Yes, yes, to be sure. Dave Zirin, writing in The Nation, is correct. But he goes on to make a mistake:
We have reached a clear public exhaustion with the injustice of it all and the steady monotony of [big-time university sports] scandals.
Calling athletes modern-day slaves, he insists that they be paid.
But Americans are neither exhausted nor outraged by this injustice. They like big-time university sports just the way they are. So do universities and the NCAA. If the situation were anything near what Zirin thinks it is, Auburn University’s doors would have been forcibly closed years ago.