While SFC reported yesterday that NCAA Basketball was willing to feed the fan’s desire for a playoff – even contemplating expansion of the tournament – let there be no confusion as to the motivation of the nonprofit organization with tax-exempt status and anti-trust immunity. 

Money. Plain and simple.

Yesterday’s article provided a framework for the NCAA to flush the BCS in favor of a successful playoff system just as the Final Four has flourished in basketball and tournaments exist in every other sport in collegiate athletics.

The fact remains the same about expansion. It’s about the money.

To further develop this theory which is taken for granted, SFC board member Dave Zirin elaborates on a topic which SFC has chimed in on previously. The topic is a class-action lawsuit filed against the NCAA and EA Sports by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon.

According to Zirin’s article, ”Right now, the NCAA can license the images, uniforms and even the computer likenesses of anyone who ever played under its umbrella. So O’Bannon and his teammates can be featured in, say, a video game that makes millions – without getting a cut. It’s a business that generates $4 billion annually.”

It’s just another example of the NCAA’s madness for cash. And no fan, former player, or school board will get in its way as it grabs for every last penny.

The following piece was submitted by SFC member and, as you will soon read, legitimately disgruntled sports fan, Michael Betsch:

I grew up watching Villanova basketball with my father, a fellow Wildcat, and cheering on our team through the best and worst of times. My childhood heroes were guys like John Pinone and Ed Pinckney, and now, it is such a wonderful feeling knowing that my son will share the same fond memories and “want to be like” Scottie Reynolds or Taylor King and many more future Wildcat role model athletes.

My decision to attend Villanova University in 1993 was predominantly based on the fact that I would be able to watch the Wildcats from the best seats in the Pavilion, just to give you an idea of how much I bleed blue and white. Adding fire to my passion, my father was a Villanova cheerleader and Wildcat mascot who energized the crowds as a student, so you can imagine how animated our home was on game days during my youth.

No longer a student with easy access to the best seats in the Pavilion, it is upsetting that in order for my family to attend games on campus, we must rely on online ticket resellers, or “legal” scalpers, for seats, and the fact that our team is coming-off a Final Four appearance in 2009 and looking to win the NCAA title in 2010, it does not make tickets any easier to find or affordable.

The face value for upper level Villanova basketball tickets at the Pavilion are $20 apiece. One need only to search for “Villanova Basketball” on StubHub to find that these same seats are selling upwards of $80 each, and the service and shipping charges on StubHub make the total price for a family of four about $450.

Long the tradition of Villanova, season tickets to the Pavilion games are awarded to those who have endured waiting many years on a long waiting list. Per a recent discussion with a University Alumni Office representative, not all of those in receipt of season tickets are alumni.

Many Pavilion ticketholders, as I learned to my dismay, are locals with no ties to the University except, possibly, sharing the same zip code. These locals can smell a big payday from the less than a mile away they live from campus, and ticket resellers such as StubHub are making it quick and easy for them to turn a profit game after game, season after season.

I am not familiar with how other college basketball programs sell their season tickets or what sort of rules they incorporate in their season ticket holder agreements and contracts, but I think any program facing this same troubling scenario must, first and foremost, place these much sought after and invaluable tickets in the hands of loyal alumni. If there are any remaining ticket packages, I have no objection to selling-out the house by selling them to locals.

Next, a rule must be created that makes it clear to alumni in receipt of home court, on-campus season tickets that they are prohibited from re-selling them on ticket reseller Web sites. These loyal alumni in receipt of season tickets presumably share a special bond with their fellow alums, so they should have no objection to making their unusable tickets available to fellow alums at face value on a special Web site established by the Alumni Association or Athletic Department that could put their seats up for auction (with proceeds benefitting the school or Athletic Department, by choice or designation), for sale on a first come first served basis, or in a ticket lottery that is purely based on luck of the draw (and, once you’ve “won” a set of game tickets in a given season, you would not be entered in any future lotteries to allow for other alumni to attend a game that same season, as well). The buyer would, of course, pay for shipping (cost for seller to send tickets to the college and cost for the college to mail tickets to buyer), but that would be the only additional expense incurred.

Basically, I am proposing an easy and sensible solution that suggests we, as loyal alumni and fans, try to keep these much sought after seats in the “family” so fellow alumni can return “home” and relive all of the memories of their most amazing years spent cheering on their team on their beloved campus and creating new memories for and with their future Wildcats, as is the case in my family.

Michael L. Betsch is an avid basketball fan by night and weekend, and a journalist by day who has produced editorial content in the D.C. public policy arena since 2001. He has been cited by multiple network, radio and publication media outlets, including FOX News Channel, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Times.