With March Madness kicking off today, everyone is excited to see a Cinderella team make it deep into the playoffs, vicious dunks, deep 3’s and buzzer beaters. That is what people come expect to see every March.

None of this excitement would be possible without the athletes. Talented players draw fans to the games, whether they go to that player’s school or not. These athletes make the tournament so successful and exciting.

But according to a report by Yahoo! Sports, multiple universities have illegally paid student-athletes to entice them to come play for their school. Big program schools such as Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke are being investigated for paying student-athletes, something that is strictly prohibited by the NCAA.

What these mass amounts of violations show is the current system the NCAA has doesn’t work. The NCAA is a nonprofit organization that doesn’t have to pay its employees, the students who make all of the money for the NCAA. This seems like a twisted system because it is.

Student-athletes can’t collect a salary or have an endorsement deal while playing for their school. Many do receive full-ride scholarships to their school, with their room and board also being covered.

But that is nothing compared to the money the NCAA makes off these students. In 2017, the NCAA had a total revenue of $1.1 billion dollars. And somehow, players should be content with their scholarship to a university, when, let’s be honest, most of them aren’t going for academics.

These students see none of the money which they earn, and many of them need it. Not only did they make that money on their own merit, but they also aren’t guaranteed professional success. They should be provided for what they’re doing right now, not based off what they might do later. Because an injury could permanently sideline a player, and then what?

The NCAA needs to change.

The current system is currently too exploitive of the student-athletes who are making the NCAA over a billion dollars, while the people who earned it see none of that money. And every player who felt the need to accept the money has proven that. The student-athletes should see some of the money they earn, and they should not be blamed for taking large sums of money under the table.

The system should be to blame.

There needs be a fundamental change in how the NCAA operates. Whether that is paying student-athletes, letting them have endorsement deals of their own or something else entirely, the NCAA owes the student-athletes more.

Student-athletes do too much for the NCAA to be left in the dust.