College baseball, venture capital, and the long maybe
Big-time U.S. college sports are compared to venture-backed startups and other “power law” careers, where a tiny minority achieve outsized success while most participants bear high risks and limited rewards. Commenters debate whether football and men’s basketball revenues justify their outsized role in university life, how non-revenue sports and academics are subsidized or distorted by this system, and whether athletes should be treated more like paid workers than students. Several note that despite reforms like NIL, the pipeline from high school to college to pro sports remains a harsh, winner-take-most tournament with long odds and potentially serious health and educational downsides.
Revenue sports and how big they really are
- Multiple commenters dispute grouping football, basketball, hockey, and baseball together as “revenue sports” in college.
- Examples: one school’s baseball loses several million dollars on low revenue, while its middling football program clears >$20M profit.
- Men’s basketball at a few blue-blood programs generates tens of millions; outside that, revenue drops sharply.
- Hockey and baseball are highly regional. At some northern schools hockey outdraws basketball, but nationally both are niche; only a handful of schools can treat them as genuine revenue sports.
- Many programs (especially baseball) rely on rich donors and still run at a loss, with heavy travel costs due to climate and conference realignment.
Universities, endowments, and “hedge fund with a sports team”
- A quoted joke about hedge funds buying universities for their sports prompts debate whether universities already behave like PE/hedge funds.
- Some claim endowments primarily exist to feed administrators, coaches, and a financial complex; others counter that most endowment funds are legally restricted and can’t freely subsidize athletics.
- There is disagreement over whether “money is fungible” between academics and sports in practice.
- Data is cited showing most college sports programs are not profitable overall, even if particular teams are.
- One side argues profitability is the wrong metric (like the USPS or drama departments); college sports are part of education and community life.
- Others say big-time sports distort the educational mission and that calling athletes “students” in Division I revenue sports is often a fiction.
Should college and big-time sports be separated?
- Some see it as “inevitable” that major college sports become minor-league/club systems, given how tenuous the academic connection is for top programs.
- Pushback emphasizes identity and fundraising: big-time teams are core to school and community culture, drive alumni donations, and cross-subsidize non-revenue sports (including many women’s sports).
- Critics respond that niche sports and arts could be funded directly and that tying educational finance to sports success is perverse.
Health, exploitation, and life outcomes
- Parents of current athletes say the article captures the brutality of the college sports pipeline: huge money at the top, unforgiving odds, and limited fallback options.
- Commenters highlight CTE and brain injury risks, especially in football, but increasingly recognized in soccer (heading and head-on collisions). Youth rules now often restrict heading.
- Some argue NIL has reduced exploitation for top athletes; others say most athletes outside football/basketball still see little of the money.
- A recurring theme: the downside risk for athletes (single shot, injuries, weaker academics) is harsher than for failed startup founders, who usually retain transferable skills.
Power-law careers and VC analogy
- Several commenters extend the article’s VC/college-sports analogy to musicians, models, film directors, realtors, and niche defense manufacturers: low entry barriers, winner-take-most outcomes, and gatekeepers.
- One notes that for founders, a failed startup still leaves marketable experience, while failed athletes may end up with non-transferable skills and damaged bodies.
Reception and follow-ons
- Many found the piece unusually detailed and “profoundly wise,” especially parents and former NCAA athletes, who say it matches their experience.
- A few felt the writing style resembled LLM output, but others pointed to the author’s long history and clarified it was human-written.
- A companion podcast episode with a former NCAA champion swimmer is recommended for deeper discussion.