The problem with this is that most people treat it as a black and white issue, which it absolutely is not.
There are so many "what ifs" to people's simple solutions.
While I certainly do not always agree with NCAA decisions and how they handle certain situations, they also do a very good job at many things.
The biggest fallacy when it comes to NCAA sports is that these athletes are making money for their schools. We all know most athletic departments don't turn 1 dime of profit. Why? Because they spend money on things that benefit their student-athletes! It goes to nice facilities (for their student-athletes), eating good meals (for their student-athletes), maxing out on the gear they get (for their student-athletes), traveling in comfort (for their student-athletes), etc.
It cracks me up when people say "you think Kentucky's players went to college to get a degree?" because you're talking about such a niche group. If you ask Purdue players how important it is to get their degrees, I guarantee you they all want to and care about graduating. The number of athletes that will clearly go pro out of high school in college football/basketball is a fraction of the number of football/basketball players, let alone the rest of the sports.
Another great example of things people throw out are jersey sales - like Johnny Manziel and how he should get some of those profits. Well, schools put out new jerseys every year. Texas A&M fans buy new jerseys every year. They use their numbers (although I think that practice is going out of style now) to change it up so fans can have that number, but are they buying that jersey cause of Johnny Manziel, or are they big Texas A&M fans who will buy a new jersey or shirt every season? Could you replace Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M have the same success and they'd sell a similar amount? Probably. And also, the colleges are not like NFL where you can get a ton of players jerseys. You can get one or 2 different options in college - if they are going to give players profits on jerseys, does that mean they have to stock every number jersey to give them each their collective amount?
Overall, there's never going to be a perfect system. And to act like it's a simple answer is silly. And the people that often criticize it do not even know how things work. They don't know the NCAA is paying for charter planes for teams to fly to NCAA Tournaments so they can travel on their own schedule vs. having to find a commercial flight. They don't know the NCAA provides so much money to a fund that schools can buy laptops, pay for travel for athletes home, etc. for their student-athletes.
To act like athletes are victims in the NCAA's system is crazy. As much as the NCAA puts regulations in place, Kentucky players are treated on a different level than Purdue's or IU's players. There is a hierarchy in place. And nobody is going hungry in the process.
