Reflections, 2016-21: A Sequel to an Odyssey of Reform Initiatives, 1986-2015. Dr. Frank Splitt, Longtime Drake Group Member and Recipient of the Robert Maynard Hutchins Award has posted a sequel to his 1986-2015 Odyssey of Reform Initiatives. A prolific and nationally respected voice advocating for intercollegiate athletics reform, this new collection of writings continues to … Read more
The revised Form 990, “Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax,” filed by many public charities and other exempt organizations, has the potential to fully expose the Achilles’ Heel of the NCAA and its member institutions – the extremely weak, if any, educational basis for the current financial structure of big-time college sports. This would … Read more
The American public’s seemingly unbounded love of college sports entertainment at any cost can be readily exploited by skilled marketing professionals to the long-term detriment of the integrity and health of higher education in America. The incremental cost of such exploitation to build an ever bigger college sports entertainment enterprise amounts to the cost of … Read more
As suggested in “Telling the truth on campus,” the presidents of our Catholic colleges and universities could be moved to solicit advice from their faculty and others on the place of the value-distorting, sports entertainment business in their schools. They might even go so far as to provide independently verifiable evidence that their athletes are … Read more
“Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires,” Obama said in his State of the Union address—no doubt unaware of tax subsidies for numerous millionaire coaches and NCAA cartel as well as conference officials. »Read more
It is my view that the probability of an academic body emerging to rein in the runaway college sports entertainment industry is extremely low. Academic officials will most likely avoid taking on the powerful NCAA cartel and their governing boards so will continue to deal with related problems by looking the other way—muddling through will … Read more
Most likely the public is unaware of its sports-entertainment induced coma that effectively inhibit critical thinking and discussion of issues. There will be no complaint from government officials. From a political point of view it is much better to have the public discuss football and basketball games than it is to have it troubling these officials … Read more
University athletics benefit from in what can be likened to a stealth entitlement. Donors can usually write off gifts for athletic facilities and the right-to-purchase tickets. For example, federal tax revenues are lost because more than 1,000 university sports departments are eligible to extort deductible gifts as a condition for ticket sales. »Read more
It’s Time to Expose the Big Lie Congress has been reluctant to strip the NCAA and its member universities of their tax-exempt status and so help limit the seemingly uncontrolled growth of professionalized big-time college sports entertainment. »Read more
The challenge before us is to get academics-over-athletics priorities re-established at America’s colleges and universities that are held captive to the NCAA’s commercial interests in its sports entertainment businesses. Such interests appear to be first and foremost to the NCAA, not the interests of college athletes and American taxpayers. Simply stated, the NCAA has a … Read more