In a letter written to NCAA president Myles Brand, Chairman Bill Thomas of the House Ways and Means Committee had this to say:

"The annual return also states that one of the NCAA's purposes is to 'retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports.' Corporate sponsorships, multimillion dollar television deals, highly paid coaches with no academic duties and the dedication of inordinate amounts of time by athletes to training lead many to believe that major college football and men's basketball more closely resemble professional sports than amateur sports."

The NCAA's attitude toward the men and women on the court is one that reeks of racism. When I make the simple argument on radio shows that athletes should get something for their labor that is reflective of their true value to the university, the comments made about student athletes are appalling: "If they get all that money, they are just gonna spend it on gold chains and rims for their cars," or "They should be happy to get a scholarship, that is better than what they were getting before."

These responses remind me of the paternalistic nature of Barbara Bush's remarks about Hurricane Katrina victims. Mrs. Bush claimed that the Katrina victims should be happy living in the stadium in which they were housed because it was probably better than the conditions from which they came. What is also interesting about the comments I hear from the American public as it pertains to the fair compensation of NCAA athletes and their families is that while people are directly and immediately against the idea of providing any compensation to the men and women earning the revenue, they rarely question the level of compensation received by the coaches. They act as though they deserve it.

This asymmetric view of collegiate compensation again alludes to the idea that "those big dumb negroes don't deserve anymore than I do," which has been consistent throughout American history. When these young men leave college and come back to their universities to try to become coaches, they are often denied the job. Terry Bowden, a prominent White football coach in the NCAA, made it clear when he explained in a Yahoo Sports article that black coaches are not hired by the NCAA because they are black. In the words of Bowden:

"Many presidents won't hire black coaches because they are worried about how alumni and donors will react." He also makes this clear and interesting point when it comes to the NCAA's lack of regard for hiring minority coaches: "There are 117 colleges participating in Division I-A football and there are only three black head coaches. You don't have to be too smart to know how stupid this looks. Let me lay it out for you:  Fifty percent black athletes leads to 25 percent black assistant coaches leads to 3 percent black head coaches.  Fifty percent white athletes leads to 75 percent white assistant coaches leads to 97 percent white head coaches."

The point is very simply put: history is repeating itself, as African Americans are cast at the bottom of the capitalist totem pole. We are the laborers and consumers, but not the managers and owners of these establishments. Part of this is due to the history of our country, in which the greatest American institutions were established without our being at the table. However, there is a component of this reality perpetuated by the fact that we have grown comfortable as laborers. We don't get more because we ourselves don't feel that we deserve more. In other words, the "slave mentality" shows itself quite clearly in collegiate athletics.

Dr Boyce Watkins is a finance professor at Syracuse University. He does regular commentary in national media, including CNN, MSNBC, BET and more. To have Boyce's commentary delivered directly to your e-mail, please click here.