It’s always worth noting when Martin Scorsese produces a film, and his newest one — The Departed — with Jack Nicholson, Leanardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and an outstanding supporting cast opens today. The initial reviews indicate that it’s another Scorsese masterpiece:
NY Times;
Richard Roeper (Chicago Sun-Times);
Joe Morgenstern (WSJ $); and
reviews via Google.
As the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma prepare to reap millions this weekend during their annual shootout in Dallas, the National Collegiate Athletic Administration is preparing a response to a possible federal challenge to the tax policy that facilitates the universities’ financial windfall.
This Indy Star.com article reports that the House Ways and Means Committee has delivered an eight-page letter to NCAA President Myles Brand demanding that the NCAA justify why the multi-billion dollar business of big-time college sports deserves its education-based tax exemption (related Miami Hawk Talk post here; also see this Sports Law Blog post). The letter observes in part:
“Educational organizations comprise one of the largest segments of the tax-exempt sector, and most of the activities undertaken by educational organizations clearly further their exempt purpose. The exempt purpose of intercollegiate athletics, however, is less apparent, particularly in the context of major college football and men’s basketball programs.” [. . .]
“To be tax-exempt . . . the activity itself must contribute to the accomplishment of the university’s educational purpose (other than through the production of income). How does playing major college football or men’s basketball in a highly commercialized, profit-seeking, entertainment environment further the educational purpose of your member institutions?”
As noted here (see also here and here), NCAA member institutions sold out long ago to the owners of professional sports franchises by effectively agreeing to subsidize minor league systems in football and basketball for the owners. The education-based tax break fuels the raising of funds necessary to capitalize that system, and directly benefits the owners of professional sports franchises who do not need to allocate capital to development of minor league systems because of the NCAA members’ cooperation in doing it for them. The contrast between college baseball — a thriving but relatively small economic model that competes for players with a well-developed minor league professional system — and college football — a booming industry (at least for a relative few universities) that does not compete with a minor league for players — reflects the high stakes involved for everyone involved in the current system.
My sense is that nothing will come of this current Congressional inquiry because — as one of Larry Ribstein’s colleagues points out in the article — politicians from states that thrive on big-time college sports would probably never allow the gravy train to end. Moreover, foreign professional leagues in basketball are creating a minor-league system in that sport that is changing the nature of college basketball for the better, so arguably markets will eventually work to mitigate the hypocrisy of the current system, anyway. But given the extraordinary run-up in the value of National Football League franchises over the past couple of decades, don’t you think it’s about time that universities quit subsidizing a part of that growth?
Well, it doesn’t look as if Garrison Keillor will be placing Dallas on his travel itinerary again anytime soon.
According to this Jacquielynn Floyd/Dallas Morning News column, the author, humorist, syndicated columnist and creator of National Public Radio’s venerable Prairie Home Companion show visited Dallas a week ago to promote his latest book, Homegrown Democrat. Highland Park United Methodist Church near the Southern Methodist University campus sponsored Keillor’s visit, and over 1,000 of Keillor’s adoring fans showed up for his hour-long lecture. The evening apparently went quite well — the audience laughed and applauded throughout Keillor’s talk and he even stuck around afterward to chat and sign a few copies of his book.
But Keillor apparently had a different view of how his trip to Dallas went. The following is what he wrote at the end of his Chicago Tribune column this week:
. . . our country has taken a step toward totalitarianism. If the government can round up someone and never be required to explain why, then it’s no longer the United States as you and I always understood it. Our enemies have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They have made us become like them.
I got some insight last week into who supports torture when I went down to Dallas to speak at Highland Park Methodist Church. It was spooky. I walked in, was met by two burly security men with walkie-talkies, and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes’ church and that it would be better if I didn’t talk about politics. I was there on a book tour for “Homegrown Democrat,” but they thought it better if I didn’t mention it. So I tried to make light of it: I told the audience, “I don’t need to talk politics. I have no need even to be interested in politics–I’m a citizen, I have plenty of money and my grandsons are at least 12 years away from being eligible for military service.” And the audience applauded! Those were their sentiments exactly. We’ve got ours, and who cares?
The Methodists of Dallas can be fairly sure that none of them will be snatched off the streets, flown to Guantanamo Bay, stripped naked, forced to stand for 48 hours in a freezing room with deafening noise. So why should they worry? It’s only the Jews who are in danger, and the homosexuals and gypsies. The Christians are doing fine. If you can’t trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and not have to say why, then whom can you trust?
Dallas Methodists are the same as German appeasers of Nazi genocide? As Floyd’s column relates, Keillor is probably at least exaggerating about what occurred during his visit.