Pay the players.
From the here we go again department, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletes has come up with a series of proposals that will fix college basketball. But none of the remedies include paying the stars of the show, the players. The college basketball industry has a slight problem. The FBI is looking into its business practices and there have been arrests in the ongoing probe of college basketball corruption. That would normally lead a conclusion that the college basketball industry and college sports in general are facing a public backlash and that the public has soured on college sports. At least that is what the former Obama era Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is thinking and fearing. Duncan is a member of the Knight Commission and said on Monday. “It’s an open question if the NCAA can restore public confidence in its ability to be stewards of big-money college sports.” There really is no need to worry Secretary Duncan, the NCAA is not facing any backlash. Just look at the revenue streams and numbers from the Southeast Conference, Pac 12 and Big 12. Combined the three conferences pulled in about $1.4 billion all of that made off the backs of unpaid athletes who if they are lucky can find the time to attend classes and get a degree.
The NCAA is run by college presidents and chancellors and is trying to protect the revenue streams that have enriched certain people such as coaches and athletic directors within the industry. For some reason, the college governing body has convinced college sports customers, fans, journalists and others that paying players is wrong and that amateurism is needed to preserve some sort of imagined integrity and the fable of the student-athlete. That term was invented by Walter Byers in the 1950s to make sure college players did not get paid or be eligible for workman’s compensation. The NCAA wants status quo.
Why pay talent?
