It’s that time of year again. 68 teams going head to head in the famous March Madness Tournament for the National Championship.
As a person who is not really fond of sports, I didn’t fully understand what all the buzz was about until I actually read up on the logistics and facts about these well-known matches. There is one thing I noticed and have a major issue with.

As many may know, college-athletes do not get paid for participating in the sport they play for, including in March Madness.

However, the NCAA ironically gets a massive amount of money every year from Division I men’s basketball tournament yearly. The student-athlete’s share none of this profit.

It seems like this is a topic that has never been fully discussed and will take a lot to be resolved just because of the simple fact that it is controversial.

According to an article in The Mercury News, The NCAA got about $1 million in revenue from television, marketing rights and ticket sales during the March Madness tournament in 2016.

Despite this seeming like a lot of money to distribute between the many people who actually make the event what it is, student-athletes saw none of this money.

Being a non-profit organization, the NCAA is being unfair towards the student-athletes who work hard to make March Madness what it is.

Some may argue that a lot of these athletes already have been provided scholarships, which makes up for them not being paid. Students who are fortunate enough to have scholarships may be grateful for what they have, but what they deserve is at least some of the profit made by this event.

Being a college-athlete is considered a full-time job, and on top of that the students also have to worry about their grades. Getting at least a little of the money made from March Madness isn’t a lot to ask for.
According to rates using federally mandated formula, graduation rates of the students who participate in the NCAA men’s basketball championship tournament are around 50 percent.

So where does the scholarship money go in the end? The students obviously don’t get to keep it if they don’t graduate and because the NCAA does not pay college-athletes, these people will most likely not have any money after college.

The money that these students are paid in scholarships doesn’t get to come with them if they don’t graduate. However, if students were paid for participating in March Madness, that money would be long-lasting.

This may be a hard thing to fix, but a start is discussing it and attempting to try to make changes.