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Earlier this week, there was a major (and real) wardrobe malfunction in a college basketball game. After only thirty seconds of game time, Zion Williamson’s Nike sneaker broke. As a result, he sprained his knee. Williamson is rising star in the world of college basketball, so this was a major event in the night’s sports show recaps. President Obama was even at the game, and you can clearly see him mouth the words, “His shoe broke” after Williamson’s Nike split clean in half.

Unsurprisingly, that is a serious level of bad publicity. The stock market reacted accordingly. Stocks fell nearly two-percent, equating to a little over a billion dollars in lost value.

But the accident lays bare more than just Williamson’s foot. It also exposes the structural problems of college basketball. Nike pumps millions of dollars into the Duke basketball program, ensuring that the athletes wear only Nikes. The athletes are thus forced to be living, breathing advertisements for Nike. College basketball is, in short, a huge business––a business that the athletes themselves cannot profit from. Thanks to a recent policy change, the NBA no longer recruits straight from high school, forcing players to engage in the NCAA profit machine for free, risking injury for no pay and then no professional prospects.

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