ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the increasing commercialization of college sports. It explains the historical, legal, and financial contexts that underlie the expansion of US college football on television. The chapter suggests that some university athletics departments have become so profit-oriented—especially in their pursuit of television revenues—that they threaten the nonprofit tax status of the universities of which they are a part. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was more aggressive about television than it ever was about scandals or rules violations. "The NCAA plays a critical role in the maintenance of a revered tradition of amateurism in college sports," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens in the Supreme Court's majority decision. The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 in favor of Oklahoma and Georgia in 1984, with Justices William H. Rehnquist and Byron R. White dissenting. Justice White, who had been an All-American football player at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argued that his colleagues had misconstrued college sports.
