College Basketball Jerseys

March Madness excites me like no other month in the sports year. As you can tell, I'm already thinking about it. The topic here however, is the notion of buying college basketball jerseys that bear the players' names. More accurately, you simply can't. That's because the players are college students, hence amateur players, and shouldn't be used to make money for whatever organization, be it the college or the NCAA. That's quite ok with me. However, some of the schools, Kansas *ahem*, allow folks to buy personalized jerseys, choosing the number and the name of anyone. So I might be smart enough to pick number 11 and the name Wall on the back, because my family name is Wall, or not. The point is, the schools can charge extra to customize this and still make money off of John Wall, even though he's not getting a single penny. So the school still can't mass produce those jerseys, big deal. I think it's horrible that players have to risk injury and give up a few years of their lives while schools create this loophole.

Back to the point of organizations not being allowed to make money off of students. I must point out the hypocrisy of the NCAA being a virtual monopoly, making tons of money from student athletes. Sure, they're a non-profit and they're even tax exempt. But they do get decide how to run their organization and what salaries to pay.

Anyways, I'll stop ranting about this other than to say go out and support your favorite teams this March. And if you're going to buy a jersey for the NCAA tournament, go get an official school jersey without the customization. Alright, good luck on your brackets!