Posted by John Vrooman on Saturday, April 7, 2018 in NCAA Football.

Complete Interview (XL) with Bloomberg Law.

The proposed superficial symptom-treating political solution to the economic exploitation of athletes at all levels is logistically problematic and probably counterproductive.

The economic problem of exploitation of athletes derives directly from the vertically integrated monopsony power of the NCAA but more deeply from the monopsony power of the big boy professional sports leagues that are in turn exploiting NCAA schools for player development on the cheap.

The real problem with the NCAA cartel exists further upstream in the institutionalized monopsony cartels of professional sports leagues, particularly the NBA and the NFL. It is not an historical accident that the two main revenue-producing sports in the NCAA (men’s basketball and D1 football) are also quasi-minor leagues for the two big leagues without player development systems.

 In the deeper scheme of sports the exploitation of college athletes derives directly from the exploitation of lower tier professional athletes and the direct exploitation of the NCAA schools by the NFL and NBA, the leagues without the alternative parallel of a minor league shadow market.

The economic solution is to provide the amateur athletes with a shadow market minor alternative to D1 FBS college football and NCAA basketball. Parallel minor league shadow leagues now exist in MLB and the NHL where college athlete exploitation is not an issue.

The natural sports league cartels must be regulated just like any other natural monopoly. The formation of rival leagues or minor leagues as shadow market alternatives should be encouraged, and the imposition of such restrictive amateur eligibility rules as one and done should be resisted and reversed.

The G league development system in the NBA, is a start and so is the current move to replace one-and-done eligibility by at least two-or-none in NCAA basketball (now proposed by the Pac 12 and Big East Conferences and considered by the NBA).

If the vertically integrated cartel monopsony power is countervailed or eliminated from top to bottom then players can be free to choose and ultimately be paid what they are worth.

V

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