Don't forget that these athletes would be nothing without the fans (students and alum) paying for tickets. To me, expecting to be paid is narrow-minded and selfish. The profit from athletics helps to keep tuition costs down. Obviously these athletes don't care about that. It's all about me, me, me. And, any athlete who has the viewpoint probably won't value a free education anyway.
lol What?
EDIT: Sorry, I'm having trouble figuring out where to begin to respond to something this backwards. Like, it's selfish to expect to be compensated fairly for work performed? That is a bold stance, indeed.
The cost of a free education can exceed $60 - $70K per year. It's not like they are working for "free". Expecting to be compensated over and above that is downright selfish, IMO. Anyone who doesn't value that free education is so uneducated in the first place, it's a lost cause.
While these athletes are getting benefits (the cushy celebrity lifestyle that is a launching pad to a basketball career), I strongly disagree with the notion that the education is a $50k+ annual value for the small percentage of scholarship athletes that have playing professional as a goal. Also the sticker price of tuiton =/= cost =/= value. For potential pro-athletes, I think the education has little to no value, whether they decided to take advantage of it or not.
Since, we're talking about Duke, I think of guys like William Avery, played 2 years at Duke, 3 years in the NBA, 10+ years overseas, retiring from basketball in 2012 at 33. Those 2 years at Duke aren't going to help get him a job now that he's retired from the game. He'd also be so far removed from school, if he decided to continue his education after retiring, his credits probably would have expired/won't transfer.
But even if you got a degree by staying 4 years in college or continuing your education after you went pro, the degree/education isn't going to hold much value when you've chased your professional career for 10, 15, 20 years. Daniel Ewing, 4 years at Duke, 2 years in the NBA, still playing overseas after 10+ years I believe. Whenever he decides to hang up his sneakers, that degree from Duke in whatever he studied, isn't going to help him get a job, not when there's a 15 year gap on his resume (although that Duke alumni network might help), ask the stay-at-home parents who try to re-join the workforce after 15 years out of it.
For athletes who don't go pro, and have to start a "real world" career after graduating, that free education is an amazing benefit (especially at the better schools).
But for the small percentage of pro athletes who will be chasing that pro career for the next 10-20 years of their life (like Wendell Carter probably will), that education isn't really providing much value.