Sports » College

Pay for Play

By Josh Simon
March 30, 2012 Updated Mar 30, 2012 at 10:24 PM CDT

While the Final 4 plays in New Orleans, the debate over paying college athletes rages here at home.
Author Taylor Branch is part of a forum hosted by Bradley this week...
Branch says pay for play is an idea who's time has come.
What if the players in the final four refused to play unless they were paid
Taylor Branch said, "If they didn't walk out there and said we just want to draw attention to the fact that this system is not fair we have no say, we have no rights, I think the country would go nuts."
Pulitzer prize winning author Taylor Branch says it's unfair that the NCAA, individual universities and individuals are capitalizing on the talents of athletes while the athlete gets next to nothing.
Branch said, "If you watch a game on TV, who are they pointing the cameras at that are generating these millions of dollars? They're not pointing them at the million dollar coaches on the bench. They're pointing them at the players on the field who are doing magical things."
Some believe that college athletes receive scholarships in place of a pay check... Branch says it's not enough.
"it would be like saying you don't need or deserve a salary because you have health insurance."
Branch says he knows allowing schools to pay their players in revenue generating sports wouldn't solve everything.
"Maybe some schools would take all the money from all the non-revenue sports and eliminate baseball, eliminate fencing, eliminate swimming, anything that doesn't make money because I want to put it all in football and basketball. But that would be a university that a lot of parents would not want to send there kids to and a lot of kids wouldn't want to go to.

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