The National Collegiate Athletic Association reaps in nearly $1 billion a year in revenue, thanks to an annual onslaught of glitzy advertising campaigns and television deals. Coaches and top executives are paid in the millions, but student athletes return to their dorm rooms with nothing but an education for compensation, “the only currency more difficult to spent than Bitcoin,” John Oliver noted last night.
With the start of March Madness on Tuesday, “Last Week Tonight” takes on this very issue, slamming the “illegal sweatshop” nature of the NCAA’s non-pay scale. “There is nothing inherently wrong with a sporting tournament making huge amounts of money,” Oliver said. “But there is something slightly troubling about a billion-dollar sports enterprise where the athletes are not paid a penny, because they aren’t.”
