What I Will Do With My Billion Dollars

My lost set of keys buried under two feet of snow at the bottom of my driveway surfaced! Only four feet of snow remain before the true signs of spring will be seen, and the crocuses pop. In the meantime, March Madness is palpable, and my usual placemats at the breakfast table were mysteriously replaced with blank bracket sheets. “Fill yours out Mom, maybe one of us will win the billion dollars.”

I immediately googled NCAA billion dollars. Sounds like I have as much of a chance as anyone. My stiffest competition was not my family. There were software programs with more analytic expertise: Carmine, Watson, Deep Blue, and perhaps, even Siri. But why not try? It was worth a shot. I dropped everything and start filling in the blanks. After all, with a billion dollars, I could save the NCAA!

I read the records of each of the teams and watched carefully as President Obama completed his bracket on national TV. All I needed to do now was to complete mine and predict the perfect outcome. Having fervent confidence in my abilities and my strategies, I grabbed a pen and went to work.

While recent reports have emerged about the layoffs of college professors and entire programs abandoned due to insufficient funding, the NCAA basketball tournament miraculously has not suffered.  Division I colleges and universities make millions of dollars from television revenues, alumni and fan support, and by selling player likenesses for video games. Coaches are paid handsomely.  It is the players, and their families, who are the real losers.

Ten thousand basketball players play on nine hundred college teams. College graduation rates for these players are a dismal 47%. What do players do without college degrees or preparation for the expectations of the real world? Dreams of playing in the elite NBA are pipe dreams at best. Less than one percent of college players ever make it to one of the thirty NBA teams. The hopes of athletes and their families last a few brief years and then evaporate.

We forget those statistics as we get caught up in the excitement and madness of the moment through conversations around proverbial water coolers, distracted fellow employees, and money to be won or lost in office pools. There is a sense of sadness and guilt as our seasonal pleasure is at the expense of these young players. It is time to face and repair a broken system, and get our priorities straight!

Here is what I would do with the billion dollars. First I would create a college players’ association where players would have representation and protection. Athletes would be paid fair salaries to invest in their four-year educations. More likely, they would complete their college careers and be better prepared to enter the workforce or attain additional degrees. There would be reimbursement for their likenesses and jersey numbers in video games, and perhaps they could pick up some extra cash by signing autographs. Most of all, funds would be available for their parents to attend the tournament; players would see their proud faces and hear their cheers.

As it is said, here a billion, there a billion, soon we will be talking about real money. So part of my billion dollars would go to repair this broken system. The rest of the billion dollars would support legitimate college programs and devoted professors. I guess that will have to wait until next year though. This year’s billion dollars are already off the table, so I’ll grab those car keys and pick up a scratch ticket where the odds are more favorable.