COLLEGE PARK, Md. — President Barack Obama is coming out against compensation for college athletes.
He says it would lead to bidding wars and "ruin the sense of college sports."
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Obama says what does frustrate him, though, is seeing college coaches and the NCAA making huge amounts of money while an athlete gets banished after getting a tattoo or free use of a car.
He says that's unfair.
Obama commented in an interview with The Huffington Post after he was asked whether college athletes should be compensated because they are money-makers for the NCAA, TV stations and advertisers.
The interview was released Saturday, hours after Obama cheered as his niece's Princeton team stayed undefeated by topping Wisconsin-Green Bay in a first round NCAA Tournament game played in Maryland.
To watch the full interview, click here.
Here's a transcript of some of his interview with HuffPo, specifically the part in which he discusses compensation for athletes:
OBAMA: Here's what I've said. That the students need to be taken better care of because they are generating a lot of revenue here. An immediate step that the NCAA could take -- that some conferences have already taken -- is if you offer a scholarship to a kid coming into school, that scholarship sticks, no matter what.
It doesn't matter whether they get cut, it doesn't matter whether they get hurt. You are now entering into a bargain and responsible for them.
Health care. You've got to make sure that if they get injured while they're playing that they're covered.
I do think that recognizing that the majority of these student athletes are not going to end up playing professional ball -- this isn’t just a farm system for the NBA or the NFL -- means that the universities have more responsibilities than right now they’re showing --
HUFFPOST: But what about compensation?
OBAMA: -- and what does frustrate me is where I see coaches getting paid millions of dollars, athletic directors getting paid millions of dollars, the NCAA making huge amounts of money, and then some kid gets a tattoo or gets a free use of a car and suddenly they’re banished. That’s not fair.
In terms of compensation, I think the challenge would just then start being, do we really want to just create a situation where there are bidding wars? How much does a Anthony Davis get paid --
HUFFPOST: A lot. (Laughter)
OBAMA: -- as opposed to somebody else? And that I do think would ruin the sense of college sports.
Click here for the full transcript.