A few years ago, Ellen Staurowsky, a sports scholar and career-long advocate for the equitable treatment of college athletes, co-wrote a study with college athletes activist and organizer Ramogi Huma on the economics of college sports. It said the quiet part out loud.

“After accounting for the value of college athletes’ athletic scholarships between 2017-2020, approximately $10 billion in generational wealth will have been transferred from college football and men’s basketball players, the majority of whom are athletes of color, to coaches, athletics administrators, and college administrators who are predominantly White or to institutions and programs that serve majority White constituencies,” wrote Staurowsky and Huma, who are longtime friends of mine. “This transfer of wealth takes the form of lucrative salaries for athletic directors, conference commissioners, college sport leaders and bowl championship directors, and coaches. This wealth transfer has significant consequences for the athletes who are deprived of their fair share of the revenues they produce for the college sport industry.”