I’m a Libertarian and there is not much about socialism I find enticing as a political philosophy. I also like football. Finally, I’m a realist. Sports organizations exist today almost completely as a conglomerate of policies that can only be described as socialistic and communistic.

Drafts are one of the most anti-capitalistic entities that exist in the western world. Imagine if young college students were drafted upon graduation by a particular corporate entity, their salary was predetermined by some equation, and they were unable to negotiate with anyone else. Should they choose not to sign with the company that drafted them, they could not sell their skills elsewhere for one full year, upon conclusion of which they were back in the same situation, hoping to be drafted by a company for whom they wanted to work. Yikes.

The process young high school students endure is slightly better. They can at least choose which college to whom they sell their services. However, once that letter of commitment is signed, it’s a different story. They are largely stuck. If they want to leave, their boss must approve of the school they transfer to and even then, they must sit out for a full year. And, of course, they can’t negotiate their salary.

Everyone on the team earns exactly the same amount. From the star quarterback to the third string strong safety, not that I’m picking on safeties, they all get room, board, and tuition. That, dear readers, is communism.

The amount of money each team in the NFL, NBA, and NHL is allowed to spend on salary is strictly controlled by rules. No one can spend as much as they want, each team is limited to the same value. This means each player gets remunerated at a rate that fits into a predetermined structure rather than a fully capitalistic system.

A portion of the total amount of money each team earns over the course of the season is subject to division and split among all the teams in the league equally.

Can you imagine such a system anywhere except sports? The thought is horrifying, but we accept it without thought when it comes to the various leagues. The structure is different from league to league but it is fairly similar from one to the next.

The alternative is to treat athletes like everyone else. Every school and team can offer whatever incentives they want to each player. You’re a star eight-grade basketball player? Perhaps a top school in another state wants you. Maybe they’ll move your family to a nearby home and pay you. How is that bad for the athlete?

At the end of the college season each player is free to negotiate with every professional team and arrive at a contract that is acceptable to all parties. How can that be bad for the players?

Yes, the wealthy high schools, colleges, and professional teams will get all the best athletes. That’s how a business succeeds in this world, they get the most talented players.

We must consider personal gain as well. The second-best running back would almost certainly sign with a different team than the best running back for the opportunity to play more. Teams would have to manage their expenditures within their economic means.

I have no illusions that such a system will ever be implemented for athletics across the country. I don’t deny that almost everyone reading this will call me an idiot, and they won’t hesitate to tell me why. However, in addition to being a Libertarian, I’m a dreamer. Maybe one day we’ll have a system designed to benefit the individual. That’s my dream at least.

Tom Liberman

There are a lot of people angry at a man named Zack Hample this morning because he attended a baseball game held at Fort Bragg.

The game was held on July 3rd as a tribute to military personnel and they and their families were given tickets. Hample is an avid, to understate it, collector of baseballs. He’s traveled all over the United States and collected over 9,000 of them from various different stadiums. He was eager to get a ball from this unique event and presumably paid someone to get their ticket. He was offering $1,000 for such a ticket.

People are angry that Hample got a ticket, attended the game, and collected a ball. They argue that he “stole” the seat from a military person and thus the ball as well.

I disagree. Whoever sold their ticket to Hample got something more valuable than a souvenir, $1,000 presumably. We don’t know what Hample ended up paying but we do know that whomever sold him the ticket wasn’t much interested in baseball or the souvenir. I understand that there was a child somewhere who is interested in baseball and would have loved to get a ball. But there was also someone interested in a thousand bucks.

No one forced the soldier to sell his ticket. From reading the comments on Twitter the soldiers were told not to give or sell the tickets to anyone except active duty military personnel and family. Yeah, good luck with that. There are going to be plenty of soldiers who got tickets who have no interest in baseball. There are going to be plenty of them, like me, who have no interest in souvenirs. They should be able to sell their ticket to the highest bidder. I’m willing to bet that many soldiers will sell tickets and other items they got at the game. That’s their business.

That’s life.

I certainly understand people don’t like it. I’m just suggesting that such people are living in a fantasy world.

Hample wanted a ball and was willing to pay for the opportunity to get one. A soldier wasn’t much interested in a ball or the game and sold him the seat. Two adults completing a transaction.

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Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Ideology
Current Release: The Gray Horn
Next Release: For the Gray

There is a profound difference in the nature of a so-called student-athlete and a student and I think many people fail to realize it. Why does this come to mind? Because a fellow named Don Yee, who happens to be the agent of Tom Brady, wrote an opinion piece over the weekend suggesting, among other things, that Clemson and Alabama college football players should refuse to play in the National Championship game.

It’s an interesting piece and talks about the inequality of the financial situation between players and virtually everyone else. I wrote a blog on the same subject back in June of 2013 that echoes a number of the points Yee makes. Yee focuses on race and I largely disagree with his assessments in that regard but it’s not the topic of my blog today.

While reading the passionate comments under Yee’s post I found a common thread. The idea is that the student-athletes should be more than happy with the opportunity to attend college without cost. The students would very much like this arrangement for themselves.

People equate the student and the student-athlete to make this argument. Gosh, lots of kids go way into debt to pay for college is the common thought. The reality is that the two are virtually the opposite of one another in an economic sense.

The student is paying a fee for an education. He or she must get good grades to be allowed into the school and even then pays for the commodity of an education. The school charges this fee and then provides teachers, buildings, cleaning staff, and many other items in return. The student is the consumer and the college is the commodity.

On the other hand, the student-athlete is being paid to play football. The school is the consumer and the player is the commodity. The school’s representative all but begs the athlete to come to that school rather than sell his services to a rival. The player then provides entertainment that generates a large amount of revenue for the school, coaches, and many others. The payment the player gets is an education, exposure for a future career, and various other things.

These are fundamentally different. We cannot compare the student with the student-athlete because they are essentially opposites of one another from an economic perspective.

In the meantime, the student-athlete has noted that coaches are getting paid a lot more than they were twenty years ago. The student-athlete has noted the total amount of revenue generated from the games has gone up by a tremendous amount but their salary remains the same. They want a raise and who are we to tell them they should be “satisfied” with their current rate of pay? That they are “greedy” for wanting more? Would you tell a co-worker those things? Of course not.

Should they get a raise? That’s not my business. It’s between the schools and the student-athletes but I certainly think it’s their absolute right to ask for a raise and not perform if they don’t get. Likewise the school might fire them and give the scholarship to someone else. That’s a labor negotiation which is exactly what is happening.

On a happy note, things are actually moving toward a much more equitable state. The student-athletes in the Power Five conferences now receive a stipend of several hundred dollars a month, access to as much food as they can eat, and their families no longer have to pay out of pocket to attend Bowl Games (trips which can be quite expensive, particularly for low-income households). The horrific system where scholarships were revoked if a player got injured or failed to perform has been abolished.

The NCAA and the colleges seem to have recognized the inequities that the system engendered and are working to fix them without going to a purely professional system wherein each player is negotiated with separately.  These are good things. A reasonable pay increase for the players without destroying the nature of the system. A win/win.

It makes an old cynic proud.

Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Ideology
Current Release: The Girl in Glass I: Apparition
Next Release: The Gray Horn