March Madness Tips Off With Renewed Debate on Student-Athlete Compensation

March Madness tips off this week. The wildly popular college basketball tournament boasts tens of millions of viewers, and it's also big business. By some measures, it's the country's second-biggest sporting event, after the Super Bowl.

But despite its success, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) doesn't pay its athletes. A lawsuit filed last fall is renewing the debate over the league's long-standing policy of not paying student-athletes. Former Villanova player Lawrence "Poppy" Livers is suing the NCAA, arguing that college athletes should receive compensation. 

The NCAA is pushing for the case's dismissal, using its long-time defense that the case isn't valid, in part, because of a 1992 district court decision where a prisoner sued and was denied payment for his labor. 

Columnist Shaun King spoke with WNYC's All Things Considered Host Jami Floyd about his recent piece in the Intercept.

"If you have to lean on an example where prisons don't pay prisoners to justify why you don't pay students, something's wrong," he told WNYC. "They are often even prohibited from even having another job. That money would make all the difference."

NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy refuted claims that the association is comparing student-athletes to prisoners. He called it, "patently absurd, and false" and said it goes "against everything the NCAA stands for."

"All the NCAA was doing in citing the Vanskike case is the same as what the courts have done that have laid out the test of determining whether or not somebody is an employee," he said. "Student athletes are not employees of their institutions and that's plain and simple. We provide a pathway to opportunity for student athletes in a higher education environment."