Excellent University of North Carolina case study detailing the wide ranging impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to let college athletes receive money for their “name, image, and likeness”. The main take-away is that alumni donations that used to go to athletic departments are going directly to a few star football and basketball players through “collectives”. One result is a glaring economic divide between teammates. Another is ever greater financial hardship for minor sports, many which are on life-support.

As always, the top comments from readers are interesting.

• “I find it interesting that athletic directors and. coaches who rake in mega million dollars for themselves and billions for the schools, find it somehow disconcerting when the players, who generate the wealth for the system, make a couple hundred thousand. The player who makes $300,000 is somehow preventing that same $300,000 from going to the swim team? — funny that we don’t hear that argument when $5 million goes to the head football coach.”
• “A lot of hand wringing over athletes getting their fair market value. I say: if coaches get paid, athletes should too. Oh, other sports may die out? Let colleges can dip into their endowment, tv rights, donations, etc. If they can find a way to pay coaches $10,000,000 a year, they can find a way to keep their swimming program.”

Postscript.