This week it was revealed that several current and former NCAA college basketball players received impermissible benefits.  Several of the schools mentioned in the probe that the FBI is now involved in are national powers and include Michigan State, Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina Seton Hall, Texas, USC, Washington, Clemson, Kansas, Louisville, Wichita State, South Carolina, Utah, Xavier, Notre Dame, Virginia, Creighton, Iowa, Iowa State and Vanderbilt.

This all started last year when the computer of Andy Miller, founder of the ASM Sports agency, had his computer seized by the FBI amid allegations that his agency illegally provided under the table payments to several college and high school players and their families.

But enough about the allegations.  What is the NCAA gonna do about it?  This is a pattern that has continued to happen over and over again, and will continue to happen until a solution is brought to the table.

The issue is that collegiate athletes bring in millions and millions of dollars for their respective schools, but the athletes responsible for this windfall receive nothing.  Many argue that they do receive payment in the form of a full scholarship that pays for their education, and room & board.  But many of these kids come from disadvantaged situations where they would not normally be able to afford to pay for college.  So yes, their education is paid for, but many of these students don’t have spending money for basic necessities that scholarship money does not pay for.

With coaches getting multi-million dollar salaries, universities raking in 1oos of millions of dollars in profits, there’s something wrong when the players that are responsible for this happening get NOTHING.  Why can’t players receive a stipend?  Players should reap some of the benefits that they are helping these schools get.

If something isn’t done we will continue to see this happen over and over again.  The main reason you’ve got players leaving early is so that they can get paid.  If the NCAA is at all interested in seeing the probations and sanctions stop, or players leaving the college game early in order to pursue the riches of an NBA contract, they’ll do what is right.

The NCAA is a 501(C)(3) organization.  What that means is that they are a non-profit organization.  That being the case, what’s wrong with giving some of those profits that they can’t keep back to the students that create them?  A regular member of the student body is allowed to have a part-time job, but athletes are not.  Is that fair?  Let these kids get paid.  Time will tell, but we will soon find out how greedy the powers that be are.