The products of an entertaining form of corruption

Okie%20STate%20stadium%20013008.jpgInasmuch as the corrupt sponsorship of big-time football and basketball by academic institutions is a common topic on this blog, the following articles caught my eye:

The Chronicle’s Richard Justice surveys several of the ugly recent incidents in big-time college football and calls for higher ethical standards. However, he ignores the perverse incentives built into the highly-regulated system that promote the unethical behavior.
Meanwhile, one of the coaches who has been accused of being ethically-challenged — former Texas Aggie coach Dennis Franchione — turns out to be an over-achiever with an interesting story.
And how exactly is it that Rick Neuheisel was able to persuade UCLA to hire him as its new coach in the face of this curriculum vitae?

Look, June Jones, Rich Rodriguez, Franchione, Neuheisel and the other supposedly unethical coaches of the moment are not, on balance, any more unethical than the rest of us. They are simply the products of a highly-regulated system that creates all sorts of perverse incentives to act badly. Change those incentives and the coaches’ behavior will change. A good start would be to quit paying the coaches the excess rents that should be paid to the players whose talents generate them.

One thought on “The products of an entertaining form of corruption

  1. It is definitely true. That is an indication that one successful game is enclosed of murky actions of different coaches. I can say that it is also one way of the so called product of an entertaining form of corruption. It is somewhat related in laying a bet. The Oregon Lottery may be something of a necessary evil. The Oregon Lottery brings in a lot of funds for the state known for a lack of a sales tax. A recent Oregon raffle through the lottery resulted in one lucky person never needing payday loans again. (They couldn’t get them anyway; payday lending is illegal in Oregon.) The lucky winner will receive $1 million for the St. Patrick’s Day raffle. Lottery drawings are popular but also criticized, in that itís a form of legalized gambling. Oregon likes the fact that it brings in revenue. West Coast states have been hard hit by the recession, with budget shortfalls and higher unemployment than average hitting both California and Washington. Still, it’s somebody’s lucky day in Oregon.

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