Karl Benson: Athletes are students, not employees

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Friday, December 01, 2017

I have had the privilege of serving as the commissioner of three different intercollegiate athletics leagues for the past 27 years.

Over those years, intercollegiate athletics has changed dramatically. We’ve come a long way from the the 1970s, when NCAA members voted to eliminate the $15 monthly laundry stipend student-athletes once received in an effort to cut costs.

Criticism of the amateur collegiate model is not a new phenomenon, but as the level of revenue in college sports has reached new heights in recent years, critics and plaintiffs lawyers have ramped up their efforts to dismantle the system. What the critics fail to…