I agree. And eventually there will be a lawsuit. If College Football didn't exist, NFL will be forced to establish the minor leagues for their top prospects. And they'll get paid while they're training for "The Show" just like in baseball.
“I agree. And eventually there will be a lawsuit.”
I’ve often thought that one avenue of attack in the courts might be through state commissions that enforce labor laws. Here in CA, they’re pretty strict — high minimum wage, and you MUST pay overtime after eight hours — you don’t get to say, “Oh, sixty hours is a normal workweek for our industry.”
If players went after colleges as their employers — and I think it would be fairly easy to establish that colleges are in fact their employers — required hours, duties, etc. — that would open the door to requiring that these guys be paid plus overtime, and that extralegal rules forbidding them from accepting payment could be challenged on old (but still on the books) slavery laws.
Seems like some smart hungry labor lawyer would have pursued this a long time ago. Stands to make gazillions in a class-action suit.