UNC’s NCAA Case Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

Many of you have probably seen the recent stories about the NCAA’s new hard line about the UNC case and, perhaps like us, wondered: what the heck?

Well there may be a lot more than meets the eye.

Over at Blue Devilicious, Ted Tatos says that it comes down to this: if the NCAA doesn’t make sanctions stick in this case, it could spell the end for the cartel.

Check this out:

“The NCAA argued that athletes are better off because they get an education, which means better outcomes. In my upcoming article in the Antitrust Bulletin journal, I discuss the NCAA's defenses and their lack of merit in more detail, but suffice it to say, the UNC case and the accompanying documents produced, eviscerate the NCAA's already tenuous (at best) factual basis for its position. If UNC escapes any substantive punishment, the NCAA's defense of the athletic/academic model will be exposed for the Potemkin village it already is. The UNC case is the albatross around the NCAA's neck, and the NCAA needs a way to remove it without substantially injuring itself in the process.

“So, if the NCAA punishes UNC it won't be because it cares about the academic or the overall well-being of the students. The NCAA is a commercial venture, and, as such, its concern is profit-maximization. UNC's long-standing fraud has threatened the cash flow that the cartel enjoys. That is really the wrongdoing as far as the NCAA is concerned, not defrauding students of an education.”

If he’s correct, and we suspect he is, that will make the UNC case a cage match to the death.