College sports remain in flux with multiple court cases threaten the governing principle amateurism swept the nation. The research informing this movement assumes capitalism drives intercollegiate athletics (Clotfelter, 2011; Smith, 2011; Sperber, 2000). Yet framing college sports' problems as capitalist leads to a narrow set of solutions like paying athletes or eliminating sports (Bowen, 2014; Wilbon, 2011). To better understand current student-athlete educational issues, I employ an intersectional framework (Crenshaw 1991) to examine intercollegiate athletics' origins and reveal why materialistic explanations alone are inadequate. Instead, I illuminate the raced/gendered nature of college sports and consider their connections to capitalism. Finally, I assess Title IX's limitations as a model for why future change must address the multiple forms of disenfranchisement simultaneously.