During March Madness, Everyone Profits. Except for the Players.
Every worker, even famous ones, deserves the full fruits of their labor.
On Monday night, the 2024 March Madness tournament will conclude with the men’s National Championship basketball game. Once the top champion is crowned, 135 games will have been played in over a dozen cities in under a month, a logistical feat that justifies the tournament’s “madness” moniker. With over ten million TV viewers and everyone you know filling out a bracket, March Madness is an unparalleled cultural force. Yet, despite making the tournament possible through their unique skills and around-the-clock labor, the players will receive exactly $0.00 for their efforts. While many facets of America’s capitalist society are exploitative, the massive profits made off of unpaid college athletes renders March Madness one of the most visible examples of modern worker exploitation.
March Mad Money
March Madness is, in every sense of the word, a goldmine. University presidents, coaches, business owners, sports books, and TV tycoons rake in millions from the annual tournament. In 2010, the NCAA penned a 14-year, $10.8 billion TV contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting. In 2016, the deal was extended until 2032 for another $8.8 billion. Between the broadcasting deal and merchandising, the NCAA earns over $1 billion every year, making it the organization’s largest income stream. (The NCAA does not control the College Football Playoffs, Championship, or bowl games.) Approximately 90% of this revenue goes to the participating collegiate conferences and universities, with payouts determined on a rolling six-year performance basis.
But the NCAA’s revenue is just a fraction of the March Madness jackpot. With an estimated $2.72 billion wagered with legal sports books on this year’s tournament, gambling companies can expect billions in profit. According to Caesar’s Sportsbook, one of the leading U.S. betting platforms, bets on the women’s tournament have nearly tripled since 2023. As the women’s side of the sport grows and more states legalize gambling, we can expect gaming and other revenue streams to skyrocket in the coming years. Additionally, host cities reap massive financial benefits to their local economies. Last year, the men’s Final Four and Championship games were held in Houston, generating an estimated $200 million in revenue for surrounding hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. Even cities that don’t host the final games can expect generous windfalls. Boston city officials predicted an $18 million boost from just three games this year. As over fourteen cities host different stages of play, March Madness will likely generate at least $100 million in revenue for American businesses.
Players Don’t Get Paid. But They Can Get A Second Job.
Despite the river of cash flowing around March Madness, the players that generate these profits receive nothing. It is literally illegal for them to be paid for their work, a rule that isn’t applied to their coaches, who receive salaries up to a million dollars. Those who believe college athletes shouldn’t be paid point out that since 2021, players can make money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), but even this is unsatisfactory. NIL deals between athletes and sponsors are a second job and do not justify the lack of compensation for athletic performances. Just because Amazon pays Angel Reese and Flag’jae Johnson to appear in a TV commercial does not mean LSU doesn’t have to pay them for playing basketball. Believing NIL deals remove the necessity for primary compensation is illogical and would be rejected in any other labor market. It’s just as ridiculous as saying teachers should work for free to “get their name out there” so they can be paid as after-school tutors.
Despite being the means for college athletes to make money, NIL has already come under political attack from the NCAA’s most prominent and powerful allies. Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban and U.S. Senator/former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who both made millions coaching in the NCAA, have led the charge against athletes being allowed to make money. Saban even appeared before Congress to tell a story about how his wife whined that “all (athletes) care about is how much you’re going to pay them.”
As if the exploitative nature of college sports wasn’t bad enough, we must address the fact that a disproportionate number of athletes are Black. A 2018 study found that 53% of D1 college basketball players and 44.2% of D1 football players are African American, a vast overrepresentation of the Black population (13.6% of Americans identify as Black). While every player, regardless of race or gender, that steps foot on the court is by definition exploited, America’s longstanding national practice of exploiting Black labor is prominent in college athletics. As over half of the March Madness players are Black, enacting fair compensation for the tournament’s participants is not just a labor issue, but a racial justice issue.
The Solution
Given the massive profits generated by their play, the complete lack of compensation, and the lecturing of hypocritical boomer coaches, it’s no wonder college athletes have begun standing up for themselves. On March 5th, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to unionize and be represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 560. The Boston National Labor Relations Board certified the election, stating college athletes satisfy the definition of “workers” under the National Labor Relations Act (duh). Dartmouth is protesting, but the national NLRB appears skeptical of its arguments. If the NLRB rules in the players’ favor, it will be a watershed moment for college athletes. Just like the Supreme Court ruling permitting NIL deals, the NLRB’s decision to uphold the Dartmouth union could be the catalyst that sends shockwaves through the NCAA. Union solidarity is commonplace in professional sports (all four major leagues have players’ associations), so an affirmative ruling could transfer this pro-labor momentum to college athletes.
But even if the NLRB rules in players’ favor and unionization sweeps throughout the NCAA, athletes are sure to face an anti-labor backlash. Just like non-athletic labor movements, the bosses (in this case, school presidents, television execs, and everyone else who makes money off March Madness) will use ulterior motives to sway public opinion. They’ll call the players spoiled and greedy, weaponizing the unreasonable sentiment running through America that if someone is famous or highly visible, they should “be happy with what they have.” This attack is amplified when the workers in question are young or a minority. (“Shut up and dribble” comes to mind.)
Not only is this thought illogical, but it is an attack on every worker, not just those who play sports for a living. Regardless of their profession, workers should receive the full fruits of their labor, not just the amount capital deems “is enough.” This is true for fast food workers and professional athletes. Only when each and every one of us is emancipated from the exploitation of capital, which steals the value of our labor under the guise of profit, will we have a truly free and democratic society. Suppose the most visible and prominent workers in America, who appear on our televisions to entertain us with spectacular feats of athletic skill, can be exploited and mistreated by their bosses who get rich from their work. In that case, the rest of us, who labor far from the bright lights of national television, don’t stand a chance.
We must support all workers, regardless of their notoriety or area of expertise.
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Excellent article, Joe. The way colleges are structured it makes sense to work with the established school unions to negotiate. Professional sports is different. I know it's simplistic but I could never understand why professional ball teams don't ban together and create their own player-owned team and get rid of their owners altogether. Without the talent, the owners have zero commodity to sell (even stadium doors would close without teams to play in them). If the players took financial control, they could delegate the salaries of their management and support staff. What's stopping them from doing this?