College Athletes Should Be Paid

Making millions off of unpaid athletes who work hard and risk injury is wrong.

James Pilant

AJ McCarron: ‘I truly believe college athletes should be paid’ | Crooks and Liars

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/01/aj-mccarron-i-truly-believe-college

Now that AJ McCarron has exhausted his eligibility at Alabama and departed for the NFL, he can speak freely about the imbalances of the NCAA system without fear of repercussions.

That’s what McCarron did on Wednesday in New York City.

The former Crimson Tide quarterback was a guest on FOX Sports 1’s “Crowd Goes Wild” and was asked about Tuesday’s news out of Chicago in which the seeds were planted for a college athlete union.

“I truly believe, during some point in the future, college athletes should be paid,” McCarron said. “The NCAA is not a bad organization – don’t get me wrong, it’s an unbelievable organization – but in some way they’re taking advantage of college athletes that sign their name into a certain school.

“When I was (at Alabama) in ’09, I think revenue when we won the national championship that year was like $62 million. And when we won it in New Orleans (in 2011), it was like $78 million. Then when we beat (Notre Dame in 2012), it was like $92 million. I mean that’s absurd money.

“And with players’ jerseys being sold and them not seeing any of that, and then being used for video games, I think eventually something’s gotta give and players end up being paid.”