Why Should TV Money to the NCAA be Tax exempt?

George Will has been on fire lately and today's offering really gave me food for thought.

I read it and am now wondering why the money paid to collegiate sports teams should be tax exempt.

How does the NCAA fulfill its proclaimed purpose of maintaining "the athlete as an integral part of the student body''? Only 55 percent of football players and 38 percent of basketball players at Division I-A schools graduate. The New York Times has reported that at Auburn, a perennial football power, many athletes have received "high grades from the same professor for sociology and criminology courses that required no attendance and little work.'' Eighteen members of the undefeated 2004 team took a combined 97 hours of those courses while at Auburn. Who believes such behavior is confined to Auburn?

In recent decades the NCAA has increased the number of games that football and men's basketball teams are allowed to play. Thomas wonders how these changes help athletes improve their academic performances? Perhaps these changes have pecuniary purposes?

The universities and the NCAA have professional type TV contracts yet the players are supposed to be amateurs. Maybe taxing TV revenues to colleges would help restore an equilibrium of fair play and return the emphasis of the college to education. Or maybe it would just be an admitance that some colleges are closer to pro sports franchises than being educational institutions. Why not have them taxed the same as a pro team then? Tax the TV money - it would be a step in the right direction.