Low-Wage Villain of the Week: The NCAA

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/Low-Wage-Villain-of-the-Week-The-NCAA

07/01/2014Jeff Hauser

In our new regular feature, we'll be taking a look at the villains who are doing their best to prevent the United States from raising wages for all or some Americans. In this series, we're going to look past the usual suspects—for example, while it is true that too often elected officials get in the way of a fair economy, we want to dig deeper.

This week, we’re focusing attention on an institution designed to generate seven-figure salaries off the sweat of uncompensated labor, the NCAA. Trial testimony just wrapped up in a case that has made clear that, while NCAA executives and the coaches of men’s basketball and football teams are millionaires, players risk lives marred by injury without the comforts of adequate compensation, long-term health care coverage or the benefit of collective bargaining.

As The Washington Post’s John Feinstein put it:

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[NCAA President Mark] Emmert, who is reportedly paid $1.67 million annually, claimed that if football and men’s basketball players were paid in any way, shape or form, fans would lose interest in college athletics. When [U.S. District] Judge Claudia Wilken, who is clearly skeptical about the NCAA’s claims, asked him if that would be the case if a trust fund was set up so players could be paid after graduation, Emmert insisted that it would. Seriously? What rock has this man been living under? The NCAA sold its soul to corporate America long ago.

FULL story at link.