The National Collegiate Athletic Association: A Study in Cartel Behavior: Arthur A. Fleisher, Brian L. Goff, Robert D. Tollison
From Library Journal
The authors, Fleisher (economics, Metropolitan State Coll. of Denver), Brian L. Goff (economics, Western Kentucky Univ.), and Robert D. Tollison (economics, George Mason Univ.), cite numerous examples where victory and profit are the bottom line in big-time college sports. Hypothesizing that key NCAA enforcement committees have been controlled by schools with strong athletic programs, they argue that agreements reducing competition for recruits (inputs) and restrictions on the number of games played (outputs), have enabled the NCAA to obtain more durable return on its behavior than such notable cartels as OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Export Companies). Illicit payments to athletes and recent conference realignments are explained in light of the NCAA’s cartel behavior. Although written from a scholarly perspective, this book also provides an overview of the NCAA and will be an excellent addition to both specialized and general collections.
- Albert Spencer, Coll. of Education, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Intercollegiate sports is an enterprise that annually grosses over $1 billion in income. Some schools receive more than $20 million from athletic programs, perhaps as much as $10 million simply from the sale of football tickets.
Probing the history and business practices of the most powerful sports organization of colleges and universities in the United States, the authors present a persuasive case that the NCAA is in fact a cartel, its members engaged in classically defined restrictive practices for the sole purpose of jointly maximizing their profits.
This fresh perspective on the NCAA’s institutional structure helps to explain why illicit payments to athletes persist, why non-NCAA organizations have not flourished, and why members have readily agreed on certain suspect rules.
Offering a valuable case study for sports analysts and students of economics and cartel behavior, this book is a revealing glimpse inside the embattled NCAA program.
