Worth watching.

I have criticized the NCAA on previous occassions as it clear there is a cartel and/or monoploy on Football and Bastketball players which leads to absurd results perverse incentives.

This video from popular (and funny!) social critic Mr. John Oliver is worth watching as it explores most of the issues in an entertaining (if albeit profane) way.

The lack of a market for obviously valuable services has created one of the most rediculous web of regulations regarding social interactions in the history of man.  The NCAA handbook on player behavior with respect to gifts, money, favors, etc. is nearly 500 pages long.

And as a student of propaganda, I especially enjoyed NCAA President Mark Emmert's assumption of his own conclusion with this gem:

"Converting a student to a paid employee is something entirely antithetical to the whole principle of intercollegiate athletics...it completely changes the entire notion of what college sports is about."

Note especially that this simply assumes away the value argument of the players services by referencing this silly notion of the virtue of amateurism, when the most cursory examination of the control exhibited by the Universities and their agents over the players demonstrates otherwise.

What a wonderful example of how far afield fairness and decency can derail once the accountability of the market is taken away.