March Madness is upon us.
Truly.
And somewhere amid the madness might be opportunities for the business of sports and the academic sector in Los Angeles.
Consider the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s ongoing investigation of college basketball, which has cast the NCAA as a middleman in what appears to be a corrupt system that ranges from so-called amateur athletic organizations to shoe brands to numerous men’s college basketball programs.
The investigation has played out against a backdrop of a long-running debate on whether college athletes should get paid – and a consensus seems to be growing around the notion that they should be.
That makes now an ideal time to talk about who should pay them, and to consider the mission of our colleges and universities – especially the public schools.
Public colleges and universities in California exist to educate and develop individuals into contributing members of our society and economy.
Sports are supposed to be an adjunct – a way of rounding out the educational experience.
College basketball has instead become a multibillion industry – the NCAA gets close to $1 billion for the rights to its annual tourney.
Now consider UCLA, where the Anderson School of Management remains part of the school but no longer receives any state funding for its MBA or MFE programs, instead relying mainly on private donors.
How about taking a similar approach to the basketball program? Run it under the UCLA banner, give the players room, board and a salary. Provide some education without any pretense of traditional academics. Tailor a curriculum to their likely circumstances, with classes on personal finances, public relations and speaking – or some that explore options in case basketball doesn’t work out.
This would be a pioneering effort, and eventually require other schools to take the same approach – or perhaps some very energetic efforts to otherwise fill a competitive schedule.
It’s a ripe moment, though. What’s going on with the NCAA makes a sham of the traditional notion of student-athletes. Gifted young basketball players have grown increasingly willing and able to use schools as little more than way-stations. There is no shortage of media outlets hungry for content.
UCLA, meanwhile, already has shown some penchant for rethinking how it operates, as changes at the Anderson School demonstrate. It has the most storied basketball program in NCAA history. And it’s a resident of the city that’s increasingly becoming the center of sports in the U.S.
Anyone who thinks a radical repositioning of UCLA basketball is flat-out impossible should study up on the history of the NBA – a league born of an unlikely combination of industrial leagues, old-time barnstormers and a bunch of owners of hockey franchises anxious to add dates to offset the sunk cost of their stadiums.
Then consider how refreshing it would be for our institutions of higher education to play a limited, appropriate and transparent role in a new college basketball system.
