NCAA: Rich have an unfair advantage!

The NFL draft is the truest expression of the Marxist doctrine, “To each according to his needs.” If you suck on the field, never fear as the draft will reward your inefficiency with a top draft pick; in the socialist utopia of sports, you consume more than you produce.

Not to be left behind by pro football and the Obama administration in the race to socialism, the NCAA is worried that rich schools might have an unfair advantage over poor schools.

Seriously.

Ray Melick’s column in the Birmingham News outlines how the NCAA doesn’t like the fact that rich schools (read that as the SEC) are able to hire lots of off-the-field personnel. According to Melick, “In other words, programs with money create these positions that less affluent programs can’t.”

Of course rich schools, the schools with the most resources, have advantages unavailable to others. And that isn’t wrong. What is wrong is punishing schools who choose to invest to make football a success.

How much longer until the NCAA limits athletic department budgets in the interest of fairness?

It may seem absurd, but every move by the NCAA over the last thirty years has made college football less enjoyable. The NCAA has tinkered with the play clock about a hundred times (they needed more commercials in each broadcast!), propagated useless bowls and created a labyrinthine tangle of compliance rules that has done nothing but provide employment to bureaucrats.

How has any of that made college football better?

Some fans might point to the reduced scholarship rules as a reason for the rise of programs like Utah; Utah defeated Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, and finished the season undefeated. However, the scholarship limits were not what made Utah’s success possible. What made it possible was a commitment by the school to its football program. The school made the most of its resources, and hired the right coaches. For every program like Utah there are ten programs mired in hopeless mediocrity that no measure of “fairness” could fix.

In fact, eliminating the powerful programs would be bad for college football. If everyone were the same, then competition would be boring. Without a Goliath, what would David do?