the BigAmateurism monologues

Myles Brand’s “collegiate model” is the fundamental financial structure of big-time college sports and mandates the “massive redistribution of revenues” from football and men’s basketball to non-revenue sports and athletes. On September 30, 2021, in a hearing in the House of Representatives, NCAA-friendly witnesses and Congress members invoked that financial framework to justify the federalization of the college sports marketplace and NCAA regulatory supremacy. These witnesses and Congress members declared with bureaucratic certitude that college sports would face yet another existential threat without this massive transfer of wealth. The logic is that without this revenue, universities would have to either cut funding across sports, outright eliminate sports, or—heaven forbid—use general university operating revenue to supplement the athletics budget. Like Myles Brand in 2006, NCAA and Power 5 interests base their argument on the necessity of increasing and preserving “participation opportunities” for non-revenue sports and athletes. This episode analyzes the testimony on the “collegiate model” and discusses the flaws in its application in 2021.