Restoring Joy To Bracketville: Problems Facing College Basketball
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"Restoring Joy to Bracketville: Problems Facing College BasketballÂ… Stimulate Responses from the NCAA and the Newly Formed Student Basketball Council"
Section 1: Executive Summary
I. Introduction
This law review, written by John Slossen of the Sports Lawyers Association, is a law review response to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's formation of the Student Basketball Council (SBC). The law review looks at major problems facing college basketball, the NCAA's response to the problems, and the legislative process in which the Student Basketball Council was formed.
The SBC is an organization composed of forty-eight student basketball athletes. The function of the SBC is for students to voice their opinions on many issues that affect college basketball. These students recognize that many problems exist within college basketball such as rule violations of players and the disparity between the large amounts of money the NCAA generates and the minimal compensation of the student athletes. The SBC began as a small working group organized and funded by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and now has become a council that exists outside the structure of the NCAA. The SBC has no official role or power within the NCAA. (*126)
II. Problems Facing College Basketball
The first problem the article explores is the role the media plays that takes away from the enjoyment of the sport. For instance, in the 2000 NCAA tournament, Nike advertising created a fictional place known as Bracketville that began to portray the city as a lustful, gloomy place, in no way related to the sport of basketball. In a year filled with enjoyable stories and athletic heroics, the media focused on player suspensions that were a result of players taking money from unauthorized benefactors, making a point to vilifying those athletes in the process....
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