But it doesn’t seem they are going after individual players. They are going after programs. That’s why this makes no sense. I don’t think the federal government should be enforcing NCAA rules. Especially since those rules are dumb.
Well, many of the big conference schools are public institutions, so there's the whole lying / integrity / honesty to tax payers. There's also the schools that don't cheat that want a fair playing field. Again, if you have honest state schools, then there's harm to their supporters by having others compete in violation of the rules and the supervising entity (the NCAA) deliberately winking. Tax issues, publicly traded companies not disclosing where the money is going, violation of lender covenants for audited entities, etc... on the financial side, fraud, fiduciary duties, ... you could go on and on about the laws potentially violated. Also, the military academies are NCAA members, so if the NCAA is systematically not enforcing its rules against the glamour programs, then perhaps there's harm to the academies.
