John Oliver Destroys The NCAA On Selection Sunday

[Initech]

[xmas74]

1. I was ready to post this.

He did a brilliant job of tearing them down.

[RockaFowler]

2. That was AWESOME

Plus I love that Jalen Rose was a part of the "video game"

[Initech]

4. That was definitely a thing of beauty.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Jalen Rose puts up with ZERO shit

The earlier clip of him explaining coaches' revenue streams is awesome, too. The sports dudes he is in conversation with are aghast that anyone would say that shit out loud, much less a hero like Jalen Rose. Perfecto.

[Liberal_Dog]

3. K & R

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Now you know why it's so offensive when promising

minority athletes get bussed to high schools in predominately white areas. If they succeed, they move on to supplement someone's million dollar salary in college. And those that fail are probably not better off since it's difficult to set roots in communities you don't live in.

We need to look at this closer, and find something that is better suited for long-term objectives.

[KG]

7. i enjoy sports, but i fucking hate the NCAA

[KamaAina]

14. I've had it in for them since they stripped Hawai'i's men's volleyball championship

for using a Greek player who belonged to an athletic club that fields professional as well as amateur teams. This is common practice in Europe. The player himself was an amateur. No matter.

[SwissTony]

38. It's very common in Europe.

Barcelona is best known for its football (soccer) team but it also has basketball teams (men and women), futsal (indoor soccer), handball, roller hockey and rugby teams. They range from professional to amateur and from kids to adults.

[msanthrope]

8. #soybeanwind nt

[krawhitham]

9. K & R

[FarPoint]

10. Excellent expose".....this abuse needs to stop!

I agree 100% with John Oliver. The University of Dayton Basketball Team lost 2 fine players last December just trying to survive in the rich mans world....Fixing the NCAA student exploitation could of prevented this tragic event.

This breaks my heart and makes me mad!

[SickOfTheOnePct]

35. I'm not sure that I would call being caught

stealing from dorm rooms a "tragic event".

[FarPoint]

37. I just look at the big picture....

I see the disparity quite challenging....mentorship needs to be adopted....

[Kurska]

11. John oliver is a freaking national treasure. n/t

[AlbertCat]

12. Sports

They are as ridiculous as religion.


Do college actors and musicians and designers and technicians get paid for amazing theatre or music productions?

Oh yeah.... that's just ...ppppthththth... art.... Who needs that? Now go throw a ball at something!

[xmas74]

21. An actor in college could perform in summer stock

or a local production for money. They could even work in local commercials. A musician could still have a bar band or get paid to work weddings and such. Techs can work local productions or hire out for events. (My church hires a music tech major to help with mics and recordings for Sunday service. They also hire music majors to work with the children's choirs and such. In a college town it's a win-win for everyone.) If nothing else they can at least work another job, they can receive a free meal, etc.

The difference is that athletes can do none of these things. There's no time to work during the season. They cannot receive anything financially or even as a "gift". While the music majors at our church can receive an invite to a paid brunch after services the athletes cannot under any circumstances. We have a food pantry on campus open to all students-except athletes. Yes, the athlete might receive a food plan but if they are married their spouse does not and the food pantry falls under the entire family, meaning they can't get it without technically being ineligible per the NCAA. (This actually happened on the local campus a few years ago and it's just a DII school-young, married and no money for food but if they used the pantry the husband could be ineligible. So what do they do now? Tell the athletes not to get married if they get their girlfriends pregnant or else any assistance she gets could affect his eligibility. Sad but true.)

[AlbertCat]

23. The difference is that athletes can do none of these things.

Sure they can! Can't a baseball player also play the flute?

Is this the only venue for basket ball? Maybe just the only one hyped to the high hills.


I went to the NC School of the Arts as an undergrad. It trains us for professional theatre. We didn't have time to do anything during school day either. We had academic classed from 8:00 to lunch, then arts classes after lunch till 6:00, then from 8:00PM to 10:00PM "Crew", which was working on one of the 26 productions we did a year.... and during "production week" (the week before a show opens) Crew was from 7:00PM - 11:00PM (and usually on into the night). Remember, we still have academic homework, as well as design class projects to do too.

[xmas74]

33. They can play a flute

but getting a job doing that might be difficult if that person can be in any way affiliated with the baseball program. It all goes back to the paperwork they must sign proving their amateur status and anything that can even remotely be related back to sports can get them in trouble. If that baseball player was given a job offer to play a flute at a wedding, for example, and someone filed a report with the NCAA stating that the only reason they were given the job was as an endorsement then that athlete could be looking at fines, suspensions, even a possible loss of scholarship.

Other students deal with time constraints. There never seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything. Still, the student could work a job if they had the time. Heck, they could work a job in their field of study and be rewarded for it, such as a music major running a hand bell choir. (I use that example because it happens in my town.) They get paid and work in their field of study, allowing a great addition to their resume. An athlete, otoh, cannot work as an assistant coach, in a store where school merchandise is sold or even as a server in a restaurant, amongst other things.

[hughee99]

24. Are actors, musicians, designers and technicians forced to sign documents confirming their amateur

status, and are they prevented from getting a regular job where they can make money?

Athletes are VERY limited in the type of jobs they can even take (even in the off-season) for fear that some wealthy booster will give them a good paying no-show job.

[xmas74]

31. Exactly.

Even in fields outside of sports they are limited in their off season (if they really have an "off season&quot .

[AlbertCat]

32. Are actors, musicians, designers and technicians forced to sign documents confirming their amateur

Don't misunderstand me.

I don't hate sports....but this type of thing is ridiculous because of money....and taken way too seriously. That rule book!

The point really is if they're gonna make money off of them (unlikely in the college arts!.... which also grates on my nerves) they should pay them SOMETHING. And I agree with that.

But it's the seriousness of it all. Like professional sports, it seems almost incidental that an actual game gets played. It's all about something else. Takes all the fun out of it.

[moondust]

13. Near-slavery.

Indefensible, disgraceful.

[Initech]

16. Yeah I wonder how this isn't classified as slave labor?

I'd especially like to see an audit of a major university like the University of Michigan. What they make in actual ticket sales revenue and what their actual take home profit is after expenses and taxes are deducted. I'm sure there's enough left over that they could afford to pay their players after all is said and done. And what surprised me is how easily players can lose their scholarships. No wonder so many of them go pro after a year or two.

[moondust]

22. To be fair...

the colleges do have some valid arguments, such as the revenues from football make it possible for the school to fund women's lacrosse, etc., in some cases perhaps even funding scholarships for players in minor sports. I don't know all the arguments, legal or otherwise.

Also, if you allow players to accept cash and gifts, the schools with the biggest donors and endowments could end up with all the better players, similar to the Yankees being able to pay the biggest salaries and attract so many top players. Thus there is the danger of money corrupting the whole thing even worse than it already is.

The whole mess stinks but I don't have all the answers for how to fix it. The schools would get more sympathy from me if they weren't paying coaches and administrators a fortune for risking nothing while the players themselves are in some cases risking lifelong injuries.

[hughee99]

26. I wonder if a stipend would help.

All players at all universities are allotted X dollars a month. It's the same amount no matter what school you go to and while not a lot of money, it's enough to cover basic needs.

Maybe student-athletes should be eligible for some sort of workman's-comp or insurance situation as well, in case they get hurt and aren't able to keep their scholarship.

[BeyondGeography]

27. At the very least, I always thought they should be allowed to keep their scholarships

for however long it took them to get a degree. It's near-impossible (or would have been for me at least), to get a useful degree when so much time and energy goes to an extra-curricular activity. Many of these players think they're on the way to the pros and when they realize that degree should have been the #1 priority all along, it's too late.

[moondust]

28. Sounds reasonable to me.

I'd love to hear their arguments against diverting some of their huge profits to fund stipends and insurance for players. I suppose their (corporate) lawyers have all the arguments covered considering they came up with a 440-page manual to cover their asses and institutionalize the whole mess.

[hughee99]

30. My guess is that their argument would go something like this...

"We have to treat all student athletes the same, so the wealthy kid on a rowing scholarship at Harvard would have to get the same stipend as the inner city kid playing football at Ohio State, and if they have to do this for ALL athletes at any sport, there just isn't enough money."

While that argument may be true, I'm sure a group that figured out how to make billions on unpaid labor could figure out how to make this workable, if they really wanted to, which, of course, they don't because any solution would cut into their revenue or the revenue of the schools.

[Jim Lane]

15. A great clip, and LWT put a hell of a lot of effort into their parody video game. (n/t)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. Truth.

[Bluenorthwest]

18. I love his show so much but is this one mostly about sports?

I can deal with a few sporting minutes but if it's the key story I'll spare myself the boredom.

[Initech]

19. It's about how corrupt the NCAA is.

Even if you don't like the subject John Oliver always does an awesome job of tearing down the subject.

[msanthrope]

25. It's worth watching. nt

[zappaman]

20. It was a thing of beauty.

[Adrahil]

29. Ok, here's my problem with this....

These student athletes ARE paid.... they get a free college education, free room and board (often MUCH nicer the average student gets), and all kinds of non-monetary perks.

As for "hungry nights?" That seems odd to me, since most of these guys (and fewer girls) get free access to the dining halls, and their food is paid for on road trips. And frankly, I remember more than a few days in college where dinner was 4 for a buck ramen noodles.

Having said that, the NCAA and the top sports colleges make a LOT of money on sports (well, football and basketball, anyway). In my view that's because they the equivalent of the minor leagues in baseball. My solution? Require student athletes to remain in college for the length of their scholarship offer, and let the NFL and NBA establish minor leagues so those folks who want to get their NFL or NBA "degrees" can go right to those leagues, instead of the sham of major college sports. Return college sports to a more low key, and less money-sucking farce.

I know college sports fans will HATE this idea, but college sports has not really helped colleges in general. At many Universities, the it's down-right awful. At my wife's university, the athletics department has leather upholstered furniture, and solid wood furniture. Meanwhile the academic departments can't get functioning copiers. We spend between $25-$50 a month so my wife can print out the documents she needs for her students, because her department's copier RARELY works, and it's "too expensive" to replace.

[IcyPeas]

34. Morgan Spurlock covered this last year:

on his show Inside Man. It was very interesting (and I'm not into sports at all). He interviews some of the players and documents their schedules.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2014/06/07/unguarded-cost-of-living.cnn

[flying rabbit]

36. K for later nt

[Vinca]

39. It's pretty disgusting when you consider the money machine the NCAA is and yet players are hungry.

[madokie]

40. Without a doubt

John Oliver is the best at what he does and that is putting the truth in spin, something we so badly need a lot more of.