Will March Madness Also Feature a Player Protest?
College athletes are expressing legitimate complaints, and now they have a big stage and the moral high ground.
Geo Baker knows about unpaid labor.
Photographer: Justin Casterline/Getty Images
The NCAA men’s basketball championship began on Thursday night with the four play-in games and immediately delivered excitement — two games were decided by one point and another went to overtime.
March Madness starts in earnest on Friday with 16 games. As exciting as many of these are likely to be, there is a decent chance things could be just as exciting off the court. On the eve of the tournament, a handful of players have been expressing their discontent with the NCAA on social media by using the hashtag #NotNCAAproperty. Indeed, players from 15 teams issued a statement with a list of demands. The most important of these was that the NCAA release its long-awaited and much-delayed rules to allow players to make money from their own name, image and likeness.