STUDENT: I don't think there is any doubt that players in revenue producing sports give up a lot to play their sport. According to my research, the typical Division 1 college football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to his sport, 3.3 more hours than the typical American work week. Although the National Collegiate Athletic Association-- the NCAA-- claims that athletes are just students, the NCAA's own tournament schedule requires college athletes to miss classes for nationally televised games that bring in revenue.

Currently, the NCAA Division 1 football championship game is played on a Monday night. This year, the national football championship game required Florida State football players to miss the first day of spring classes. Meanwhile, the annual NCAA men's basketball tournament affects more than six days of classes, truly madness if players aren't employees.