Race, money and exploitation: why college sport is still the ‘new plantation’

Athletes are now able to make money from sponsorship. But many players believe that the NCAA maintains racial dynamics that are endemic in the US

I think NIL is just to keep kids from going overseas, especially in basketball, to keep them in college. They're still not getting the cut they deserve. I think it's still a slave mentality."

That's how CJ Watson, a former University of Tennessee and NBA player, characterized the 1 July move by the NCAA, the main governing body of US college sport, to liberalize its policy on name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. The decision permits college athletes to make money from things such as sponsorship and public appearances, activities that were once prohibited under the dubious rationale they would compromise the integrity of amateur sport (amateur sport, incidentally, in which the coaches and administrators often make millions of dollars a year).