In recent years, criticism of the NCAA’s system of compensating student-athletes has reached an all-time high.
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“The current NCAA system and rules are largely responsible for creating the underground black-market economy for players,” Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst, said in a 2017 column. “There are contradictions everywhere, to the point of hypocrisy, and business relationships with third parties that strain the imagination.”
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NBA superstar LeBron James, who famously forewent college to enter the NBA after high school, said simply that the NCAA is “corrupt.”
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"I'm looking at what this March Madness is bringing in," Jake Butt, tight end for the Denver Broncos, said to ESPN. "How much money do they bring in? Oh, but the basketball players are getting an education. How are they getting an education when they are missing the whole entire month of March?"
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The true economic impact that a system change would have has left many wary of rushing to action. Additionally, a behind-the-scenes debate in the world of sports economics has made it unclear which system should be implemented, as well as whether a change is necessary at all.
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The bulk of the debate surrounding the compensation of student-athletes revolves around the NCAA's highest revenue sports: college basketball and football.
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Although, according to multiple experts, many other sports actually stand to lose out if the system shifts away from the current scholarship model.
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Lower revenue sports—like lacrosse, track and field, and the majority of women's sports—would stand to be the biggest losers.
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An athletic scholarship, particularly in a sport that doesn't have a high payout or success rate for professionals, can set a student-athlete up for life—even if that life is off-the-court or off-the-field.
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Spencer Payton, a current scholarship member of Stony Brook University's track and field team, and Andreas Lietzau, a former walk-on member of the team, discuss what a shift in the finances of collegiate track and field would have meant to their college careers.
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2017 FBS
Expenses vs. Revenues
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The 130 FBS schools, or Division I schools with a football program, brought in a total of nearly $8.35 billion dollars in 2017 (according to statistics gathered by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics).
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Meanwhile, those schools spent about $8.05 billion dollars to support their respective athletic departments in the same year.
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The remaining difference leaves an average of a $2,277,384 profit for each FBS school.
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However, the math behind the profit margins of collegiate athletics are not so simple, as the overwhelming majority of those FBS schools actually failed to turn a profit.
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As of 2014, just 24 of the then 127 member schools were able to actually turn a profit off of their athletics programs.