Congress asks NCAA to justify tax-exempt status
By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota
Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 12/07/2006
Recently, in the shadow of the continuing argument for a college football playoff system to decide the true national football champion, Congressman Bill Thomas of California has asked the NCAA to justify its tax-exempt status.
Thomas noted that the annual returns filed by the NCAA with the IRS state that the primary purpose of the NCAA is to ³maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body.² Why should the federal government continue to subsidize the athletic activities of educational institutions when that subsidy is being used to help pay for escalating coachesı salaries, costly chartered travel, and state-of-the-art athletic facilities?
Congress is questioning the fundamental assertions that athletics are not part of higher education or that not-for-profit status should be linked with the amount of revenue an organization generates. ³The NCAA stands by the primus We Educate student athletes; they are students first.ı² Myles Brand President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association was asked to respond ASAP to Congress.
Congressman Thomas said that corporate sponsorships and big television deals like the $545 million deal with CBS for television coverage of the NCAA menıs basketball tournament have led many to believe that major college football and menıs basketball more closely resemble professional sports.
How does playing major college football or menıs basketball in a highly commercialized, profit-seeking, entertainment environment further the educational purpose of your member institutions?² asked Thomas. More than 35 college coaches reportedly receive salaries of at least $1 million a year.
Paying coaches excessive compensation also makes less revenue available for other sports, causes many athletic departments to operate at a net loss, and may call into question the priorities of educational institutions,² Thomas said. Also, Thomas asked the NCAA to explain the educational value of public universities spending as much as $600,000 per menıs basketball player during the 2004-2005 school year.
Thomas and Congress want answers and have asked the NCAA to provide data on total annual revenues and expenditures for Division l-A football programs and Division L basketball programs. It has long been my feeling that the NCAA hides behind the guise of amateurism while making $Billions on the backs of college athletes, primarily in college football and basketball where the athletes are predominately Black.
And, itıs been that way for a long time, particularly since itıs become a major marketing revenue exchange with streams of revenue from the sports networks ESPN, CBS, TBS, ABC and others where everybody wins financially except the athletes. Why? Because the athletes are student/athletes.
Itıs not a fair fight, and itıs about time that Congress finally holds the NCAA and its member institutions accountable. Itıs no more than modern-day slavery. If the NCAA had to pay taxes, they would be forced to pay the athletes. What a concept free labor.
