The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sports

Since the mid-1950s, the NCAA has promoted a mythology that college athletes on “full” scholarship receive a “free ride” in terms of their college education. As has repeatedly come to light, athletes in the revenue-producing sports of football and men’s college basketball are less likely to receive their diplomas than any other group of athlete while also bearing the burden of financing a college sport enterprise that has resulted in highly lucrative compensation packages for high profile coaches, athletics administrators, conference commissioners, and football bowl executives