the BigAmateurism monologues

About the BigAmateurism monologues

A series of events over the last 18 months—some unforeseeable—have created a perfect storm that will change college sports forever. The NCAA's bait and switch campaign in Congress on name, image, and likeness, a historic case in the US Supreme Court, COVID, race-based social unrest, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (and the ascent of Amy Coney Barrett,) the Georgia special elections, and more have conspired to make this era perhaps the most consequential in the history of American sports. In this perfect storm, nothing is as it appears to the public. The NCAA and powerful conferences have marshaled some of the most powerful corporate, legal, public relations, media, and political forces in the world to wage war against a small group of elite revenue-producing athletes—overwhelmingly African American—who threaten to disrupt the NCAA cartel in the 15 billion-dollar-a-year college sports industry. The NCAA is one bill in Congress and one Supreme Court decision away from achieving the Iron Throne of college sports regulation. If that happens, the athletes whose talents underwrite the entire industry will have no recourse in federal courts to challenge the NCAA's amateurism-based compensation limits and state legislatures will be powerless to pass laws that protect athletes' basic economic liberties. Join former Duke basketball player, attorney, academician, and athletes' rights advocate Richard Ford as he dissects the NCAA's war against revenue-producing athletes and the institutions, interests, decision-makers, and motives behind it.

Publisher

Richard Ford

Category

education · society & culture · sports

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 Mar 2021

Latest episode

22 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

137 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Dec 2025

   The NC State Decision: Is the IARP Auditioning for Power 5 Business?

   On December 20th, the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) hearing panel issued its decision in the NC State infractions and enforcement (I&E) case. The I&E case arose from the 2018 criminal prosecutions in the Southern District of New York. The federal government charged financial advisors, athlete agents, and assistant basketball coaches under wire fraud statutes for schemes to either (1) pay assistant coaches to steer star players to certain agents/advisors; or (2) pay athletes or their families to attend a particular Adidas-sponsored university. NC State—an Adidas-sponsored school— was implicated in the criminal cases by a cooperating witness with Adidas connections. The allegations against NC State center on a $40,000 payment from the shadowy cooperating witness allegedly earmarked for NC State basketball recruit Dennis Smith Jr.—intended to secure Smith Jr’s commitment to attend NC State. The IARP panel found former NC State assistant basketball coach Orlando Early guilty of “arranging” the $40,000.00 payment. Early did not cooperate in the investigation. No NC State interest involved in the alleged transaction(s) were prosecuted or called to testify at the criminal case. However, the NCAA I&E staff and IARP advocates/hearing panelists relied principally on testimony from the cooperating witness to make their case against NC State. They also relied on circumstantial evidence—a timeline of phone calls and text messages—and Early’s refusal to cooperate in the NCAA investigation as substantive proof of guilt. The hearing panel then imputed Early’s guilt to NC State. Thus, in effect, NC State was guilty of “arranging” a payment of $40,000 to a high school athlete. Despite the severity of the offense (by NCAA logic and values), NC State received "kiss on the cheek" penalties: (1) one year probation, (2) the loss of one scholarship for 2022-2023, (3) nominal recruiting restrictions, and (4) financial penalties of $5,000.00 and 0.05 percent of the NC State basketball budget. Former head coach Mark Gottfried received a one-year “show cause” order. Orlando Early received a six-year “show cause.” Sports commentators have been perplexed by nominal penalties in the Auburn (Committee on Infractions) and NC State (IARP) decisions. However, when viewed in the context of the realignment of NCAA regulatory authorities under the new constitution, both decisions make perfect sense. Indeed, with the Power 5 now in the driver’s seat on the future of the entire infractions and enforcement apparatus, the NCAA national office I&E staff and the IARP mini bureaucracy are under existential assault. The new constitution’s transfer of I&E authorities to the Divisions includes guiding principles at odds with the NCAA’s decades-long “my way or the highway” approach to I&E. The I&E national office staff and the IARP may be motivated less by compassion and fairness than self-preservation. In essence, both are now auditioning for the Power 5 to keep their jobs.

2. 

   21 Oct 2025

   The Federal NIL Police

   An element of the NCAA’s and Power 5’s quest for preemption is the claimed need for a national enforcement entity. In 2019 and through 2020, the NCAA argued that it—and it alone— should serve that role if Congress federalizes the NIL market. Now, with the NCAA’s diminishing relevance as a national regulator, NCAA and Power 5 lawyers, lobbyists, and advocates like Linda Livingstone call for a “truly independent” federal enforcement entity. This vague, appealing characterization is yet another NCAA/Power 5 smokescreen. This episode analyzes the legislative proposals Big 12 lobbyists are promoting in Congress behind closed doors and the structure of the “independent” entities responsible for regulation and enforcement in a federalized NIL marketplace.

3. 

   2 Oct 2025

   The NCAA’s War on Revenue-Producing Men’s Basketball Players

   The entire NCAA bureaucracy, notably its infractions and enforcement processes, is funded by the Division I men’s basketball tournament (March Madness). An elite core of black basketball players is the lifeblood of the tournament. Without these world-class athletes, March Madness would have little commercial value. The NCAA takes billions of dollars generated by these black athletes and diverts it to downstream stakeholder-beneficiaries who are overwhelmingly white and comparatively well-off. This episode analyzes the true value of these high-value men’s basketball players and highlights the unconscionable, regressive diversion of wealth upon which the entire college sports business model rests. These are the very athletes that are now in the crosshairs of the NCAA infractions and enforcement process.

Who has been a guest on the BigAmateurism monologues

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Andy Beshear
• Dick Devenzio
• Mark Emmert

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 40 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

67

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

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