If the schools weren’t making money off attendance, the TV contract and merchandise....I wouldn’t say much of anything. Univ of Alabama makes around $33-million a year for example.
The real issue...how you’d divide up the loot, and admit that only thirty-odd schools in America make real money. The rest, if you figured the travel required, the uniforms, and such...basically break even.
Take aways from the article below:
“....
According to the NCAA, among the 65 autonomy schools in Division I, only 25 recorded a positive net generated revenue in 2019.
Among those reporting a net positive, the median profit per school was $7.9 million. And among the 40 autonomy schools reporting a negative net revenue, the median loss was $15.9 million. In other words, the majority of universities in the nation’s top athletic conferences
— the schools you see on TV every weekend competing for national championships — lost money through their sports programs to the tune of approximately $16 million each.
............”
If a state school that loss is made up by the state taxpayer ! Who thought he was paying for a higher education. If schools eventually start paying the “athletes” the taxpayers will just have to fork out more !
The schools will eventually be forced to divest themselves of big time athletics.
https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/do-college-sports-make-money/
And maybe they should divest ! Stop being a taxpayer subsidized minor league for professional sports. Let the NFL, the NBA pay for a minor leagus system just like MLB does. Let colleges and universities go back to what the taxpayers are supposedly paying them to do.
The next shoe to fall will be the unionization of graduate students. They’ll demand “comparable wages” rather the their current “way-below-minimum-wage” wages. (Remember we are not counting tuition wavers as income!)
Rocketing up higher education costs even further !
So it is truly all about the Benjamins ! And the attitude is: “ I want mine now screw everyone else !”.