C. J. McCollum Quotes

I do support college athletes and the opportunity for them to be paid a stipend.

I think the colleges should be free to give athletes less than a full scholarship, no scholarship and more than a scholarship. And the athletes should be free to bargain.

Stop the nonsense about 'student-athlete.'

Obviously, college stars deserve substantial compensation, right?

I feel like we bring in a lot of money to the universities. We put in a lot of work. Some guys don't have enough money to bring their families to the games... so I feel like athletes should be compensated for it.

Some college athletes don't want to turn pro, they don't want to take the cut in pay.

If the NFL can keep getting away with forcing players to wait three years out of high school before they're drafted - three! - the NCAA should be made to do away with its rules against paying players beyond room, board and tuition. I'm not talking about some token, $2,000-a-year 'spending money' stipend for every player.

What would be wrong with letting a kid go pro, and if it doesn't work out he can come back to college? What's the harm in that? The reason is the word "amateurism." The NCAA has to protect colleges' tax exemption.

If the players aren't getting paid, there's something terribly, terribly wrong, and that's true only in the United States. Everywhere else, where money is involved with sport, the players get paid. But these poor kids in college, they're doing it for free, and that's just disgraceful.

I have long been one of those tedious people who rails against the coronation of 'student-athletes.' I have heard the argument that big-time athletics bring in loads of money to universities. I don't believe the money goes anywhere other than back into the sports teams, but that's another story.

I don't think we should ever compensate players. I think we can do as much as we can for players. The cost of attendance is good. They get more meals now so they can keep their meal money. I think those are all good things and I think more of those things should have been done. But I don't think you can compensate players straight out.

A lot of people talk about the one-and-done attitude of college athletes, but if you look at the University of Kentucky, we do build winners.

The NCAA makes so much money off of their kids, and they put ridiculous - absolutely ridiculous - restrictions on everything that they can do.

I played college football for free. I had to pay to play, really.

College players make money for the colleges. You think they spend all that recruiting money to get the best students? Come on.

College football: I do not see the relationship of those highly industrialized affairs on Saturday afternoons to higher learning in America.

LeBron james came, and he gets $10 million a year. There was no stigma or blemish, like you have with one-and-done. Now people say, "He's not a student, he's an athlete." Well, of course he's not a student! He's here for one year and he told you he's here for one year, and the school took him with open arms.

We play the whole summer. I do think guys should be compensated. Just like I think college players should be compensated as well. Unfortunately, it's not there. But I think it should be something, you know, there for it.

It's different in the NFL because you're getting paid to get hit. In college, you're taking hits for someone else to make money.

People think that athletes have it great, and we do in a lot of regard, but universities make a hell of a lot of money off of players. You don't get a free education: you work full-time year round for five years for an education you could pay for three times over if you just got your market value.

What is the NCAA going to do a program if a kid leaves before two years. You can't control it. The NBA is the one that has to control it.

When I was in college, I was a landscaper. Other than that, coaching has been my life and my job. A lot of people like coaching college, but I would never do it again. There are too many NCAA bylaws, rules and politics.

Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.

I never thought the NCAA violations for the phone call would ever rise to the level it did.

It's not true that I never left South Bend to recruit a player. It is true that I didn't leave very often.