Student athletes look at college sports in two ways: one being opportunity, and the other as indentured servitude. College sports like football and basketball hold a huge segment of the entertainment industry making those two particular sport seasons year round. Bigger universities have tradition, name recognition, and school pride to uphold with every game. Sponsors, television, and casinos, along with many other businesses have a huge stake in this industry. With so much pressure to succeed, big sport programs like Duke basketball, Florida football, and Notre Dame football need top recruits to maintain or raise the standard of play to which they hold themselves. The competitive nature of the sport now leeks off the field and may be more competitive than the actual game. Programs will try anything, even outside NCAA regulations to grab the recruits they want. College teams have been notorious for illegally paying recruits to come to their school. NCAA has more regulations than Eminem has domestic disturbances. You can't blame an eighteen, sometimes seventeen year old kid for taking a few favors so he can except a school's offer of free education in exchange for his athleticism, especially if the student comes from a family around the poverty line. If money was not an issue, students will have a clearer idea of where they really want to be and what the school has to offer outside of sports, but money is a, if not the only issue in some of these athletes minds. There are as many reasons why student athletes should get paid or be able to earn money, just as there are many reasons why they cannot get paid or earn a money.
Student athletes should get paid for the services and revenue they provide for the school. College basketball in itself, is a multi billion-dollar industry that makes money for everyone involved except for the players. CBS Television paid 6.2 billion dollars for the contract to show the Final Four Tournament on their station for the next ten years.