Ncaa

While college athletes are often offered extremely lucrative scholarships, the NCAA does not allow them to be paid.

The NCAA, the governing body of college sports programs, has rules requiring college athletes to remain amateurs — defined as not earning money for their participation in sports events.

Critics have long argued that banning college athletes from earning money to play on their teams has been unfair, since schools and organizations like the NCAA have, over the years, regularly used the "likeness" of college athletes to generate profit for themselves through licensing and merchandise deals.

The Pack’s average seed in the mountain of NCAA tourney predictions out there is 10, and even the most optimistic takes on State’s situation have the team as an eight-seed.

In a major step, the NCAA Division I Council voted Monday to support an interim policy that would allow college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) without violating NCAA rules until federal legislation or new NCAA rules are adopted.