The first time I heard this issue seriously mentioned was during a lecture by Spike Lee at IU and he talked about the exploitation of athletes who receive a college scholarship and in return, universities and athletic conferences make hundreds of millions of dollars.

There’s an interesting article in the Baltimore Sun today where Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, said he is not afraid to use legislative means to force universities to make the revenue stream more equitable.

I am admittedly torn on this issue. On one hand, the fact that universities make millions of dollars on the backs of these athletes is reprehensible. Yes, the “student-athletes” receive tuition for money, room and board but as most of us know, the cost of higher educations goes well beyond those expenses.

And then there’s the economic reality. In the article, NCAA spokesperson Bobby Williams says:

 ”‘Many of those calling for compensation don’t have a grasp on economic reality. Less than 10 [Division I schools] actually have revenues that are in excess of expenditures. So you really have to ask yourself, is it even possible to pay all student-athletes’”

I’m not sure I buy that argument. Athletic departments are constantly greenlighting multi-million dollars facilities upgrades. And then there’s this: You can’t just pay the athletes from revenue-producing sports because of Title IX. You’d have to pay everyone. The quarterback. The badminton player. The fencer. The bowler.

I’m kind of curious as to where people stand on this. Let’s be honest, when people hear that college athletes are being paid, they’re thinking about the million-dollar deals that the pros get, this will likely not be the case but the real question is how do you feel about athletes from your favorite school or from your alma mater being paid?

Nothing is likely to come from any of this and I think the question is doesn’t this Congressman have anything better to do with his time than stump about college athletes being paid? Shouldn’t he be figuring out oh, I don’t know, how to get the troops home from Iraq or how to make renewable energy sources more of a reality? But clearly I don’t know how Congress works.