Posted by: John S Kiernan

Coming down with March Madness before the Big Dance may sound like an excuse to skip prom, but it actually describes our nationwide obsession with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This 68-team basketball bonanza has been known to crown a Cinderella or two, produce at least one shining moment a year, and turn millions of Americans into illegal gamblers. It’s that good.

It’s also a big business both on and off the court, making millionaires out of coaches, conference commissioners and NCAA executives but very few players. Tournament time takes a toll on fans’ wallets, too, and not just in terms of the millions we lose in bracket pools each year. The average single-game ticket costs about $477, for one thing. Roughly 3.5 million extra cases of beer are produced to keep up with increased demand. And there’s the potential for some workplace conflict, since distracted employees cost businesses about $4 billion per year.

In other words, there’s a lot more to this basketball tournament than just basketball. And since money plays at least as much of a role as love of the game, WalletHub analyzed March Madness from tip to title with a special emphasis on finance. You can check out all the interesting NCAA tournament factoids that we found in the infographic below. We also hosted a Q&A with a panel of leading sports business experts on topics ranging from college basketball’s economics to which team will cut down the nets in Phoenix. Enjoy the show!

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Ask the Experts: March Madness Musings

March Madness is one of the most entertaining guessing games on the calendar, but we wanted to add some more-educated insights to the prognostication mix. So we posed the following questions to a panel of leading sports business experts. You can check out their bios and responses below.

1. Who are your final four picks?
2. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four?
3. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes?
4. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today?
5. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling?

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• Richard M. Southall Associate Professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management, and Director of the College Sport Research Institute at University of South Carolina
• Tom H. Regan Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Sport and Entertainment Management in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management at University of South Carolina
• Daniel A. Nathan Chair and Professor in the Department of American Studies at Skidmore College
• Russ Crawford Associate Professor of History at Ohio Northern University
• David Schultz Professor in the Department of Political Science at Hamline University, and Editor of the Journal of Public Affairs Education
• John Siegfried Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science
• Brendan Dwyer Associate Professor and Director of Research & Distance Learning in the Center for Sport Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University
• Murry Nelson Professor Emeritus of Education and American Studies in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University
• Ryan L. Spalding Assistant Professor of Sports Management at Merrimack College
• Dennis C. Douds Assistant Professor of Sport Management, and Head Football Coach at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
• David Ridpath Associate Professor and Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Administration in the College of Business at Ohio University
• Kathryn Shea Assistant Professor of Sport Management, and Director of the Sport Management Program at Fisher College
• Elliott Gorn Joseph A. Gagliano Chair in American Urban History at Loyola University Chicago

Richard M. Southall Associate Professor in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management, and Director of the College Sport Research Institute at University of South Carolina Who are your final four picks?

1. UNC
2. Xavier
3. Indiana
4. Kansas

However, I could also easily put Michigan State, Oklahoma in that mix as well. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? There are several points that sometimes get overlooked in this discussion. 

1. The NCAA and its member universities disseminate a definition of amateurism that is fluid and amoeba-like. However, the NCAA Collegiate Model has been found to be in violation of the Sherman Act. In other words, it is a criminal conspiracy. The Collegiate Model forecloses college athletes from the free market that is big-time college sport. Everyone else involved in the enterprise (e.g., coaches, administrators, staff, NCAA/university corporate partners, NCAA corporate champions, television analysts, concession stand workers, etc.) have access to the market and can bargain for as much compensation as possible. The only individuals who do not have this right are athletes (See #3 below).
2. College athletes are already getting paid. While the NCAA Manual attempts to obfuscate this point, (See Bylaw 12.02.9 "Pay is the receipt of funds, awards or benefits not permitted by the governing legislation of the Association [emphasis added] for participation in athletics.”) college athletes are already  getting paid, if by pay you mean any of the commonly accepted definitions you would find in any dictionary. The new Cost of Attendance (COA) adjustment is real money and is clearly pay, but the NCAA continues (as is often the case – see “student-athlete” “Collegiate Model” “amateurism” “Graduation Success Rate - [GSR]” ) to rebrand the organization and various facets of college sport (e.g., pay, graduation, amateurism, “student-athlete” welfare, etc.). This rebranding is a logical response to institutional pressures (crises) that arise. When graduation rates were found to be abysmally low for certain college athletes, the NCAA invented a new graduation metric (GSR) that results in a score that is 18-25% higher than the federal graduation rate (FGR). This new metric is then branded as more accurate, etc. and widely disseminated in the media and used exclusively for athletes, so in the public’s mind, the situation looks better (It's Public Relations 101!).
3. Not all college athletes are the same. Thinking of college athletes as one homogenous group is a mistake. Some are profit athletes (athletes whose market value is greater than the grant-in-aid [GIA] compensation they receive. These athletes generate a “profit” for university athletic departments. Other athletes are loss athletes (whose market value is less than their GIA. These athletes cost the athletic department a great deal of money and are, in fact, the recipients of the excess revenue that profit athletes generate for the athletic department. Profit athletes are employees. Loss athletes are in many fundamental ways, consumers. Do I think employees should be paid a market wage and have access to collective bargaining? Yes. Do I think all college athletes should be “entitled” to arbitrarily paid? No. The problem with how the question is often framed, is that all athletes are lumped together.

What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? I think the biggest issue facing the NCAA is what I have articulated above. Before 2002, very few – if any – antitrust lawyers had paid that much attention to the Collegiate Model. Myles Brand, the late president of the NCAA, and his staff (specifically Wally Renfro: former NCAA vice President and Senior Policy Advisor) knew they needed to rebrand college sport. This rebranding is detailed in the Cheering on the Collegiate Model: Creating, Disseminating, and Imbedding the NCAA’s Redefinition of Amateurism article I referenced above. For several years, I (and other scholars) have been able to share our research on the NCAA with many attorneys who are now representing current and former profit-athletes in litigation targeting the NCAA’s (and member universities’) criminal conspiracy. In my opinion, the biggest threat facing the NCAA are federal and state laws. Tom H. Regan Associate Professor and Graduate Director of Sport and Entertainment Management in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management at University of South Carolina Who are your final four picks?

• Kansas
• Virginia
• Kentucky
• Gonzaga

How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities?

• Each Host city has a positive economic benefit. The travel of the visiting teams and fans producing new out-of-town spending for the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). New dollars from out of town fans equals economic benefit.
• The bid to attain the regional or Sweet 16 or finals often utilizes economic development money from accommodation taxes. The goal is to increase Accommodation (or shall we say – Indirect Business Taxes) sales, use, excise and accommodations taxes.

What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? It’s a big difference and is directly related to regional travel compared to national/international travel to Final Four Host City. The early rounds are regional - trend is to keep high seeds in the region that will draw fans. Don’t send a Western team east if not necessary. Final Four is one of the largest sport and media attractions in American Sport. Host City is the focus of a 100 million sport fans. Good, bad or indifferent – the focus will be on the Host City. Time to showcase the assets that will attract the viewer to visit one day. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? They don’t need to be paid. Consider the opportunity cost of paying the players. Another consideration is that the student (not student/athlete) is going to have school debt while the student/athlete is going to be debt free. I’ve done this with every class for the last 8 semesters: student/athletes debt free – students have school debt. Now consider this: $30,000 in debt/ 10 years to pay it off. The opportunity cost for the athlete is not just 4 years – it is 14 years over the normal college student. College student can’t buy a house – student/athlete with same education is debt free. I can quantify that if you want. It will be in the range of $80,000 benefit to student/athlete. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Super conferences and the money distribution to the non-BCS schools. The real issue is sports should not classify schools – the institution should regulate how they want the athletic department to function. What amazes me is that no one is going to tell the Business School what curriculum to pursue – but we allow the NCAA to dictate many rules to institutions of higher education. Stanford and Notre Dame are not like Mississippi State or West Virginia. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Who cares what individual people want to do with their money? Let them. It’s no different than spending money on eSports. Daniel A. Nathan Chair and Professor in the Department of American Studies at Skidmore College Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? At this late date, when big-time college sports (that is, FBS football and DI men's basketball) generate billions of dollars annually — for their schools, conferences, and the NCAA, for TV networks and corporate sponsors — it seems odd to cling to an archaic notion of amateurism in which "student-athletes" do not receive some direct financial compensation for their labor. So, yes, athletes in revenue-generating sports should be paid something for their work — which we euphemistically call play. The question is: what would be fair? What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Resolving the O'Bannon v. NCAA class action lawsuit, which is still being litigated, on appeal. Ending the hypocrisy of advocating and enforcing amateurism for students while commercializing intercollegiate athletics as intensely as possible. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Clearly. Is wagering taking place? Is money changing hands? Yes, it is. The question should be: is sports gambling — face-to-face, around the water cooler, in Vegas, online — a problem? A legal problem? An ethical problem? Does it undermine the integrity of athletic contests? It has in the past. Russ Crawford Associate Professor of History at Ohio Northern University Who are your final four picks? One can never go wrong by choosing Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and what the heck, Nebraska (Go Huskers!). Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? I think this would be a disaster. Athletes are already paid - tuition, stipends, books, etc. This amounts to more than $30,000 per year at many schools. This would likely kill athletic programs at many universities, or force them to drop to DIII. It would be nirvana for lawyers, since once any school started paying athletes, there would be a multitude of lawsuits - if football and men's basketball started paying players, there would be immediate Title IX lawsuits to ensure that women athletes were paid as well. It wouldn't be long before athletes unionized, and then the specter of a strike during March Madness, or the football championship would hang over the sporting world. Paying athletes would probably accomplish what reformers, starting with the Carnegie Report (1929) have dreamed of - the de-emphasis of college athletics. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Obviously, paying athletes and the possibility of their unionization. Player safety, which in sports such as football, can never be fully realized, is also going to be a serious problem. Their challenge will be to balance needs for safety with the need to keep games interesting. We love our violence! Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? They are gambling, but whether they are games of chance is debatable. The real question is should they be regulated by state governments? I don't see any problem with individual state governments regulating them however they see fit. Some states will shut down such sites, and some will not. I don't think they should shut down the sites, however. If people want to play on those sites, why not let them? I imagine the real issue is that states hate all that money flowing around without a chance for them to dip their beak. David Schultz Professor in the Department of Political Science at Hamline University, and Editor of the Journal of Public Affairs Education Who are your final four picks? Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina and Oregon. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? It is difficult to assess the actual impact of host cities for both early rounds and final four cities. One needs to know what the additional or new economic activity that occurs in the city is directly attributed to the basketball event. I suspect that for the early rounds, the impact is marginal and even for the final four, it is less than many would anticipate. However, the real impact is in providing important entertainment and advertising for a city and less in terms of short term economic gains. Overall, hosting the final four is good for civic pride and advertising a city, and if it does generate short term economic gains, that is a bonus. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? I believe that we should pay college athletes, especially football and basketball in D I. These individuals often generate millions of dollars for schools and billions overall, through the media. They are given little in terms of scholarships by comparison, often sacrifice their education for sports, and in many ways are exploited and used for their talents and simply ignored if injured or once their eligibility is up. D I college sports is practically a free farm club for the pros and the free players’ unpaid skills subsidize college sports. Someday we shall view unpaid college athletics as unfair as the reserve clause was seen in professional baseball. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? The growing inequity between a few elite sports programs or schools and the rest of the pack. In addition, in some cases, D I sports has overtaken education as the number one priority at schools. Finally the NCAA really has lost its control over regulating college sports in terms of ensuring that it is emphasizing academics over athletics and in terms of making sure that student athletes are not taken advantage of. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? To the extent that fantasy sports has become a game of chance and that the reports of some sites are rigged, yes it ought to be regulated and considered a form of gambling. That does not mean it should necessarily be banned, but regulated to prevent corruption and fraud. John Siegfried Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science Who are your final four picks? Hoping for nobody ranked in top 25 to make it. This would increase humility in the country, and we sure need more humility. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? Impact is positive but small. About one tenth of what local economic development officers claim. This is because there is some substitution (I leave town when the SEC Tournament is coming to avoid people who can't control their emotions -- they are dangerous); when people spend money on tournament games, they spend less on other things. Maybe the cities hosting the games gain at the expense of other cities, but why should we favor cities who are hosting the games? Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? See the op-ed by Allen Sanderson and me, titled "Enough madness: Just pay college athletes." What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Conspiracy in restraint of trade, which is a criminal violation of the Sherman Act. Why should universities be allowed to agree to restrict wages of athletes, while fast food CEO's would go to prison if they did the same thing? Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Yes. But even better would be to ban it so people could get back to work and stop wasting their time. Brendan Dwyer Associate Professor and Director of Research & Distance Learning in the Center for Sport Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University Who are your final four picks? Kansas, Michigan State, UVA and West Virginia. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? Economic impact is often a hard concept to generalize because it is so unique to the area. For instance, what is the opportunity cost of not having the NCAA tournament? What would they be hosting instead of it? However, events like the NCAA tournament are driven by out of town visitors. Out of town money stimulates true economic impact. So, sites that benefit from having large fan bases that historically travel well (i.e., Kansas, North Carolina, Indiana) will have the strongest economic impact. Once again, not all sites are equal. Some cities and venues lend themselves to more visitors (New Orleans, Atlanta, San Antonio, Indianapolis) because of hotel occupancy. Also, visitors look at it as a vacation, so a place like Tampa will be more attended than Cleveland just because the time of year. Also, the later round venues are generally larger and more is at stake, so there’s more potential for visitors. However, perennial top teams like Duke, Kansas, Michigan State (the same ones with large fan bases) will have fans that will gamble that their team will make it to the Sweet 16, so they will skip the first site. The Final Four is an animal all itself. It is likely bulletproof these days because of the importance and media coverage. First, athletic departments spend a lot of money because they know they will get it back in NCAA reimbursement. Second, even if a smaller school makes it (i.e., VCU), it is viewed as a once in a lifetime opportunity, so a lot of alumni and boosters will travel. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? The same issue they have been facing since the 1920s. A sport first, and sometimes sport only, mentality. Division I Athletic departments have completely lost sight of the original purpose of college athletics. At this point, academics are an afterthought or more likely something an athlete has to do to stay eligible. Without the intrinsic motive within student-athletes to obtain an education, not a degree, but an education, it is very difficult to ensure eligibility. Therefore, process and structures are put in place to keep them eligible at all costs. Until this changes, commercialization, academic fraud, and clustering will run rampant. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Right now, I would say "no" because there is no empirical evidence to show that the skill to luck ratio is equal to gambling. Also, the research does suggest that it is a pro-social activity, not a socially-isolating activity as other forms of gambling. However, I strongly believe it should be regulated, and the duty should be on FanDuel and Draft Kings to ensure age limits are met and that behavior is not becoming destructive. Also, they should not be able to advertise the way they have been. They are selling the lottery, not a skill based, socially-interactive activity. Murry Nelson Professor Emeritus of Education and American Studies in the College of Education at Pennsylvania State University Who are your final four picks? Kansas, Michigan State, Villanova and Xavier. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? I have not attended a Final Four, but have gone to first, second and regional final games. Economically, the numbers drawn certainly have an impact on hotels, bars and restaurants. It is hard to imagine folks having a lot of shopping time beyond that, considering the tight NCAA schedules daily and nightly. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? I can accept that a stipend put into a graduation fund might be acceptable. In order to keep it academic, I would attach the payment to graduation rate in some manner and have the amount increased or decreased, proportionally for graduation or non-graduation. This would be in keeping with the NCAA’s concern for the future welfare of athletes. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today?

• Injury protection, possible life-time health care for injured athletes, to augment coverage that they may or may not have from future employers or from the Affordable Care Act.
• Getting students graduated within five years of losing (or leaving) their eligibility.
• The "equitable" distribution of media coverage money.
• Maintaining comparable academic standards for eligibility across conferences and nationally. Recruitment scrutiny.

Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Indeed and since many states around allow it, it might be something to be done, i.e., legalizing gambling, in all states. These “victimless crimes” are actions that may aid an open economy and they only hurt the bettor. (Of course, one can argue that the bettor’s family is deprived of needed funds, but opening gambling may make that impact lesser because of the transparency.) Ryan L. Spalding Assistant Professor of Sports Management at Merrimack College Who are your final four picks? The final four is particularly tough this year, as we haven't seen any truly dominant teams like we have in years past. I think you could make an argument for 15-20 teams that would have a reasonable chance to make the Final Four this year. That said, when in doubt, it's best to pick teams that have shown a consistent ability to make it to the Final Four in the past. So without knowing what the bracket looks like, I would choose Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina, and Duke/Kentucky (whichever gets a better draw in the tournament). Although I was really tempted to make a pure Homer pick and choose my alma mater Purdue. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? Academic studies have regularly shown that hosting major sporting events like the Super Bowl or the NCAA tournament deliver zero or actually net negative economic impact on the host cities. Although the absolute economic activity during these events is undeniably positive, most of this observed increase in spending is just redirected money that would otherwise be spent at a different entertainment option within the community (e.g., a family choosing to attend the Final Four instead of going to the movies). This is known as the substitution effect, whereby people have a finite entertainment budget and they are merely choosing among various options how to allocate their spending. In order to generate a meaningful impact, these events would have to generate entirely new spending (unlikely) or draw spending from guests outside of the host community. For that reason, it becomes important which teams end up playing in the games that a city hosts. If a city ends up hosting a team that has large drawing power (e.g., Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, etc.) then the potential for pulling in spending from out of state guests goes up dramatically. However, even this spending is likely to be overstated since the majority of it ends up with the NCAA or the member institutions and does not stay in the community (unlike other entertainment spending at locally owned institutions). In addition, most considerations of the potential economic impact of hosting these events only looks at the potential revenue and does not adequately consider the costs to the community of hosting the events, such as increased traffic, crowding-out, re-directing government services and personnel to the events, etc. When all of these factors are considered, there is generally little net economic impact of hosting either early or late round games. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? First, I think it is important to note that the issue of paying college athletes really only boils down to two particular sports at the Division I level: football and men's basketball. The NCAA is responsible for regulating numerous sports across three divisions and it is financially impractical to pay all college athletes across all divisions (Division III athletes don't even receive scholarships). However, it is noteworthy that certain Division I football and men's basketball teams are wildly profitable and are able to pay coaches upwards of $10 million a season while the athletes themselves don't get any additional pay outside of their scholarships. Without getting into all of the details of this contentious issue, I will say that a potentially realistic compromise would be to allow athletes control of the marketing rights to their name and brand, so that true star players (those most responsible for generating huge profits for universities) could earn additional money through merchandise sales and licensing deals, while not creating an infeasible situation where all athletes in all sports and at all levels would need to be paid, regardless of their revenue generating potential for the university. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? I think the NCAA will have to make a decision about the issue of paying college athletes (in men's basketball and football) in the very near future. With the recent attempt by the Northwestern football players to form a union, it seems as though these players (along with the media) are realizing and speaking out about the financial inequities of the system whereby they earn essentially nothing for creating the product that fans are paying to consume, but coaches are earning million dollar salaries that are often the highest public employee salaries in the state. Whether this means coming up with some sort of compromise system like I noted above, or if it means that the Power 5 schools break away from the NCAA and form their own semi-professional organization, that remains to be seen. But clearly, the current system doesn't work for the extremely profitable state of division I men's college basketball and football today. Once this issue is addressed one way or another, it would likely reduce or eliminate all of the other major issues (e.g., recruiting violations and scandals) facing the NCAA today which all seem to stem from this root problem. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? This is an interesting question as I don't think anyone can really argue against the fact that daily fantasy sports combine elements of skill and chance (the exact proportion, of course, is up for debate). If the government wants to outlaw any and all activities that involve chance, then certainly daily fantasy sports should be illegal. However, I always find it fascinating that the governments themselves create and run the purest form of gambling there is: lotteries. In addition, investing in the stock market involves luck and that is never looked at in the light of illegal gambling. Perhaps the closest comparison there is to daily fantasy sports is poker, and that was banned by the government relatively recently. With that as a precedent, I believe daily fantasy sports will also be deemed to be illegal gambling in the near future, although if you wanted my personal opinion I think daily fantasy sports and poker should both be categorized more as games of skill than as chance. The best argument for that in both cases is that the majority of winnings end up in the hands of the same players over time, suggesting that skill is a more important factor in long term winning than luck. Dennis C. Douds Assistant Professor of Sport Management, and Head Football Coach at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? It is a major economic impact for the host cities. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? I am in between on this one. I think the scholarship student athletes should get some help for basic needs, but they are receiving their education. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Too much paper work and rules and regulations in Division II and Division III. Those Divisions do not have the personnel to handle all the required work and every year there seems to be more paper work. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Yes. David Ridpath Associate Professor and Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Administration in the College of Business at Ohio University Who are your final four picks? A very tough question, because seeding has not been done yet but I am going to say Villanova, Oklahoma, UNC and Kansas. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? I think there is tremendous economic impact because it almost always involves outside money coming in, as many big events do. The early round games could conceivably be better because of more teams, more fans, which translates into more room nights, etc. I would have to see data, but I imagine the final four does better overall because of size of stadium and significance of event, but having an early round or Sweet 16 site is a huge get for a community. I was part of a few bid processes and it is worth it, in my view, as opposed to other sports events that don’t have the same bang. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? This is very simple - while I love the notion of actual college students playing college sports, we have to acknowledge what the NCAA is and not what we hope it to be. As long as we are controlling their lives, putting academics and integrity on the back burner, not delivering on the educational promise, and spending billions on coaches and unneeded facilities and overhead - then we have to pay the athletes market value. We can bring the system to an educational model but we simply do not care and just want to watch the games whether the players are paid or not. If we keep doing what we are doing, it is a certainty to happen. At the very least we should allow the athletes to capitalize on their marketing utility because they may never be as marketable as they are as a college athlete and it is criminal that others are making money off their labor. The scholarship is not sufficient, especially when we absolutely show every day that education is not important. The student athlete ideal is a fraud and myth. So if we don’t change — we must pay. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? Certainly the pay for play issue and the accompanying legal cases (Jenkins and O’Bannon); the athletes rights movement, potential government intervention, faculty uprising, overall costs, academic integrity, enforcement, governance… i could go on and on. The entire model is broken, in my view. We have a clear choice - do we want academic based sports or do we want the quasi professional model we have now. Either way, we won’t care — we will still watch. What we cannot do is dip our toes in both sides of the river and call it something it is not. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? In my view, no. I still think it is a game of skill rather than a complete game of chance. I do see the concern with it, but I think it is overblown. Kathryn Shea Assistant Professor of Sport Management, and Director of the Sport Management Program at Fisher College Who are your final four picks? Indiana and Wisconsin (if they make the tournament). I was a student-athlete at Wisconsin and I graduated with my Ph.D. from IU. Once my teams lose, I do not care about any other teams winning. How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? The economic impact of the NCAA tournament on a host city is the subject of much debate. Predicting the economic impact of a future event is an inexact science and any figure that is predicted is a guess. When considering the amount of leakage and displacement, the economic impact figure is usually overestimated. To explain, the money that is directly spent in a city can leave the city as quickly as it arrives. When people spend money at a national hotel chain, it leaks out of the city and goes to corporate headquarters. Also, the event displaces the spending that would normally occur, without the event. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? Individuals should be paid for the fruits of their labor. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? There are many issues facing the NCAA today. I believe that the issues center around the institutional definition of the NCAA as a nonprofit organization dedicated to amateur sport and education. For instance, when it comes to the issue of paying college athletes, amateur athletics only exists at the lowest tier of the organizational hierarchy. Who works at this level? College athletes. Every other tier of the organization's hierarchy is professionalized, so everyone else working in college athletics is paid. College athletics is a fully professionalized and commercialized venture. However, it maintains nonprofit status by being dedicated to amateur sports and education. This contradiction leads to other major issues. Beyond political and organizational issues, the NCAA needs to prioritize the health and safety of athletes over all other priorities, including winning. Deescalating competition in college sports may be necessary to do this. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? Based on every definition of gambling I have read, yes. However, there might be some room for interpretation, if we consider NCAA sports 'amateur'. Elliott Gorn Joseph A. Gagliano Chair in American Urban History at Loyola University Chicago How do you characterize the NCAA tournament’s economic impact on its host cities? What’s the difference between early-round games and the Final Four? Generally a corrupt bargain; local elites have one more playground, the public treasury is raided and fans watch the circus on TV then pay for it in new taxes. Where do you stand on the issue of paying college athletes? They work, they should be paid. They should also be guaranteed health insurance for acute and chronic injuries. What are the biggest issues facing the NCAA today? The NCAA is an incestuous, corrupt, disgusting bunch of jock-sniffing elitists. Should daily fantasy sports be considered gambling? It is gambling; why call it anything else?

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