The Gazette published a powerful piece in today's edition on student athletes and the NCAA rules that forbid them to earn money from the collegiate sport in which they participate.

For years the NCAA has refused to allow student athletes from earning money from their sport, while the collegiate industry makes big bucks for universities from ticket sales, television rights and merchandise.

Student athletes face an obstacle course of guidelines (more like landmines) of what they can and cannot accept while playing in a college uniform.

It seems to us that these young men and women should be allowed to participate in a controlled way that would reward them for their efforts and talent. Without the student athletes there is no revenue machine to begin with, no product or service to promote or sell.

It's time we start treating these students like the adults they are, instead of indentured servants providing the NCAA with free labor and unimaginable revenue potential. They earn it, and it's a crime that the old guard is allowing the robbery to continue.

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