Grinding Gears: College basketball is built on exploitation


The calendar might read April, but we are entering the final week of March Madness in the NCAA Tournament  — and this year’s field has once again resulted in excitement, upsets and highlights heading into the Final Four this weekend.

This tournament is — without a doubt — the most thrilling four-week stretch in sports. Placing 68 teams in one bracket and having them play winner-takes-all elimination games until one team remains is inherently exciting. According to the American Gaming Association, nearly $8.5 billion will be wagered on this year’s tournament. From gambling to friendly office pools, we have an insatiable thirst for predicting winners of games between college basketball teams, half of which casual sports fans have never seen play.

Which brings us to an often discussed Catch-22: How do we go about enjoying and betting on what is objectively an incredible sports tournament, given the fact that none of the players (ahem, “student-athletes”) who are pouring their blood, sweat and tears into these games receive a cent of compensation for their efforts? And what is it about college sports specifically that draws our attention?

Let’s make two things clear here. First, college athletes should absolutely be paid — period, full stop. It is ridiculous for the NCAA to rake in upward of $1 billion per year in revenue off the backs of its athletes while insisting upon the sanctity of amateurism and the value of a free education.

Second, college basketball is far from the best brand of basketball out there. The worst NBA team would still blow out the NCAA national champion easily. So would most teams in the G-League, the NBA’s developmental league. But there is not nearly as much interest in the NBA playoffs or the G-League as there is in the NCAA tournament. And the EuroLeague, widely regarded as the second-best basketball league in the world behind the NBA, barely registers on Americans’ radars.

There is just something about the college game that makes us pay attention to what is essentially mediocre basketball being played by people we have never heard of. Aside from Duke’s Zion Williamson, what true household name is there in college basketball?

Perhaps it is the excitement that comes with single-game elimination, the fact that we can go from casually following a game to becoming fully invested in a thrilling finish (as I write this column, Purdue and Virginia are playing in overtime for a spot in the Final Four, and I do not care that I will be late for my dinner plans). Or maybe we care more about the programs than the players themselves — we are constantly intrigued by teams like Duke, North Carolina and Gonzaga that seem to be on top every year.

The latter possibility is a problem. When we start valuing programs more than the players that make them great, when we recognize the names of coaches — Krzyzewski, Boeheim, Williams, Izzo — more than those of the players who actually win games for them, it enables the continued exploitation of college athletes.

These athletes are drawn to programs like Duke and North Carolina because of the history, lured in by the chance to play for a well-known coach and on national television every night. In return, they get their 15 minutes of fame during March Madness, with just a small percentage of them actually being good enough to make it to the professional ranks and become household names.

Fair trade off? Not even close. Yet, we still eat it up. We eagerly fill out brackets, grab a beer and tune in to support the hypocrisy that is the NCAA. This is how the NCAA continues to thrive. This is how something so fun and exciting can be run by an institution so corrupt and bad. This is how Michigan State coach Tom Izzo can berate and humiliate one of his players on the sideline in a viral meltdown, refuse to apologize and get away with it — because Izzo is Michigan State, and he knows it. We all know it.

Unfortunately, there’s not much that can be done. Like football, March Madness is too embedded in sports culture for it to be canceled. We will watch the Super Bowl knowing that there is a scientifically proven link between football and brain damage. And we will fill out our brackets during the NCAA Tournament for the chance to make some quick cash, knowing that it will be more than what the players laboring on the court will make trying to extend their 15 minutes of fame.
Eric He is a senior writing about current events in sports. He is also the features editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Grinding Gears,” runs Mondays.