The National Collegiate Athletic Association could soon be expanding its membership to include universities from Mexico. During the NCAA’s annual convention this past weekend, delegates from NCAA Division II institutions voted 253 to 45, with few abstentions, to begin allowing universities from Mexico to apply for membership in the NCAA Division II conference.
The vote follows a request from Centro de Ensenanza Tecnica y Superior University (also known as CETYS University), a private university that is located in Tijuana and Mexicali. The school has a history of lobbying the NCAA to accept Mexican institutions to compete in the NCAA conferences.
Despite the vote of approval, the President of CETYS University said he intends to wait a year to apply for official NCAA membership based on requirements, including an even gender distribution. According to University President Fernando Leon-Garcia, CETYS needs to make sure its array of athletic teams share an equitable gender balance.
Currently, CETYS fields teams in both men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball, men’s baseball, and women’s softball. However, only men have official teams for soccer and football and the university is currently working on developing a track & field team that would also only be offered to men.
This move is the latest in a long line of controversy that has continually plagued the NCAA, including recruiting violations, student-athlete grade inflation, arguments on whether or not athletes are being compensated properly, and the ongoing debate over the NCAA profiting at the expense of American taxpayers.
Historically, the NCAA has received large tax breaks at the expense of federal and state taxpayers. For example, college football bowl games often receive millions of dollars in state and local tax aid as an incentive to bring the events to a certain city. And from 2007 to 2009, the Sugar Bowl received over $5.4 million dollars from the federal government, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. All of this occurs despite the fact that these bowl games often produce tens of millions of dollars in profits for the NCAA universities and their conferences.
While NCAA tax breaks and subsidies remain a current topic of hot debate, adding Mexican universities with the potential to benefit from these same tax subsidies will surely be met with resistance from many American taxpayers.
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
