The chants grow louder, "Dayne, Dayne, Dayne", its 4'Th and goal, the Badgers trail Michigan by 5 with six seconds left. The winner takes home the title as the 1999 National champions. The ball is snapped, Bollinger drops back, fakes the pass, and pitches it to Dayne. He dodges a tackle, bounces off 2 blue jerseys, and stumbles in the end-zone for the game winning TD. Dayne's hard work and perseverance "paid off" and led Wisconsin to a victory. But who really capitalizes when Ron Dayne leads his team to a National Championship? To Dayne, "Paid Off" in no way means he will receive a check from the University of Wisconsin. Under current NCAA regulations, "all student athletes are prohibited from receiving any payment for their efforts"(1). Exploited athletes generate millions of dollars for their schools, and never see a dime. Is this fair? College sports are big business. Every single day, universities succeed in coaxing the general public into believing that the kindred and pure spirit of amateur athletics serves as the main catalyst for their respective universities desire to field a good team. However, in reality the common motivation for these universities is nothing other that the almighty dollar. For many universities, the athletic program serves as a cash-generating machine. In terms of profit, if all ties with the university were eliminated, an athletic program acting as its own separate entity could compete with some fortune 500 companies. So, why do the vital pieces of the machine, (the players) fail to receive any compensation for their performance? Certainly, a car engine is cared for and maintained, the owner continually spending money to keep it up. The answer lies in the money-hungry universities and their practice of hoarding all the revenue. Many student-athletes are actually business people, just like students attending business schools and graduate schools. "They are many times attending universities b...
