There are signs the NCAA’s cartel is cracking and the 115-year-old monopolistic grip is loosening
The first intercollegiate sporting event in the United States was staged in 1852, when the recently formed rowing clubs from Yale and Harvard Universities met in New Hampshire for a boat race. That it was sponsored by a New England railroad executive was both a sign of things to come and, looking back, a reminder that profit motive has been embedded in college sports from the very start.
It’s unlikely that anyone on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee that August day could have imagined that he or she was witnessing the seedling of a uniquely American phenomenon: that so many of the world’s leading research and teaching institutions would come to operate commercialized sports programs that today generate upwards of $8bn in annual revenue.