Should College Sports Revenue Be Taxed?

College basketball and football are big business — no one would deny that.  But should they be taxed like big business?  Although the NCAA and its member schools are tax-exempt not-for-proft organizations, such organization may nonetheless be taxed on “unrelated business income.”  So, the question is whether big-time college sports programs are related to the educational mission of the universities that host them.

Matt Mitten, James Musselman, and Bruce Burton argue “yes” in a new article — because sports programs advance a wide range of legitimate university objectives, sports revenues should retain their tax-exempt status.  Based on a number of case studies, they conclude that the benefits to universities of improved athletic programs may include “attracting high-quality faculty and students, generating donations and enrichment, reconfiguring [] campus identities, and enhancing institutional political clout.” 

Although Matt and his coauthors do not believe that tax law is the right way to reform college athletics, they recognize a need for changes to better protect student-athletes from exploitation.  They would promote reform through a new, conditional antitrust exemption for the NCAA and its members. 

Their article, entitled “Commercialized Intercollegiate Athletics: A Proposal for Targeted Reform Consistent with American Cultural Forces and Marketplace Realities,” was recenly published at 2 J. Intercollegiate Sport 202 as part of a symposium on tax law and athletic reform.  The abstract appears after the jump. 

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Do Athletes Have Better Brains Than the Rest of Us?

Many people, particularly those who lack or have little athletic ability, perceive elite athletic performance as solely a function of outstanding physical abilities and skills. In a recent article with the above title, Carl Zimmer writes: “The qualities that set a great athlete apart from the rest of us lie not just in the muscles and the lungs but also between the ears. That’s because athletes need to make complicated decisions in a flash.” His article describes several neurological studies of the brains of great athletes in an effort to learn more about how the brain works. Research suggests that the brains of elite athletes are more efficient and able to respond more quickly to rapidly changing variables, which enables their bodies to perform physical tasks much better and faster than those with average brains.  To me, this suggests that great athletes, with the necessary legal education, would make good trial lawyers.

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Wendy Selig-Prieb: “I’m Still a Brewers Fan Through and Through”

Mark Attanasio “has been everything anyone would want in an owner.”

He has embraced Milwaukee, taken the Milwaukee Brewers organization “to the next level,” and made thoughtful, smart business decisions.

That’s the kind of praise a happy fan of the local baseball team might well offer.

In this case, the praise comes from Wendy Selig-Preib, the woman who was president and CEO of the Brewers when the decisions were made in 2004 and 2005 to put the team up for sale and to choose the Los Angeles financial manager as the new owner. 

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