" TV revenue is really the devil here," Yost says, adding, "it's why these schools are driven to bend the rules, and bring kids in who are academically ineligible to come and play sports." He cites the example of former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, who enjoyed a $4 million salary package. "About $2.5 million was paid by ISP Sports, the media company that had bought their broadcast rights. That's a big chunk of the revenue and salary structure for these big-time coaches," Yost says. "And the ISP contract for a school like Auburn---which is a big football school but nowhere near a Michigan State or Notre Dame---was $56 million for the television rights."
Asked by Professor Vietzke if the TV money ever helps fund scholarships, Yost replied in rare cases that it does. At Notre Dame, which landed the first-ever national broadcast contract with NBC, administrators set aside a portion of the revenue to fund both undergraduate and graduate scholarships, as well as to build a new science building and purchase lab equipment. Again, when the University of Minnesota sold the naming rights of its new stadium to TCF Bank, one provision in the contract was that the bank contribute about $1 million a year to academic scholarships. "Most of the money, though," Yost continued, "stays within the athletic department, which is a separate entity" and the funds are used to fund the sports that don't generate any cash flow. But even when the construction of a new stadium finances scholarships, as it did at Michigan, it can ignite campus controversy. The Michigan stadium gave the academic side of the house an issue to complain about the athletic side of the house, Yost said. This flap occurred even though the stadium was considered "democratic" in nature in that it had no luxury suites and all its seats were equally priced.
Noting the "seismic shift" in the alignment of the major conferences, interviewer Vietzke asked Yost what role TV revenue played. He responded that Texas, a member of the Big 12, was wooed by the Pac-10 but elected to remain in the Big 12 because that conference doled out TV revenues in proportion to the amount of TV time each school chalked up and Texas dominated the conference. It was really in their interest "to stay in a conference where they have the dominant TV time and they get the dominant amount of revenues. The whole bowl and conference-realignment thing is totally driven by TV money." Yost says if a school makes the Bowl Championship Series it can reap rewards approaching $20 million.
The big critique of today's intercollegiate sports system is that "the kids are the ones that are hurt (as) everyone is making money except these kids," Yost says. "Granted, they're being given a four-year scholarship and, if they remain healthy, they can take advantage of whatever academic opportunities are offered to them, but it's really a system that some people have compared to slavery." He goes on to say that the players "are expected to go into this multi-billion dollar business, but not take a dollar from boosters, not have an agent, not having anyone representing them and just to play for the glory of the university while the university racks in all this money on top of this free labor."
The other critique is that the players aren't getting an education but are taking "cake courses in departments that are sympathetic to the athletic mission, and that they end up at the end of four years with 60 or 70 credits, no opportunity and no prospects for a pro career," Yost observes. "And they end up going back to wherever farm, whatever inner-city neighborhood they came from. And overnight, it's all gone: no more tutoring, no more training table, no more being the big man on campus, and that's the real tragedy of this system."
He says the NBA's "One and Done" rule requiring high school players to attend college for a year is window dressing in that it requires players to attend college when they don't have any intention of graduating, and "when they get to June and they have Ds and Fs and Cs it doesn't matter, because they're going to apply for the NBA draft." As for NFL rule that requires players to be out of high school for three years before they can be recruited, Yost said it has nothing to do with the NFL wanting the players to get a higher education and everything to do "with putting weight on." Yost explains that NFL linemen today weigh 320 to 350 pounds and even running backs average 240 pounds or better. So this isn't about getting an education, it's about "putting meat on their bones." Players who come out of high school weighing 270 or 280 pounds have "got to go and spend four years in the weight room and really put a lot of meat and mass on their bonesto be able to even survive in the NFL today."
Yost says that colleges promote a false dream to players when they tell them that if they play hard and study hard it will lead to a professional career. The reality, however is bleak: fewer than one percent of the college athletes have any meaningful NBA career. "They may play for a couple of years or go play in the world league or something so it's really a lie that's being told these kids and the reality is that it's not true." Yost adds that the media compounds the myth by focusing on the two percent of athletes who make it and "completely ignores the 98 percent of athletes who end up back home with 60 credit hours, no degree, no future. It really is tragic the way we treat some of these kids," he says. "It's a system that uses these kids and then just throws them away when they're done with them." Yost concludes, "Let's be honest, a lot of schools such as Nebraska, Penn State and Texas are training grounds for the NFL, that's really all they are."
The Massachusetts School of Law, producers of the SportsNet show "Books of Our Time," was founded in 1988 to provide a rigorous, affordable legal education to students from minority, immigrant and low-income households who would otherwise not be able to enter the legal profession. #
(Sherwood Ross is a media consultant to the Massachusetts School of Law. )
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