MAN: My favorite college basketball team is the Kentucky Wildcats, and when they won the national championship game with the score of 67 to 59 over Kansas in 2012, their star player, Anthony Davis, filled up the stat sheet with six points, 16 rebounds, five assists, six block shots, and three steals. Nobody had done that in any college game since Minnesota's Joel Przybilla-- you know, the big seven-footer in 2000.

The only bad thing about that was that after just one year in college, Anthony Davis left school to turn pro, signing a multimillion dollar contract with the New Orleans Hornets. If only he could have been paid to continue playing college ball, this shows why we need to pay college players in revenue-producing sports, because they are the guys who make the big bucks and receive so little in return.

I am credible on this topic, because I know a lot about sports. I played baseball in high school. I interviewed my roommate, who used to play football for our school. I watch Last Week with John Oliver and read an online article on Forbes by a sports commentator on legal issues and did some more research. And I know you guys agree with me, because look at how many people go to football games and basketball games and baseball games at our school. I don't think there's 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's men's basketball tournament affects more than six days of classes, truly madness if players aren't employees.

And who gets rich off college sports? Not the guys who make it happen on the field. The NCAA currently produces nearly $11 billion in annual revenue from college sports, more than the estimated total league revenues from both the National Basketball Association, NBA, and the National Hockey League, the NHL. This year the University of Alabama reported $143.3 million in athletic revenues, more than all 30 NHL teams and 25 of the 30 NBA teams.

The year that Boston College quarterback, Doug Flutey, won the Heisman Trophy as the nation's Outstanding College Football Player, Boston College's undergraduate admissions increased by 20 points, and its average SAT score of admitted freshmen skyrocketed by 110 points. And of course, many colleges use their athletes as core marketers for the university, if not for college basketball. Think about how much more money Gonzaga University would need to spend on building name recognition to prospective students not located on the west coast.

And this is my roommate's point too, the one who used to play football for our university. He says, "Yeah, athletes should be paid. Going to practice and playing games feels like a full time job. If we fill up the stadium, they make millions of dollars. And scholarships are so low that we always run out of money before the end of the month."

And here's another problem. At other schools, college coaches regulate student athletes' speech on Facebook and Twitter, even when their sport is not in session. This is America, and the last time I checked, we have freedom of speech. Americans fought and died for freedom of speech. It just isn't right to tell athletes what they can and cannot say on Facebook and Twitter. It's none of the school's business. No one tells students on an art scholarship or a band scholarship or a math scholarship what they can and cannot say on Facebook. This is discrimination, and it isn't right.

So the question is, what are we going to do about it? I'll tell you what we need to do about it. These guys are being treated unfairly. They sacrificed everything for the game and receive little to nothing in return. Revenue-producing sports should not be propping up the rest of the athletic department. The football team averages 29,517 fans. The basketball team averages 11,583 fans. The baseball team averages 5,973 fans.

How much do our untraditional sports draw? Not even half that many. Now I'm not trying to be rude or offend anyone, but let's be honest. Not every sport is exciting. The guys who are bringing in the fans and filling up the stadium are the ones who deserve to be paid for their hard work. So my solution, players in revenue-producing sports should be paid a salary of $35,310. Now I got that amount, because it is three times the federal poverty level according to healthcare.gov. And their tuition should be free.

Now I'm not saying college players need to be millionaires, but I am saying that is a reasonable amount of money to be paid while you are in school. And I am saying that when you are working a full-time job for your colleges, you deserve to be paid full-time wages. So I'll tell you what I'm trying to say. Right now players in revenue-producing sports are making a lot of money for their schools. They're working a full-time job, and their colleges are getting rich off them. The conclusion is obvious. Student athletes need to be paid a salary. That's what I have to say.