Picture a women’s volleyball player at a mid-major school. She gets a full scholarship, housing, meals, academic support, and the best training facilities most students could never afford. That’s already a six-figure package. People say “pay the athletes” like they’re unpaid servants, but they’re not — they’re getting something most students will spend decades paying off. General_Adam will say the TV revenue is huge and the NCAA makes billions. Sure, it does. But the moment you pay one player, you have to pay them all. And that’s the problem. Title IX forces equal pay by gender, so you’d bankrupt the entire athletic department. Smaller sports get cut, scholarships vanish, and suddenly less famous athletes lose the very opportunity that helped them. The scholarship is the payment. We shouldn’t pretend it’s nothing.

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