Barack Obama Explains Why He Supports College Athletes Getting Paid

College athletes are looking to get paid, and one former president is all for it. Barack Obama recently appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast and explained why he is all for student-athletes making money off their name, image and likeness. He also took aim and college athletic leaders on how they have handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think that the amount of money that is being made at the college level, the risks that let’s say college football players are being subjected to and the fact that for many of these colleges, what these young people are doing are subsidizing athletic director salaries, coach salaries,” Obama said, as USA Today reported. “All of that argues for a better economic arrangement for them, and I think there is a way of doing that that doesn’t completely eliminate the traditions and the love we all have for college sports.”

Obama continued: “It just means that if Zion Williamson or a Trevor Lawrence or somebody is participating in those sports and somebody, the local car dealer or what have you who as it is, is probably already a booster and doing a whole bunch for that university wants to also help that student with their parents or facilitate them being able to get a better training situation for their next stage, that penalizing those kids when everybody else is benefiting does not make sense to me.”

Another thing Obama mentioned is how college football has handled the pandemic. He told Simmons and Blake Sellers when he watches college football, “there’s a sense of the economics driving a series of decisions in which a bunch of very young people are being put at risk in ways that are unnecessary. But that gets me into a whole set of questions about the NCAA that could take up too much time.”

In October 2019, the NCAA voted to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. “We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,” NCAA board chair Michael V. Drake said in a statement. “Additional flexibility in this area can and must continue to support college sports as a part of higher education. This modernization for the future is a natural extension of the numerous steps NCAA members have taken in recent years to improve support for student-athletes, including full cost of attendance and guaranteed scholarships.”