Everyone seems to have an opinion on whether or not college athletes should be paid in the wake of the NCAA scandal that was recently exposed by an FBI investigation.
Some of the nation’s top basketball programs including Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, USC and Kentucky were accused of violating NCAA rules in the report. The allegations have re-invigorated the debate about paying players and the Kentucky governor is fully in favor of the idea.
“I firmly believe that for top-tier D-1 programs, these kids should get paid,” Republican Gov. Matt Bevin told TMZ. “They’re professional athletes, for us to pretend otherwise is ridiculous. It’s the minor leagues of professional sports.”
Bevin, who was a Division III student athlete himself, then argued that college should be about educating the students, not benefiting off of them.
“The point of college is not to have a minor league sports program,” Bevin added. “But to lionize these kids, to pay the multi-millions of dollars, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry in America, college Athletics. A multi-billion dollar industry and yet we’re pretending these kids are just student athletes, c’mon!”
Maybe a certain Kentucky-based coach has been whispering in his ear.