Author’s Note: This article originally appeared in my weekly Top of Mind newsletter, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. Sign up to receive it directly in your inbox.

Since taking the helm of this fine site, I have published at least a dozen essays on college sports—likely closer to two dozen. Economist Richard Vedder, a longtime Minding the Campus contributor, has authored a significant share of that work.

Our essays on college athletics have consistently argued that, while sports need not conflict with education, they have been poorly governed. Financial incentives routinely eclipse educational priorities. Taxpayers and students subsidize programs marketed as public goods but actually operate as commercial enterprises. Nearly every athletic department loses money, yet, as Vedder has often noted, coaches command salaries that dwarf those of university presidents.

For my part, though I have not written on this point, I believe college sports have also functioned as an effective diversion, especially in red states, drawing attention away from the leftist ideological practices of colleges and universities. 

Fans across the country enthusiastically support athletic programs housed within institutions whose faculties, in many cases, openly disdain the very taxpayers who fund them. To me, it is remarkable that citizens are not only compelled to subsidize these institutions through taxation, but also, by choice, spend what remains of their money purchasing sports tickets from them. If even a portion of that support were withdrawn, it could become a powerful lever for reform.

The most pressing issue today, however, is college athletics’ deepening entanglement with legalized sports gambling. Colleges and universities have largely abandoned moral and regulatory oversight of the risks this poses, even advertising gambling to their own students. Until now, Minding the Campus had not published a single essay focused squarely on this issue. But I am trying to change that.

While I am not a sports expert, I have done my best to provide the necessary background on college sports betting in my latest essay, “A Dangerous Bet.” My hope is that it encourages readers to dig deeper. Too few publications approach this issue with the seriousness and honesty it demands, and Minding the Campus is the right forum for that conversation.

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