The Mark Cuban Model
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:09 pmQ: What do you think about college sports? You're a Big Ten alum, yes? Any plans to do something for Indiana?
A: People always ask me if I'm going to be building a new assembly hall for them, and the answer is: No chance. Of all the places you can put your money, it's not the most effective place. I'm a huge IU basketball fan, but I'm also a critic of the NCAA student-athlete hypocrisy. If I had my druthers, I'd find four colleges and create a conference that's sort of a Julliard for sports. I'd say, "Okay, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke and SMU: I'm going to give all your programs $100 million, plus $25 million a year to withdraw from the NCAA, and we're going to pay athletes to play for these schools. We're going to call it NBA 101; we're going to bring in the best coaches. We're going to emulate the best music schools across the world and apply it to what athletes want to do." It'd be just like now, how you can go to IU to be the best musician you can be, and if you want to work for the New York Philharmonic in the summer and get paid for it, you can.
Q: There's no way the NCAA would allow that.
A: That's the whole point. You'd have to take four schools that are willing to withdraw from the NCAA. There's too much money involved. You think CBS is going to let them?
From GQ magazine
A: People always ask me if I'm going to be building a new assembly hall for them, and the answer is: No chance. Of all the places you can put your money, it's not the most effective place. I'm a huge IU basketball fan, but I'm also a critic of the NCAA student-athlete hypocrisy. If I had my druthers, I'd find four colleges and create a conference that's sort of a Julliard for sports. I'd say, "Okay, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke and SMU: I'm going to give all your programs $100 million, plus $25 million a year to withdraw from the NCAA, and we're going to pay athletes to play for these schools. We're going to call it NBA 101; we're going to bring in the best coaches. We're going to emulate the best music schools across the world and apply it to what athletes want to do." It'd be just like now, how you can go to IU to be the best musician you can be, and if you want to work for the New York Philharmonic in the summer and get paid for it, you can.
Q: There's no way the NCAA would allow that.
A: That's the whole point. You'd have to take four schools that are willing to withdraw from the NCAA. There's too much money involved. You think CBS is going to let them?
From GQ magazine