College football and basketball players across the nation finally took action in their own hands to confront the NCAA in regards to revenue that their respective universities are making from their play on the field or court.

This week, a petition traveled around various universities and was signed by over 300 college football players and eventually sent to the NCAA. This petition is intended to show their belief that they are inclined to a piece of the television revenue that universities make while televising the games each week.

Now I have already gone into the college football industry and how much it is broken so I will spare you of listening to that rant again. But this petition is a very reasonable one, and I fully back the players’ beliefs on this one.

The fact is that the universities are making a boat-load of money from televising these games each week. Lets first take a look at a new deal which will be used as a precedent for future deals.

Earlier this year, ESPN announced that it would be starting a new channel, The Longhorn Network, which was dedicated solely to covering the University of Texas athletics. For the ability to cover their athletics 24/7/365, the University of Texas is “receiving $11 million annually plus another $4 million to their marketing agency IMG,” according to a USA Today report.

This means the University of Texas is getting $15 million a year just for allowing ESPN to televise their games and their coverage. Because the deal is a 20-year deal, the University of Texas will have made $300 million dollars by the time the deal expires. And not one penny of that money will have gone to the athletes, which are the stars of the Longhorn Network.

The same kind of money can be found in the college basketball industry.

Just recently the NCAA signed a new contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting to televise the March Madness Tournament, which decides the NCAA Basketball Champion every year.

Here are the logistics of the new massive deal: The deal reportedly runs from 2011 to 2024 and the NCAA will earn $10.8 BILLION, or $770 million a year.

So, this entity is making $770 million a year by allowing the televising of a MONTH-long tournament, and none of this money is going to the athletes that are the stars of the tournament.

Without these athletes and the high play on the football field or basketball court, the universities and NCAA wouldn’t have the opportunity to make this kind of money.

It is perfectly reasonable for the players to be seeking at least a portion of this TV revenue since the universities are making so much off of their play. The recently signed petition is an attempt to just receive a portion of TV revenue, and they aren’t even going after any of the ticket revenue or jersey sales or any other revenue.

But the NCAA clearly does not see that the system is broken. Instead of taking a look at the petition and realizing that it supports the idea of a broken system, the NCAA’s board of directors has said that they won’t discuss the idea of distributing a piece of the TV revenue.

What is the reason for this? It's simple: People are inherently greedy and "money makes the world go round."

The NCAA needs to realize that without these athletes on the court or the football field, they would have none of these monster deals worth so much. They are the stars of the games, or “episodes” if you may.

The televising of these games is no different then the televising of a sit-com, a drama, or any other TV show, and in the world of television, the actors and actresses get paid for their work. In the world of college athletics, the athletes are the “actors and actresses”. 

The world of sports has long brought people joy, entertainment, pleasure, controversy and even scandal. For example, take the recent scandals of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Cam Newton and most recently the Miami Hurricanes.

But are these programs really to blame?

Instead of pointing fingers at the programs that repeatedly get caught and punished for scandals, the NCAA and media need to look at the college football industry and find a way to fix it.

The fact is this, the NCAA and the college football industry is broken as it stands now, and this has long been the case. If the industry wasn’t broken, there wouldn’t consistently be scandals being turned up.

Take ex-quarterback Terell Pryor and his fellow teammates for example. Pryor was recently ousted out of his position of starting quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes because he sold some memorabilia that was signed with his signature.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I used to be completely against these football players taking any other money except for their scholarship money. But this all changed recently when I got into an argument with a friend of mine.

My friend made a valid point when he asked me the following question: “What is the difference between Pryor selling an autograph and an art student selling a painting they made in class?”

I pondered the question for a couple of minutes and came up with what I thought was a valid argument back. “But Pryor and football players are already on scholarship,” I said confident in my response.

But he already had a response for that: “The college football industry is a $1 billion industry, probably more. How much do you think art students make their colleges?”

I was stumped. He had completely changed my opinion of the situation in under five minutes of conversation. He was right, these athletes make their universities a ridiculous amount of money to not get at least a little bit of allowance.

Now, I’m not saying that college football needs to turn into a minor-league NFL. All I am saying is that these kids need to be compensated more than they are now.

Think about it. College football is an industry that makes universities tons of money, yet the kids can’t even sell their autograph?

In the 2009 season, a year that Pryor led the Buckeyes to an 11-2 record including a Rose Bowl victory, Ohio State made $39,515,387.00 on ticket sales alone, according to USA Today. This doesn’t even include the money that the university made from jersey sales and other revenue sources like boosters.

Not only do these football players make the university money, but they also often fund the other athletic programs since they are not as marketable. This is just another reason why the universities need these players, and should give them a little bit of extra money.

In America, we pride ourselves in our capitalistic market. In most business models in industries in this country, if your business goes up in worth and the product quality increases, then your employees get a raise. This is not the case in the college football industry.

The coaches of the game continue to get paid more and more, receiving multi-million dollar contracts, all while the college student-athletes continue to only receive scholarships.

Again, I am not saying the players should earn salaries. But why not give them some of the jersey revenue, or ticket sale revenue? Not an outrageous amount, but maybe in the form of a small weekly allowance. Or if the player is able to sell an autograph for a little extra cash, allow it.

The NCAA has been broken for years now, and it is the reason why these scandals keep happening. If the NCAA would recognize how much money these athletes make for the industry, the would realize that it needs to be fixed in order to fix the industry and stop future scandals. I’m not saying there is one definite way to fix it, all I’m saying is that the NCAA needs to attempt to fix the college football industry.