The NCAA: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters cite it as a sharp, accessible primer on the NCAA's amateurism model and athlete compensation, including for readers outside the US.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

LastWeekTonight

Topic

ncaa athlete compensation

Format

commentary

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

3

HN mentions in dataset

3

Recommendation years in dataset

2015–2019

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• In case you're lacking context (not all readers here are US basketball fans) - John Oliver has an excellent take on NCAA salaries issue [VIDEO]

• It an expense, not necessarily a cost. Their property values just rose for example. Over time the equipment ages which leads to breaking, and replacement because it's not state of the art anymore. If you expect it to last 20 years, then you can write …

• The "league" has billion dollar revenue, multi million dollar coaching salaries, enormous capital expenditures, and more. They are not "break even." If in fact you believe that student athletes are not exploited to an unconscionable degree, here is just a little educational material to get …