amen

Trent Stamp comments on non-profit status:

In a letter sent Monday to the NCAA’s president Myles Brand, Mr. Thomas asks: “Why should the federal government subsidize the athletic activities of educational institutions when that subsidy is being used to help pay for escalating coaches’ salaries, costly chartered travel, and state-of-the-art athletic facilities?”

Despite my quotes in the story seemingly defending the NCAA, Mr. Thomas has a point. The NCAA, with their billion-dollar television contracts, isn’t quite what most of us have in mind when we think of those chartered to serve the public good.

Representative Thomas is also totally grandstanding and absolutely random in his selection of organizations that should justify their non-profit status. We’ll know that Mr. Thomas is serious in this effort when he writes the exact same letter to the private elite universities in his area, like USC, Loyola Marymount, and Pepperdine. All of them have non-profit status, and all of them “pay those escalating coaches’ salaries, costly chartered travel, and state-of-the-art athletic facilities.”

I’m not saying Mr. Thomas is wrong in questioning the NCAA. I’m also not saying that he’s being fair in selectively picking them out.

Amen.