People who complain about politics in sports as something new tend not to notice that it’s always been that way because the politics usually have favored their point of view. The politics of sports, like politics in general, benefit the interests of powerful people and institutions. Team owners and college sports leaders almost always get what they ask for from political leaders.
That’s disheartening for people who believe politics, in sports and elsewhere, should protect the interests of the less powerful. But now there’s hope that the change in Washington leadership will lead to fundamental reform of the NCAA model that allows schools to deny athletes their basic economic rights.