To those of us with a conscience, not ALL money is GOOD money. For example, the money made from selling dope would be considered BAD money for many of us. Obviously, there are those who see drug money as GOOD money.

One’s conscience determines how one looks at the money. Many of us have thought about how much money Primarily White

Institutions, PWI, have made on the backs of Black athletes. Furthermore, we’ve seen time and time again how coaches would recruit our children and then abandon them for a better coaching job.

Fed up with the totality of colleges, on July 1, 2021, the NCAA introduced the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy. Oh, this wasn’t done in the name of fairness, lawsuits helped bring about this change.

In addition to NIL, players had the Transfer Portal which started Oct.15, 2018. These two policy changes gave a sense of value to the Black athletes, which unapologetically is my focus here.

In 2024, Shedeur Sanders’ NIL deal was valued at $5.1 million. Heisman winner and teammate Travis Hunter’s NIL deal was valued at $3.1 million.

Just when it looked like things were coming into balance between the NCAA, PWIs and Black athletes, the aforementioned decided they needed MORE money.

The multibillion dollar TV deals, game tickets, parking, concessions, paraphernalia, etc. ain’t enough! The conscienceless NCAA and PWIs are positioning themselves for MORE.

How?

They are now upping their Pimp-game by courting private equity and venture capital investors. Simply put, these investors are gonna OWN a piece of these PWIs and make even MORE money!

Pick a school … University of Georgia, Alabama, UCLA, USC, name one, and private equity firms wanna own a piece of them. Yes, college football is following in the footsteps of the NFL, Major League Baseball & Major League Soccer by allowing private equity firms to OWN a limited stake in their teams.

In case you ain’t considered this: Travis Hunter was the No. 1 high school football player in America, and on December 15, 2021, he signed with a HBCU, Jackson State University. Hunter became the first five star recruit evah to sign with a HBCU. I promise y’all this: Private equity, NCAA and PWIs are gonna make sure that don’t happen again.

Furthermore, look for them to ramp up their presence in our communities as they seek to recruit our children at the jr. high and high school levels.

I doubt very seriously these PWIs are teaching our athletes financial management, i.e., taxes owed on these NIL deals, let alone Black history.

I for one shall nevah be convinced these entities care about the education of our Black athletes. Because they don’t have a conscience in regards to our children, ALL this money is

Good money and our children will become nothing more than commodities … again!

The writer is the former president of the Seattle King County NAACP and former executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers.