Uh-oh: The NCAA Is Getting the 'Frontline' Treatment

Screen Grab/PBS
Ray Gustini 1,120 Views Mar 29, 2011

It's rarely good news when a Frontline camera crew shows up at your office. It's the best news magazine on television (a fact anyone who watched the show's March 1 report on the Egyptian uprising can attest to) and have a special fixation on large, secretive organizations that turn huge profits and offer little in return. In this respect, it's amazing it took the show 28 years to get around to the NCAA and the question of whether to pay student athletes.

That's the subject of tonight's lead story, tracing how the March Madness became big business. Based on this clip of correspondent Lowell Bergman (loudly played by Al Pacino in The Insider) grilling NCAA president Mark Emmert on why players shouldn't even expect a cut of the tournament's new $10.8 billion TV deal (to say nothing of the $100 million next weekend's Final Four is expected to generate for the city of Houston), the segment, airing at 9 tonight on PBS, looks like required viewing.

 




Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.



 

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgustini at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Sources

Topics: , ,
Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App