March Madness

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So if we were to make college basketball a FREE market…. What would it look like?

Obviously the first choice would be no NCAA
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But what about paying the players? What about payrolls exceeding multiples of the revenue the games bring in (because in truth a successful basketball program benifits the school's top line revenue - enrollment)?
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What about performance-based pay? There is A LOT of money gambled on these games. What if the bookmakers pooled part of the bets to incentivize the ultimate winner, or a given outcome?
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What about signing talented minors to contacts ensuring a pipeline of talent?
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What about eugenics? Paying people to breed and obligating their progeny to be bound to a specific school? (Yeah I know this idea is out there… but hey it is a free market and just like everything else - freedom gets stronger with exercise.)
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Total votes: 2
musashi
Posts: 1777
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:54 pm

March Madness

Post by musashi »

I enjoy watching college basketball in the US. Each year they have a big tournament at the end of the season, 64 teams compete, one team is crowned national champion. At the onset you can fill out a bracket and see if things turn out the way you predicted they would turn out – good fun…. Great if you get lucky and win a few hundred bucks.

As I think about it, college basketball is a good example of a market. Each school competes to acquire the best players. The players compete to establish themselves as superstars. Squads compete to prove their superiority. At the end the team with the highest merit claims superiority. I like that. No government bail outs; No pluralistic, multicultural mumbo jumbo – 64 teams enter - one team emerges as the best of the best. Make it, take it.

It is even more fun to think about all the market forces at work in US College basketball. College basketball has elements that we might see in any market.
  • There are demand constraints (only so many seats available on the bench).

    There are supply constraints (each athlete has a unique combination of physical and mental aptitude and the best are in short supply).

    There are time constraints (the players mature and have a limited shelf life).

    There is a value added component (I don’t care who you are… Bobby Knight is going to make you a better player. Well Knight might be too controversial how about John Wooden?)

    There are market constraints (I hate that damn NCAA – there lies slavery in our modern times).

    There is a HUGE opportunity for market risks - a panoply of good and bad things that could happen to effect the ultimate outcome (winning or loosing).
All the voting options represent a market with more freedom. Which ones do you like? Which would be immoral?
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Tolthar Lockbar
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Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:10 pm

Re: March Madness

Post by Tolthar Lockbar »

Basketball... is that the game where tall people run around or something?
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(Must be something with a BPO cost of less than 20 mil. One shuttle a day and per an item.)
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Kushan
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Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:55 am

Re: March Madness

Post by Kushan »

Eh? Even Tolth knows more about sports than me :(
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musashi
Posts: 1777
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: March Madness

Post by musashi »

Well I pitched this question more as a discussion on the nature of markets. I get the basketball theme takes it too far out.
Keep your sharpened steel sword, this wooden one will be all I need!
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