The NCAA: The New Giving Entity!

The President of the NCAA is Mark Emmert, Phd.  He appeared today on Face the Nation.  His Glen Campbell haircut looked great without a one gray hair out of place.  The talk was all about Unionization of Student-Athletes which the National Labor Relations Board approved last week.  You could tell by the look on his face that Emmert was sitting on razor blades during the interview.  “What would a Unionized Student-Athlete look like?” he said.  “Women sports too?  We guess that would be included…” he stammered.

When you say “Game Changer” this might just be one.  Emmert rattled on that this issue would probably be settled in the Supreme Court.  Evidently, the Unionization of Student-College-Athletes has hit a sizeable nerve.  Emmert dropped the bomb, when he said:  “This goes all the way down to kids in the 6th Grade!”.  We didn’t know that Nike was subsidizing Grammar School kids….but they evidently are.  As everyone knows, Nike, Russell and a whole bunch more Sportsmakers pay big money to College Coaches to have their kids wear their apparel.  They pay the Universities big money and even give them equipment as long as the brand is exposed.  Emmert seems to suggest this goes all the way through High Schools and down to Grammar Schools.  What are the local School Boards doing about these activities?  The Administrators?

So, Dr. Emmert then went off into a rant about all the revolutionary changes the NCAA Board Members have been working on – like:  Stipends for food and lodging added to their College Scholarship tuition?  How about Health Insurance that would extend beyond their sports participation or college years?  How about paying the taxes on all these gifts?  We mean wages of course, because if Student-Athletes are Employees, what they receive in pay and perks should be taxable right?  If they are Gift – there should be a Gift Tax then right?  What about every other type of Academic Scholarships which are given?  Should they be taxable Gifts…..or are these folks now employees of the University as well.  The other biggie that came up was the hourly demands of being a Student-Athlete when those hours exceed 60 hours a week and which may include year round efforts.  Dr. Emmert said:  “We are looking into that to!”

So how much does the NCAA profit every year?  Let’s see their tax records.  How much does the good Dr. Mark Emmert recieve in wages and perks per year?  How many NCAA Board Members are there?  How much do they make every year and what other perks do they recieve?  How many employees does the NCAA have and are they considered a non-profit entitiy?  If so, why?  Where is their list of stipends and sponsorship gifts to all the college coaches and players every year?  We need full disclosure Federal Government.  If the NCAA is going to take this fight to the Supreme Court…..they will need to come prepared to answer each and every question about all NCAA  associations, sponsorships, investments and pending agreements.

The NCAA….the new giving entity!   Coming to a town near you ……very soon!

Photo is from the United Nations website and has been carefully selected so as to neither violate copyright nor cause an international incident. Of course, you can never tell.