A little while ago, I did a Google search to find out how many Yale graduates have competed in the NBA. Even Google was skeptical: Did I mean Yale M.B.A.? Not quite.
The NBA this week released its list of basketball players, mostly from U.S. colleges, who have applied as “early entry” players for the 2010 draft. But that’s not why I was searching for Yalies. I searched because the question was raised during a wide-ranging debate among four campus leaders at the National Press Club here in Washington. (You can watch a video of the debate here.)
“The Cost of Higher Education” was the subject of the 90-minute discussion, which was moderated by Ray Suarez, of PBS. And no debate on such a topic would be complete without some kind of exchange about college sports.
William E. (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, was the first to wade in, responding to a question from an audience member about cost containment. He cited the usual statistics about a handful of big-time programs operating in the black, concluding that the fiscal model for college sports is “truly out of control.”
That prompted Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University, to propose a solution.
Levin: So Major League Baseball supports a farm-team system of minor-league teams throughout the country, OK? The NBA and the National Football League get off scot-free. They make us pay for their farm system. Why don’t we have the NBA and the NFL subsidize intercollegiate athletics?
[Pause]
Suarez: Maybe when Yale gets more people into the NBA. [laughter, applause]
Levin [stumbling a bit]: We wouldn’t take their money. We want Brit to have it.
Nobody expects David Stern or Roger Goodell to come calling anytime soon with blank checks payable to Yale (or anyplace else, for that matter). But really, how many Bulldogs have made it to the big leagues? According to the NBA, only six. The most recent was Chris Dudley, Class of 1987, a fourth-round draft pick that year. He retired in 2002, after 16 seasons with Cleveland, New Jersey, Portland, and New York.
There are no Bulldogs on this year’s early-entry draft list. Maybe next year.
3 Responses to Should the NBA Subsidize College Hoops?
11159995 - May 3, 2010 at 10:34 am
I’d suggest that, rather than paying colleges to run a farm system for them, the NBA and NFL should, like MLB, set up their own farm systems. Why should colleges be in the business of running sports franchises to benefit the pro leagues? They should concentrate on doing what they do best, viz., educate.—Sandy Thatcher
7738373863 - May 3, 2010 at 11:00 am
The original premise is incorrect. The NBA, at least, has a developmental league, and basketball is an international sport, so players from other nations do wind up in the NBA. However, players from these two sources probably constitute no more than twenty percent of the roster totals.What major-college athletic programs have that a farm system would lack is branding. Baseball farm teams may lay claim to being the home of future world champions, but the draw is less than that of the parent club because the brand is not as strong, and the tickets are perforce less expensive. More to the point, farm teams are subsidized to some extent by major league clubs, as are NBA developmental league teams. But there is a rub: the subsidization is carried out on a proprietary basis. For NBA/NFL subsidies to work, they would have to be distributed on a flat-rate basis, not a pro-rata basis, to all Division 1-A schools. To do so pro rata would have the effect of funnelling the funds (and players with professional sports aspirations) to a few schools, thus damaging the competitiveness of major college sports.
22079340 - May 3, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Colleges do little more that pimp the young men and women who play for them. They provide “scholarships” that provide students with what Derek Bok called a different, inferior quality education. Their greed knows no bounds. Witness that fact that NCAA scholarships were once for four years, but now are “year to year.” This pretty much leaves the plantation masters in the position of making sure their indentured servants perform, conform, or they risk losing their financial aid. Never forget that student-athletes are the only group of students who are REQUIRED to miss class as a condition of scholarship. Shame on all colleges and universities, Yale included, that exploit children–for that’s what student-athletes are, no matter their size–for their entertainment and the monies that flows from the temple of exploitation that is the NCAA.