To those of us with a conscience, not all money is good money. For example, the money made from selling dope would be considered bad money for many of us. Obviously, there are those who see drug money as good money.
One’s conscience determines how one looks at the money.
Many of us have thought about how much money primarily white institutions, or PWIs, have made on the backs of Black athletes. Furthermore, we’ve seen time and time again how coaches would recruit our children and then abandon them for a better coaching job.
Fed up with the totality of colleges, on July 1, 2021, the NCAA introduced the name, image and likeness (NIL) policy. Oh, this wasn’t done in the name of fairness — lawsuits helped bring about this change.
In addition to NIL, players had the transfer portal, which started on Oct. 15, 2018. These two policy changes gave a sense of value to the Black athletes, which unapologetically is my focus here.
In 2024, Shedeur Sanders’ NIL deal was valued at $5.1 million. Heisman winner and teammate Travis Hunter’s NIL deal was valued at $3.1 million.
Just when it looked like things were coming into balance between the NCAA, PWIs and Black athletes, the aforementioned decided they needed more money.
The multibillion-dollar TV deals, game tickets, parking, concessions, paraphernalia, etc. aren’t enough! The conscienceless NCAA and PWIs are positioning themselves for more.
How?
They are now upping their pimp game by courting private equity and venture capital investors. Simply put, these investors are going to own a piece of these PWIs and make even more money!
Pick a school — University of Georgia, Alabama, UCLA, USC, name one — and private equity firms want to own a piece of them. Yes, college football is following in the footsteps of the NFL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer by allowing private equity firms to own a limited stake in their teams.
In case you haven’t considered this: Travis Hunter was the No. 1 high school football player in America, and on Dec. 15, 2021, he signed with a historically Black college or university, Jackson State University. Hunter became the first five-star recruit evah to sign with an HBCU. I promise y’all this: Private equity, NCAA and PWIs are going to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Furthermore, look for them to ramp up their presence in our communities as they seek to recruit our children at the junior high and high school levels.
I doubt very seriously these PWIs are teaching our athletes financial management, i.e., taxes owed on these NIL deals, let alone Black history.
I, for one, shall nevah be convinced these entities care about the education of our Black athletes. Because they don’t have a conscience in regard to our children, all this money is good money and our children will become nothing more than commodities … again!
Mack is former president of the Seattle King County NAACP and former executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers.
