How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campuses
The University of Tennessee has a program where students are paired with a coach who helps the athletes improve their performance and make improvements to their time on the field. Here, a student in a white T-shirt with “Coach” on a white background is shown preparing running drills.
This ad for the College Football Playoff is created for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers and, like many of the other sports-themed ads for the playoff, uses this student athlete to convey the importance of competition. The ad depicts a girl in a white T-shirt with a black “Nebraska” logo on a white background with the tagline, “Every play matters… and is worth more than just a check,” while another girl in a white shirt with a Nebraska University logo on a white background stands next to the first girl with arms folded.
The ad is almost completely devoid (and offensive) of any context. It’s as if the NCAA wants to promote the concept of competition within a football-centered environment, where one win is considered better than 20 losses.
The NCAA has made sports betting less accessible to the public by placing restrictions on those who wish to bet on sports. The NCAA also has imposed rules that limit the number of spectators at college football games, limiting the number of people who can watch. Many feel that the NCAA has even tried to limit college sports in order to create a more competitive environment, but that’s not the case. There is no competition if fans cannot bet on sport.
College and professional sport are now considered entirely separate. Colleges are for profit, and sports are for entertainment. There is no incentive to come out to watch the college football team win a game.
The NCAA has been trying to increase revenue by getting college athletes to give “student loans to pay for college,” much like the way students get student loans from banks to pay for college. There is no way for the NCAA to profit from the football season or the college football schedule, but they can profit off of the student loans from the coaches that pay
