Jon Stewart joined in on the chorus of critics tearing down the NCAA's model of amateurism on Thursday night's episode of "the Daily Show."
In the wake of the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) decision to consider Northwestern University's football team as employees, Stewart spent nearly eight minutes of his show ripping the NCAA for their opposition of unionization.
He started in the first segment by discussing UConn Huskies starting guard Shabazz Napier's statement on going to sleep hungry some nights because he could not afford food. Stewart then pointed to the $10.8 billion contract the NCAA signed with CBS and Turner Broadcasting that will expire in 2024. The contract is for exclusive rights to the NCAA Tournament.
"Some of the players integral to the NCAA Tournament do not have enough money to eat," said Stewart, who also mentioned the NCAA is a non-profit and would not pay taxes on such revenue. "But I guess that's the price you pay to be involved in a struggling startup charity tournament like March Madness."
Shifting to the NLRB's ruling, Stewart compared unions to the actual team itself, implying the student-athletes are already banded together to "work together towards a common goal."
Kain Colter, Northwestern's former quarterback and the face of the team's unionization movement, had previously stated there is nothing preventing players from acting as a union anyway. While in Washington D.C. for private meetings with lawmakers, he mentioned the Grambling State University football team. They refused to play in games to protest what they perceived to be a lack of attention paid to the team.
Stewart moved on to reference the ongoing academic scandal at the University of North Carolina. He also mentioned how several student-athletes do not stick around in college to earn a degree and how they usually spend as much as 60 hours a week in team-realted activities.
Stewart then commented on the Oklahoma athletes who ate too much pasta at a banquet and violated an NCAA rule against student-athlete compensation.
"Maybe if these athletes, who have just poured millions directly in the coffers of the University of Connecticut, are hungry, they can take advantage of the local businesses who are giving away everything from drinks to froyo to the craziest of breads to reward UConn's National Championships," Stewart said. "If of course that was in any way legal under NCAA rules governing the acceptance by athletes of anything with monetary or caloric value."
Before ending the segment with a video of basketball and football coaches verbally and physically berating their players set to "One Shining Moment," Stewart mentioned how some Division I coaches were compensated.
In 40 of the 50 U.S. states, the highest paid public employee is a head football coach.
