle of  overpaid administrators and professors—and fewer and fewer kids willing to go deeply into debt for degrees of questionable economic value—state universities are in trouble. But here is a partial way out, without further punishing tax victims or students: sell the football team. As Skip Oliva has long held, the sport can be desocialized. How much would, say, the Georgia Bulldogs, complete with the stadium, TV rights, etc. bring from booster-investors? Players could earn market salaries, not just coaches, and alums could cheer for the Bulldogs, Inc., as they do for the Atlanta Falcons. It’s an elegant, if temporary, solution.

UPDATE from Skip:

I actually wrote a paper some years ago on the NCAA and amateurism. Interestingly, college football started out as a student and alumni-run activity. American football itself developed through a loose confederacy of student groups at the Ivy League schools. It was effectively “federalized” in 1905 when Roosevelt demanded something be done about the violence of the game. That led to the NCAA’s formation.

“Amateurism” itself changed meanings over the years. In the 19th century it reflected Victorian notions of class: “Amateurs” were basically gentlemen who weren’t employed as physical laborers. Only after the academics took over football did it morph into its present form.

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8:15 pm on September 18, 2010