Meanwhile, the NCAA, coaches, and universities are making a fortune off of them. Despite being superstars, the athletes are forced to live off of insufficient personal funds, and are not compensated for their hard work and dedication. Where else in the job market do bosses and CEO's make a fortune off of their employees without compensating them for it? After all, the athletes themselves are why fans come to the games and buy shirts off the racks. Student athletes should be compensated for their efforts on the field. The key to keeping their contract is that they should also be held accountable in the classroom.
College sports began in 1852 when rowing crews at Yale and Harvard decided to challenge each other to a race. Shortly after, other college sports emerged such as football and basketball. Many of the same concepts were used in order to integrate them into the college systems. The NCAA dates its formation in the early 1900's with formal meetings that were held with President Theodore Roosevelt. Reforms were the topic of that meeting due to many repeated injuries and deaths in college football which were causing schools to shut down the programs. After the meeting, Chancellor Henry MacCracken of New York University set up a meeting with thirteen other colleges and universities to formally make changes to the college football rules. In 1905, sixty-two other colleges joined what they called the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). This organization later changed its name to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, in 1910. For years the NCAA acted solely as a board which oversaw the rules in college sports. In 1921, they held their first NCAA championship by holding the National Collegiate Track and Field Championships. This event created more committees in the NCAA and more sports began holding national championships such as the first basketball national championship in 1939.