The NCAA recently made moves to lock in rights for its “March Madness” trademark.

Quietly last October, the association paid $17.2 million to sports and entertainment marketer Intersport to stop using the term “March Madness,” which has been attached to the NCAA’s Division I men’s basketball tournament since the 1980s.

The settlement, spelled out in financial statements but unbeknown to most in the member schools and conferences, gives it sole ownership of a trademark that has been the subject of several legal disputes and challenges over the years. While large on its face, the eight-figure amount accounts for less than 2½% of the association’s $700 million-plus budget.

It’s another story about the business of college sports, coming at a time when we’re seeing scandal after scandal, mostly revolving around improper benefits like tattoos for memorabilia.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department is asking why there isn’t a playoff system in college football.

The entire issue of money and college athletics will be front and center for the foreseeable future.

The NFL lockout is back on.

The NFL, after a series of legal setbacks, got a breather Friday when a federal appeals court put the lift of the lockout on hold.

The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the league’s request for a temporary stay of the injunction issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, who had ordered an end to the 45-day lockout.

The 8th Circuit granted a short stay in order to have time to consider a longer one. The NFL is appealing Nelson’s decision and wants the right to keep the lockout in place while that appeal is being decided.

Jim Quinn, an attorney for the players, said in an email that the stay from the 8th Circuit was “routine and totally expected.”

This mess is on full display as the NFL is going through its annual draft.

The owners created this fiasco by pushing for the lockout, and then the NFLPA raised the stakes by bringing the dispute to court. Now anything can happen.