Lets be honest. Top college athletes and their families have profited from their performance for years,
Most of them have a free ride. No tuition, dorm room rent, books, food, etc. 
Plus most of them get tutoring, too, to keep up their grades to make them eligible to keep playing.
Then the alumni step up with wallets open and check books at the ready.
They are willing to pay for the talent it takes to get winning teams. But they have to be subtle.
Money is left with businesses that provide goods and services to college athletes and their families.
They leave no paper trail, 
They wrote no checks to the athletes or their families.
Athletes need wheels so vehicles are loaned to them.
No rules are broken.
Everybody is happy until the team starts losing games and the coach gets fired.
Rules change
Now the NCAA says it will consider allowing college athletes to be paid for use of their images, names and other considerations. 
The NCAA is acting like it owns these things, not the athletes themselves, But they are going to take a year to make it a reality,
I agree with Jay Bilas, a lawyer, former Duke basketball player and ESPN college basketball analyst.
“What the NCAA has done is nothing based on principle,” Bilas says. 
When California lawmakers approved the Fair Pay to Play law, they responded by calling it a threat to college sports, that it’s going to ruin everything if athletes are paid and suggesting California could be kicked out of the NCAA. 
Now the NCAA is reacting to different state and federal government actions, trying to stall and say, ‘Look at what we’re doing, he said.
“Their abandonment of any form of principle is frankly embarrassing.”
Whose rights?
Bilas said the NCAA’s response is bogus.
“I don’t see any significant movement towards players having actual rights here.” 
What the NCAA means is severely limited and regulated changes with little benefit to the players. 
“The NCAA is like the retailer surprised by Christmas coming on Dec. 25,” Bilas said. “They’re sitting here saying, ‘Oh my gosh why didn’t you tell us the holiday season was coming.’ 
“They’re in this position because of lack of foresight, lack of leadership and an unwillingness to address the multi-billion industry that they created. This has been coming for a long time.
“Now an organization that had little credibility to start with basically has none.”
Reform needed
What’s needed is not to do away with the NCAA. If that happened, the colleges would get together and form a new association.
What the NCAA needs is a group of tough-minded realists who are willing to initiate needed reforms, including giving players an opportunity to be paid.
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