A cartel of schools-dub it a union, but only if you want to rile up House Republicans-calling itself the NCAA sets the maximum compensation for the likes of University of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota or Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston at the value of their athletic scholarships. As Taylor Branch detailed so thoroughly in The Atlantic three years ago, the current college sports economy is rooted in amateurism. In reality, not much will change.įirst, the case for hand-wringing. The end game? Less affluent schools like Boise State effectively will be pushed out of the Division I football and mens’s basketball markets, unable to keep pace with increasing costs, akin to middle-income workers who no longer can afford to live in Silicon Valley. At the same time, amateurism’s slow death means player prices are about to rise. Rich schools, the nervous logic goes, are poised to become richer, gorging on gargantuan new television contracts.

And for mid-major programs like Boise State which have made hay against major conference teams, it's more like a state of panic. In the wake of In the wake of a power grab by the big money football conferences and a recent ruling in the antitrust lawsuit brought against the National Collegiate Athletic Association by former University of California, Los Angeles star Ed O’Bannon, college sports are in a state of flux. When Work Is a Terrifying Dystopia Sophie Gilbert

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