“To everything – turn, turn, turn. There is a season – turn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to build up, a time to break down. A time to dance, a time to mourn. A time to cast away stones. A time to gather stones together.” From the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds. Surely things are “Turning” in pandemonium at NCAA headquarters. In the news recently:
- The Big 5 Football conferences demand, and actually receive, the power to set and make many of their own rules.
- In O’Bannon v. NCAA, a Federal Judge rules unceremoniously that the NCAA has violated antitrust laws and must share revenues with athletes.
- NCAA announces it will appeal the O’Bannon decision, stating it does not believe it has committed antitrust violations.
In all fairness, the NCAA has an extremely difficult mission. However, it is my opinion that much of the animosity directed against the NCAA is self-inflicted – scholarships, for example, as shown in the table below. Let’s ignore whether the sport is labeled an “equivalency” sport or a “headcount” sport. Equivalency simply means the scholarship can be split among multiple athletes while headcount means the athlete must receive the full scholarship.
Hmmmm, just looking at the numbers in this table, something sure appears out of balance. Wow, just look at the number of scholarships per starter in each sport.
| Men’sSport | Number
of Starters |
Scholarships | Scholarships
per Starter |
| NCAA DI Football BCS1 | 252 | 85 | 3.40 |
| NCAA DI Football FCS3 | 25 | 63 | 2.52 |
| NCAA DII Football | 25 | 36 | 1.44 |
| NAIA Football | 25 | 24 | .96 |
| NCAA DI Basketball | 5 | 13 | 2.60 |
| NCAA DII Basketball | 5 | 10 | 2.00 |
| NAIA Basketball | 5 | 11 or 64 | 2.20 or 1.20 |
| NCAA DI Baseball | 125 | 11.7 | .98 |
| NCAA DII Baseball | 12 | 9 | .75 |
| NAIA Baseball | 12 | 12 | 1.00 |
| NCAA DI Soccer | 11 | 9.9 | .90 |
| NCAA DII Soccer | 11 | 9 | .82 |
| NAIA Soccer | 11 | 12 | 1.09 |
| NCAA DI Lacrosse | 10 | 12.6 | 1.26 |
| NCAA DII Lacrosse | 10 | 10.8 | 1.08 |
| NAIA Lacrosse | 10 | 12 | 1.20 |
| NCAA DI Volleyball | 76 | 4.5 | .64 |
| NCAA DII Volleyball | 7 | 4.5 | .64 |
| NAIA Volleyball | 7 | 8 | 1.14 |
- BCS (Bowl Championship Subdivision) is the DI bowl playoff.
- 25 starters: 11 offense, 11 defense, 1 punter, 1 placekicker, and 1 long snapper.
- FCS (Football Championship Series) is the DI national playoff tournament.
- NAIA basketball: division 1 – 11 scholarships and division 2 – 6 scholarships.
- 12 starters: 8 position players, 1 RHP, 1 LHP, 1 RH RP, and 1 LH RP.
- 7 starters includes the libero.
Peter Keating wrote an outstanding article entitled “The Silent Enemy of Men’s Sports” in ESPN The Magazine in May of 2012 which clarified some of my thoughts. He really lays bare the scholarship situation of men’s college sports, and I highly suggest you read it for an in depth view of the scholarship injustice in the NCAA. Well, let’s keep trying to grow the game even if we don’t have a level playing field.
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