Imagine if you will for a moment that you are a young man. Not only are you young, but you come from a poor family. All your life your family has struggled for the funds to feed, clothe and shelter themselves. But you have a talent. This talent makes you a commodity.

Now imagine that you have an opportunity to use this talent to make your life better, and eventually make the lives of your family better. This talent is basketball and you are a pro-bound player at the age of 17, but in the USA you can’t play professional basketball because the NBA won’t let you until you have been out of high school for a year. So you go and play basketball for a college team.

While you are at college you family is back at home, still struggling as they always have to find the money to exist. You are being charted around the country and never miss a meal. Then you notice that the stadiums are filled, people are buying jerseys with your number on them; in short, there is money being made off of your talent. But you aren’t getting any of it.

Instead you are told that you are being rewarded with a free education that you have no intention of finishing, because if you could have, you be playing pro ball right now. So your “reward” is something you don’t want.

Then you look up into the stands and see one of the many vendors selling food at the game. It is a college student who got the job to help pay for his bills and that is when you realize, he is making more than you are. The question is, how is any of that fair, or right?

The NCAA has been trading rags for riches off of student athletes for a long time, forcing them to play for a year by convincing the NBA to make a rule prohibiting players coming directly from high school to the NBA. Then when a player finds the means to make money while playing ball they crucify them for breaking the NCAA’s honor code. It’s hard to imagine telling someone they don’t have honor while you take advantage of their talent to line your pockets, while they have no money for themselves or their families to live on.

Solution?

There are going to be many. I have a simple one. A percentage of endorsements for the team goes into a pot where all the student athletes get an equal portion. They won’t get rich but they should get something for all the revenue they are bringing in.