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March Madness is in full swing, with the college basketball championship raking in big bucks for the NCAA. Former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon thinks those players should also get paid.

O'Bannon, who currently has a lawsuit against the association, told CNBC's " Closing Bell" the athletes who play in the tournament "want to be there and are honored to play in that tournament.

"I just think that along with their possible degrees that they are getting, they should be compensated for it."

While the NCAA has 17 official corporate sponsors that have each paid the organization $10 million to $35 million, O'Bannon said the athletes' compensation doesn't have to be $1 million but just a "little something" to recognize that they are bringing in money to their schools.

Read More Sweet 16 a slam dunk for advertisers

Nearly five years ago, O'Bannon sued the NCAA, Electronic Arts and the Collegiate Licensing Company over the use of his name and image.

Lawyers for O'Bannon reached a $40 million settlement with EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company, which handles licensing rates for many universities. However, the case against the NCAA is still working its way through the courts.

Last August, a federal judge ruled the association violated antitrust law by prohibiting college athletes from being compensated for use of their names, images and likenesses. The court also ordered that schools be allowed to offer athletes full cost-of-attendance scholarships and put up to $5,000 per athlete, per year of eligibility, into a trust.

The NCAA has appealed the decision. Oral arguments were held last week in the case.

At the time it filed the appeal, the NCAA said it did not believe it violated antitrust laws.

"In its decision, the Court acknowledged that changes to the rules that govern college athletics would be better achieved outside the courtroom, and the NCAA continues to believe that the Association and its members are best positioned to evolve its rules and processes to better serve student-athletes," the NCAA's chief legal officer, Donald Remy, said in a statement last August.

Read More Pay for play: NCAA schools keep eye on legal cases

O'Bannon said the lawsuit was never about the money, it was about righting a wrong.

"If a company or someone was to use your likeness then you should be compensated for it, at the very least asked if your likeness can be used."

Since the legal action, the issue has grown from using a college athlete's likeness to whether he or she should be paid while in school.

For O'Bannon, the biggest thing is that the conversation is now happening.

"I feel strongly that if everyone involved can get together and talk about things they can work things out, whether it be pay when you are in school or collecting when your eligibility is up."

-CNBC's Steven Desaulniers, CNBC's Eric Chemi and Alicia Jessop contributed to this report.

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College athletes should be compensated: Former UCLA star

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March Madness is in full swing, with the college basketball championship raking in big bucks for the NCAA. Former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon thinks those players should also get paid. O'Bannon, who currently has a lawsuit against the association, told CNBC's " Closing Bell" the athletes who play in the tournament "want to be there and are honored to play in that tournament.

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And maybe even getting paid extra in cash.

And so, in the end, what's happened to the lawsuits? Well, EA Sports actually settled for roughly $60 million, with thousands of players, past and present, getting, on average, about $1,600 each, the money finally awarded just this week.

In 2014, the court ruled the NCAA's refusal to pay players was an antitrust violation, and also ordered up to $5,000 per student athlete be put in trust for using their likenesses. But the NCAA appealed, and the money award was reversed.

And so, this Tuesday, O'Bannon's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to review the case.

In Henderson, Nevada, this is economics correspondent Paul Solman for the "PBS NewsHour."

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March Madness means a huge payday for coaches, colleges, networks and advertisers -- everyone except the athletes themselves. Although television rights for the NCAA tournament this year alone brought in nearly a billion dollars, the players won't see a penny, and many are unhappy with the situation.

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The argument about paying college athletes should be paid has been the on of most controversial argument in sports the past few years. Athletes being fairly compensated in college is a good idea, all you have to do is look at the amount of money that they bring into the university. If you follow sports at all you see this issue everywhere, on big sports TV networks, sports blogs online, and even major news networks have debated this issue many times. Although I do understand some peoples arguments against paying athletes I truly believe they should be fairly compensated for what they make the NCAA and universities.

The NCAA makes nearly a billion dollars off of the division one college basketball tournament, Universities make millions from their athletic department, and none of this money even comes close to the people that bring in this money, the athletes, (Scupp, par.12). Because of this there have been talks in the past five or so years that major universities may break apart from the NCAA and start their own association. Although, this is very unlikely it still poses a threat to the NCAA but they still do not seem to really care. The NCAA refuses to give any money to athletes even if something is sold with their name on it. An example of this is when University of Louisville's Kevin Ware suffered a gruesome leg injury in the NCAA tournament, t shirts were sold with the phrase "win for ware" on them. Although he probably was not too worried about this at the time Ware got no compensation for the thousands of dollars made off of a shirt with his name on it.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the NCAA none bigger than Northwestern University athletes arguing that they were employees of the university and had the right to unionize, (Scupp, par.5). The NLBR (National Labor Relations Board) ruled that the students did have the right to unionize. If it is ruled that student athletes are indeed considered employees of a university then why are they not paid for the work that they do? Also, could it be considered illegal for the NCAA not to pay athletes if they are considered employees? With these questions being brought up we are in for a major shake up of college athletics in the next few years.

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Should College Athletes Be Paid? Draft 2

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The argument about paying college athletes should be paid has been the on of most controversial argument in sports the past few years. Athletes being fairly compensated in college is a good idea, all you have to do is look at the amount of money that they bring into the university.

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College athletics is one of the biggest-money businesses generating 11 billion dollars in annual revenue, yet the athletes responsible for it all go unpaid. This needs to change.

There are 27 universities that make at least $100 million annually from their athletic department, according to Business Insider . Their athletes' faces, pictures, and names are plastered all over the advertising that brings in so much money, yet they go uncompensated for their involvement.

Overall, the average Division I player is worth $170,098 per year to his/her university. These athletes are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars but are not paid for their efforts. While the pay of these athletes may need to depend on their division and how successful the team is, the highest ranking basketball and football teams bring in millions for their schools but athletes do not receive any share of the money.

Some may say that their scholarships are the athletes' form of pay, but their scholarship doesn't account for the time they spend working out, training, and traveling for games. While they have their education paid for or partially paid for, they have no time for an actual paid job with their 24/7 commitment to athletics.

While coaching staff and others involved in college athletics for a career get paid a rightfully large sum, it is not fair that the players who are just as responsible for a team's success do not get paid at all. These athletes are just involved as their coaches, but do not get compensated for their hard efforts.

Student athletes do not need to be paid as heavily as coaches; instead they may just receive some money relative to how much the program brings in overall. Coaches are paid upwards of 100,000 dollars, and the coaches of the most successful teams are paid millions . These coaches are already paid thousands to millions and then receive bonuses on top of that based off of their success. Even if the student athletes aren't paid a flat rate, they should at least still receive bonuses for their hard work as their coaches do.

College athletics is a time and effort consuming job and the athletes behind it all deserve to be paid for their labor and contribution to the revenue. Even if the athletes' pay is little compared to their coaches and superiors, their time, work, and dedication to their team should be compensated for with some amount of pay.

While the answer may not be simple, contact your congressional representatives and tell them to push for pay for the hard-working athletes in college.

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Editorial: College Athletes Should Be Paid

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College athletics is one of the biggest-money businesses generating 11 billion dollars in annual revenue, yet the athletes responsible for it all go unpaid. This needs to change. There are 27 universities that make at least $100 million annually from their athletic department, according to Business Insider .

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California State Law Sb-206

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SB206:v89#DOCUMENT

SECTION 1.

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to monitor the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) working group created in May 2019 to examine issues relating to the use of a student's name, image, and likeness and revisit this issue to implement significant findings and recommendations of the NCAA working group in furtherance of the statutory changes proposed by this act.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to continue to develop policies to ensure appropriate protections are in place to avoid exploitation of student athletes, colleges, and universities.

(c) The Legislature finds and declares that California's community colleges are two-year institutions not governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. In acknowledgment of this, it is the intent of the Legislature to create a community college athlete name, image, and likeness working group to study the California Community College Athletic Association's bylaws, state and federal laws, and national athletic association bylaws regarding a community college athlete's use of the athlete's name, image, and likeness for compensation and report policy recommendations to the Legislature and the California Community College Athletic Association.

SEC. 2.

Section 67456 is added to the Education Code, to read:

67456.

(a) (1) A postsecondary educational institution shall not uphold any rule, requirement, standard, or other limitation that prevents a student of that institution participating in intercollegiate athletics from earning compensation as a result of the use of the student's name, image, or likeness. Earning compensation from the use of a student's name, image, or likeness shall not affect the student's scholarship eligibility.

(2) An athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics, including, but not limited to, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, shall not prevent a student of a postsecondary educational institution participating in intercollegiate athletics from earning compensation as a result of the use of the student's name, image, or likeness.

(3) An athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics, including, but not limited to, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, shall not prevent a postsecondary educational institution from participating in intercollegiate athletics as a result of the compensation of a student athlete for the use of the student's name, image, or likeness.

(b) A postsecondary educational institution, athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics shall not provide a prospective student athlete with compensation in relation to the athlete's name, image, or likeness.

(c) (1) A postsecondary educational institution, athletic association, conference, or other group or organization with authority over intercollegiate athletics shall not prevent a California student participating in intercollegiate athletics from obtaining professional representation in relation to contracts or legal matters, including, but not limited to, representation provided by athlete agents or legal representation provided by attorneys.

(2) Professional representation obtained by student athletes shall be from persons licensed by the state. Professional representation provided by athlete agents shall be by persons licensed pursuant to Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 18895) of Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code. Legal representation of student athletes shall be by attorneys licensed pursuant to Article 1 (commencing with Section 6000) of Chapter 4 of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code.

(3) Athlete agents representing student athletes shall comply with the federal Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, established in Chapter 104 (commencing with Section 7801) of Title 15 of the United States Code, in their relationships with student athletes.

(d) A scholarship from the postsecondary educational institution in which a student is enrolled that provides the student with the cost of attendance at that institution is not compensation for purposes of this section, and a scholarship shall not be revoked as a result of earning compensation or obtaining legal representation pursuant to this section.

(e) (1) A student athlete shall not enter into a contract providing compensation to the athlete for use of the athlete's name, image, or likeness if a provision of the contract is in conflict with a provision of the athlete's team contract.

(2) A student athlete who enters into a contract providing compensation to the athlete for use of the athlete's name, image, or likeness shall disclose the contract to an official of the institution, to be designated by the institution.

(3) An institution asserting a conflict described in paragraph (1) shall disclose to the athlete or the athlete's legal representation the relevant contractual provisions that are in conflict.

(f) A team contract of a postsecondary educational institution's athletic program shall not prevent a student athlete from using the athlete's name, image, or likeness for a commercial purpose when the athlete is not engaged in official team activities. It is the intent of the Legislature that this prohibition shall apply only to contracts entered into, modified, or renewed on or after the enactment of this section.

(g) For purposes of this section, "postsecondary educational institution" means any campus of the University of California or the California State University, an independent institution of higher education, as defined in Section 66010, or a private postsecondary educational institution, as defined in Section 94858.

(h) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2023.

SEC. 3.

Section 67457 is added to the Education Code, to read:

67457.

(a) (1) The Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall convene a community college athlete name, image, and likeness working group. The working group shall include, but not be limited to, the following members:

(A) A chancellor's office representative.

(B) A California Community College Athletic Association representative.

(C) At least two community college student athletes.

(D) A community college athletic administrator.

(E) A community college athletic coach.

(F) A Student Senate for California Community Colleges representative.

(G) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly.

(H) One member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee.

(2) All appointments to the working group shall be completed on or before July 1, 2020.

(b) The working group shall do both of the following:

(1) Review existing California Community College Athletic Association bylaws, state and federal laws, and national athletic association bylaws regarding a college athlete's use of the athlete's name, image, and likeness for compensation.

(2) On or before July 1, 2021, submit a report to the California Community College Athletic Association and the Legislature, pursuant to Section 9795 of the Government Code, containing its findings and policy recommendations in connection with its review pursuant to paragraph (1).

(c) Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this section is repealed on July 1, 2025.

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SB206:v89#DOCUMENT (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to monitor the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) working group created in May 2019 to examine issues relating to the use of a student's name, image, and likeness and revisit this issue to implement significant findings and recommendations of the NCAA working group in furtherance of the statutory changes proposed by this act.

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New York Times Article

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N.C.A.A. Athletes Could Be Paid Under New California Law (Published 2019)

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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to allow college athletes to hire agents and make money from endorsements. The measure, the first of its kind, threatens the business model of college sports.

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New York Times Article

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College athletics is less a nonprofit enterprise than an industry exploiting its workers, writes Brian Rosenberg, the president of Macalester College, in The New York Times. He points out that universities with top teams can rake in nearly $20 million a year from Nike or Adidas sponsorships, while the athletes themselves, whose talent is what attracts such sponsorships in the first place, walk away with nothing. He writes:

College basketball players are worth a lot of money, but they aren't legally allowed to make it. So the schools, coaches, agents and shoe companies make the money instead - all in the name of "amateurism."

Katelyn Ohashi, a former University of California, Los Angeles, gymnast, has criticized the unfairness of N.C.A.A. rules that prevented her from making any money from a video of a perfect floor routine that went viral earlier this year. She told Mr. Newsom:

Here's the fame, but then there's no compensation, and it's so crazy. People are like, "Oh, you must be so rich." And I'm like, "You must not know the N.C.A.A." ... When my routine went viral, [N.C.A.A. President] Mark Emmert called me to congratulate me, and I'm like, "You should be thanking me."

In fact, according to an analysis cited in The Economist, if players were paid in proportion to the amount of revenue they generated for their colleges, "the top 10 percent of football and 16 percent of basketball players would be paid around $400,000 and $250,000 a year respectively." While the N.C.A.A.'s desire to keep so-called professionalism out of college sports may have made sense before they became such a big business, the author writes, it's clearly an illusion that no longer holds:

The two most lucrative college sports, American football and basketball, are highly competitive. Many universities are willing to bend over backward to enroll talented players. And the argument that university athletics remains amateur would hardly earn passing marks in even an introductory college course.

Removing the N.C.A.A. restrictions on endorsements would create a winner-take-all dynamic within and among universities, writes Cody J. McDavis, a former Division I basketball player. The best players at the best schools would reap all the benefits, Mr. McDavis says, while less popular sports and athletes would suffer. He writes:

Major brands like Nike would pay top football and basketball talent at the biggest schools, while student-athletes in other sports or at smaller programs would be ignored. Currently, corporate funds go to athletic departments and are generally distributed among all sports; with third-party payments, those funds could instead mostly go directly to a few student-athletes, starving the rest.

The N.C.A.A., for its part, has said the California law "would erase the critical distinction between college and professional athletes." Even The Los Angeles Times editorial board, which came out in favor of the law, acknowledges that some change to the spirit of college athletics would be inevitable. They write:

The measure would inevitably eat away at the distinction between professional and college sports. Celebrated collegians could make money not only by endorsing sneakers and sports drinks, but also by autographing jerseys, pitching workout videos and putting their name on baseball bats and hockey sticks. In short, they could profit from the fame that their work as an athlete brings.

As those on opposing sides of California's law debate how the fruits of the college sports economy ought to be distributed, others assert that the solution is simply to decommercialize the activity altogether.

Jonathan R. Cole, a professor at Columbia and author of "Toward a More Perfect University," suggests in The Atlantic that the emphasis placed on campus athletics is " totally out of control." In 41 states, he writes, the highest-paid public employee is not a professor or neurosurgeon, but rather a college football or basketball coach. For students, meanwhile, the difficulty of keeping up with both coursework and demanding athletic schedules has created an incentive for academic fraud. Taken together, a picture emerges of college sports as a pseudoprofessional industry that encroaches upon the mission of higher education. He writes:

For the highly selective colleges and universities, the leaders ought to roll back the percentage of recruited athletes. ... The highly selective colleges ought to withdraw from the N.C.A.A. and form their own league since they are not trying to build national championship programs. ... Finally, university leaders should consider forming special institutions located in different geographic areas that are devoted almost entirely to athletics and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

One school that has provided something of a model on this front is Spelman, a historically black college for women. In 2011, Spelman learned that its N.C.A.A. division was losing three members. Rather than find another conference in which to compete at great expense, the school decided to withdraw from the N.C.A.A. and eliminate its athletics department in favor of a fitness program for all students. Beverly Daniel Tatum, then Spelman's president, wrote in The Times in 2013:

Whether it's diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease, black women are more likely to suffer from these ailments - and die from them - at young ages. All are linked to obesity and lack of physical activity. ... We decided that it was more important to support our entire campus with a wellness initiative than 80 student athletes with N.C.A.A. funding.

California's changes aren't scheduled to take effect until 2023, leaving the N.C.A.A. ample time to mount court challenges to the law, which the organization has suggested violates the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. If the law is upheld, the N.C.A.A. will have to decide whether to penalize the schools with fines, which may or may not be legally enforceable, or even expel them.

For now, California is betting that the outsize importance of its universities within the world of college sports will make those threats impossible to carry out. "I don't necessarily take it to heart," Newsom said.
It's the one-month birthday of this newsletter! Do you have a topic you'd like us to cover? Is there anything you want to see more or less of? Email us at debatable@nytimes.com to tell us what you think so we can make it even better for you.
Jemele Hill makes the case for black athletes to leave white colleges for historically black ones. [The Atlantic]

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Opinion | Should College Athletes Be Allowed to Get Paid? (Published 2019)

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College athletics is less a nonprofit enterprise than an industry exploiting its workers, writes Brian Rosenberg, the president of Macalester College, in The New York Times. He points out that universities with top teams can rake in nearly $20 million a year from Nike or Adidas sponsorships, while the athletes themselves, whose talent is what attracts such sponsorships in the first place, walk away with nothing.

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Bleacher Report- 10 College Athletes and their Improper Benefits Cases

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Cam Newton and 10 College Athletes in Scandal: Is It Their Fault or the System?

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Cameron Newton is currently under investigation for allegedly seeking improper benefits while being recruited by schools like Mississippi State and Auburn, and we have found ourselves in the midst of yet another NCAA violations scandal...

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Bleacher Report- Why College Athletes shouldn't be paid

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We've heard the arguments a million times. Football players make schools a ton of money and should be able to reap some of the rewards. Players are risking permanent injury by playing for free. Players are being used.

Blah blah blah.

Apparently, the gift of a free education is not considered enough anymore. Fine. But it's not just that five-year full ride the players get. It's all of the other stuff.

Free food. Any of you naysayers want to pony up the dough to feed an offensive lineman for a week? And it has to be healthy too. That's at least 500 bucks a month.

Free insurance. It costs approximately 400 bucks a month per person for decent insurance. Multiply that by 85 scholarshipped players...per month. Gulp.

Free publicity. Just how much is it worth to have ESPN talk about your team every week? To show your mug? Your stats? Think an agent can do better? For free?

Parental mentoring. Some of these players come from single-mom households, with no paternal influence in their life. How much is finally having a father-figure in your life worth?

Housing allowance. I know a few hundred thousand families who foreclosed on their homes might be thinking you got it pretty sweet. Live in a dorm and it's free. Act spoiled and want to live on your own? You still get a monthly stipend/allowance for that.

Free travel. I wonder how many kids who live in a small town ever will have the chance again to travel to California, Florida, Hawai'i or other beautiful spots. For free.

Travel costs. Ding, ding, ding. This is a killer, even for big programs. The cost for buying food, hotel rooms and such is a nightmare for teams on the road. The players never have to look at a bill. The school eats it all up.

The bill for Ohio State's trip to Los Angeles was $346,000. Over 24k was due to fuel surcharges. With most commercial airlines dinging you for a second bag and excessive weight, can anyone even imagine what those charges were? All that equipment? All that excess weight? Ohio State had to charter two planes. One was not enough.

The cost for NCAA football teams to travel for the '07-'08 season was 42.6 million dollars. Grasp that. Just for travel.

Universities and colleges spent over 42 mil to pay for players who, except for an elite couple hundred, will never set foot on the gridiron again. And they want to get paid???

Don't they get enough already? Can we stop future Divas-in-the-making now?

Only a small percentage of all active players actually make it in the NFL. Why should a perennial third stringer get paid to sit on a bench? Should Matt Cassel have been paid while at USC? He never started a game but is now starting QB for the Pats.

Maybe, just maybe, these student-athletes could cut down their expenses a bit. Maybe stop buying iphones, ipods, laptops, diamond studs, Sirius radio, GPS devices and expensive cars.

Stop paying for $5 beers at nightclubs and then getting into trouble which may require the school to hire you a $350 dollar an hour lawyer to defend you in a civil suit.

Study, instead of paying tutors to do your work for you.

Last time I checked, the student came before athlete. Student-athlete.

Respect that. And get that degree. Ask Gino Torretta or Jason White how important that is-two Heisman winners who actually had to go out into the real world and get real jobs.

Players need to start showing up and playing and instead of thinking they can coast through the games and land an NFL gig. The odds are against you.

Whether you make it there or not, make sure and send a thank you note to the school who gave you unlimited opportunities. A school that spent at least a million on you, the bench warmer, to represent the school. They are already paying you.

Don't stare a gift horse in the mouth. Just keep your mouth shut, study, and play.

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Why College Football Players Should Not Get Paid To Play

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We've heard the arguments a million times. Football players make schools a ton of money and should be able to reap some of the rewards. Players are risking permanent injury by playing for free. Players are being used. Blah blah blah. Apparently, the gift of a free education is not considered enough anymore.

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