The conversation of compensating NCAA athletes has made its way back into the news this week with major athletes such as Lebron James and Kevin Durant making comments about a recent report that has surfaced.

This report accuses over a dozen NCAA programs of awarding money to potential recruits and committed students.

The reason these accusations are so controversial relates back to a years old debate as to whether NCAA athletes should be compensated for playing in front of a national audience, while simultaneously generating billions of dollars in the process.

Or should they continue to be treated as “amateur” athletes, rewarded in scholarship money and access to a competitive association of athletes that will best display their skills to potential professional sports teams willing to draft them.

The second option is the way that the NCAA and professional sports have worked together in order to train the next breed of professional sports players across the four major American sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL).

The various collegiate programs and leagues compete with each other all year in order to take part in the various playoff systems, bowls, and championship games all aimed at the final goal of obtaining an NCAA title.

For years this was the platform used by aspiring athletes in order to become drafted, but also over the years these collegiate sports teams have gained devout fan bases, all interested in seeing how their favorite college team fair each season.

This introduced the NCAA to a new lucrative way of amassing tons of wealth through the broadcasting of these games.

And it has worked for them for a long time, some believe too well even, as the amount of money generated by NCAA sports every year (mostly men’s football and basketball) has grown by colossal amounts. And with NCAA athletes still being labeled as “amateurs” and not yet at a professional level they see none of the money generated through the content they create.

Raising the main question of this article, should NCAA athletes be compensated?

The NCAA and CBS Broadcasting are currently in the middle of a 14 year/$10.8 billion contract that will carry them through 2024.

The deal however, was so huge and generating so much money that the two parties couldn’t even wait until the midway point to grant themselves an additional 8 year expansion, extending the duration of the contract through 2032.

This huge contract displays the enormous wealth that the NCAA generates each year by simply broadcasting the games of collegiate athletes.

Some of the larger sports such as college football and basketball generate for the NCAA an average of over $30 and $8 million in revenue respectively.

And with an event such as NCAA’s March Madness on the horizon there is no question the NCAA will be ranking in over a billion dollars from the tournament alone.

Between the NCAA’s media rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships there should be more than enough money for each player participating in the tournament to take home a decent sum of money, if the NCAA were to allow it; and remember this is a 64 team tournament.

But as usual the NCAA will net all of the profit from this week’s long event, with players getting nothing more than exposure and the chance of being crowned champions. With all of the recent increased interest in compensating these athletes however, the question now arises; is it fair to continue the exploitation of these athletes when the revenue generated is as large as it is today?

Should none of this money be returned to the players? Why not? In the eyes of the NCAA and the colleges that recruit the talents of these athletes, it is because they are labeled as “amateur” athletes and are already being compensated through scholarship money.

As amateurs and students at the schools that they play for, these athletes must maintain amateur status to remain in line with the NCAA’s requirements.

This also bars the students from accepting endorsements based off of their athletic abilities while at school. This restriction has been subjected to scrutiny in recent years also in response to the huge divide in the distribution of wealth generated by NCAA sports.

These students make up the content that leads to billions of dollars that they never get to see, and on top of that, they are restricted from venturing out and creating a brand of their own completely independent of the NCAA.

Allowing athletes to pursue endorsements has been suggested in the past as a way correct the system in place by the NCAA.

And just because the students are not allowed to profit off of the successes of their broadcasts, doesn’t mean their schools don’t. Over the 2015-16 school year 28 of the 30 top collegiate

programs brought in over $100 million dollars of revenue, none of which was returned to the students, unless in the form of free education or new school/sport facilities (and as we now know under the table deals).

Even the coaches hired to train these athletes are paid huge amounts, the top one (Alabama football’s Nick Saban) bringing in over $11 million annually.

If the NCAA, the colleges recruiting these athletes, the coaches coaching them, and the brands using them for ad revenue are all able to make monetary gains off of these students going out and risking their bodies game in and game out, why can’t they?

With an increase in awareness for the long term health of collegiate and professional athletes, allowing them to earn money for the work they put in while attending college seems only fair.

If a change is not made soon alternative options may begin to surface that offer better opportunities for aspiring athletes.

Some already turning into realities in the form of paid developmental leagues or the possibility of these athletes playing overseas until they elevate their abilities to that comparable of players already playing professionally in America.