Really, NCAA?

Johnny Manziel has been suspended for one half of the opening game against Rice.  I want to start by stating I am not a Johnny Manziel fan.  He still strikes me like something unreal, something plastic.  If you looked at the bottom of his left foot, you would find a sticker that says "Made in China".

However, his situation with the NCAA has rubbed me the wrong way.  I was a student/athlete whose parents paid my way.  Without athletic aid, I had to work to make ends meet on campus.  I have long believed in the student/athlete and the idealism that the education received is remuneration for the time and effort of athletic competition.  Those who know me may be surprised which way it rubs me.

In this case, I think the NCAA is totally plastic.  They are more fake than alien autopsies, Milli Vanilli hits, and most Hollywood women from the waist up.

The NCAA and it's member institutions have made obscene amounts of money from their athletes.  The jerseys sold in bookstores and online are the number of the current stars.  Dating myself, I owned a Jim Everett and Steve Griffin while at Purdue.  One name you might know, the other not so much.  The potential Steve Griffin had sold jerseys regardless of where he finished his career, doing the same thing I did at Ross-Ade Stadium: watch games.

The potential should be worth something to a young man who never realized it, but made money for his school.  He deserves something for the effort.  His name pushed the product, the product fed the beast that is intercollegiate athletics.

Why does the school or the NCAA deserve the right to make money on a name that isn't even theirs?

Agreed, the schools are making a large monetary commitment with a full athletic scholarship, but it is worth far more money to the institution than to the individual.  Especially in football, where you can only count on a shelf life of one play, sometimes less.  Why don't they just put the money on the table instead of blinding themselves to the truth?  Is it because they can't put the same amount on the table for all athletes?  A cross country runner can't earn the incoming revenue a football player generates.  Anyone bought Notre Dame Fencing uniforms lately?

Student/athletes still exist.  Young men and women who never sniff the prospect of a huge professional sports contract, but have to get out of bed daily and earn every penny.  The college degree can be a blessing.  They paid for it with preparation, sacrificing their teen years for the chance to live a better life.  But give the players that pay the bills (and more) something for what they generated, especially the college fan favorites who wash out in training camp.  Artificial joints shouldn't be the only reward.

So...am I off base?