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Pac-12 football players are threatening a boycott and that’s great. I’m totally here for it. Especially because an ensuing March Madness boycott could topple the American college sports complex as we know it. And it’s a unique year to get decades worth of activism done.
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As we all know, March Madness 2020 was canceled due to the coronavirus. However, lots of folks don’t know that MM makes up roughly 80% of the NCAA’s annual revenue.
Football=conference/university revenue. Basketball=NCAA revenue.
Football=conference/university revenue. Basketball=NCAA revenue.
So basically, football players could hit their universities in the wallet in the fall, and basketball players could do the same to the NCAA in the spring for one hell of a one-two punch.
The NCAA has a March Madness contract with Turner/CBS. That contract has an extenuating circumstances clause, where revenue can be withheld from the NCAA in unique circumstances. Corona was a extenuating circumstance, so the NCAA’s revenue was cut to about 30% this past spring.
The NCAA is strughling financially right now. Especially because the NCAA/Mark Emmert have used up their reserve funds lobbying to congress and dolling out legal fees for the past few years. The NCAA is running on roughly 30% of its usual revenue with virtually no reserves.
Which begs the question: can the NCAA go two consecutive years without the majority of its annual revenue with no savings to fall back on? If college basketball players protest in March, the Association might not have a choice but to find out the hard way.
College basketball players must consider following in the lead of PAC-12 football players. Think of your rights. Write up demands. Prepare to send them to the NCAA. Boycott the tournament if your voices aren’t heard.
We’re seeing just how desperate universities for football revenue, and the NCAA will be just as ravenous for money this spring. College basketball players could get a full amateurism repeal overnight (and more) if they flex their power this March.
And I can’t stress this enough: a boycott must take place in 2021. The NCAA has never been as financially precarious as it is now. Playing in March business as usual could get the NCAA back on track financially. A boycott could get decades of activism done in a month.
I must add: it should not be the job of the athletes to secure their basic human rights. That responsibility should fall on the universities, conferences, and the NCAA. But we’re seeing how little they actually care about their athletes.
And athletes: you are powerful.
And athletes: you are powerful.
I would love nothing more than to see college football players cancel the 2020 season, then watch basketball players halt March Madness in 2021. Because all college athletes deserve so much better than what the NCAA is providing right now. Make. Them. Sweat. The NCAA deserves it.
(For the record, if basketball players boycott, I will buy a plane ticket and sit on the court with you. As a former athlete myself, it would be a pleasure and an honor. Same with football boycotts. I will gladly sit on the turf with y’all.)
And as a shameless plug, I have an op-ed version of this thread saved on my laptop. I have pitched it to several news outlets with no luck. If anyone wants it, my DM’s are open.
