Wednesday night was the 249th edition of the Tobacco Road rivalry between Duke and North Carolina.

With 9,314 fans packed into Cameron Indoor Stadium like sardines, the cheapest ticket was sold for $2,696, and one ticket sold for over $10,000. Not a penny went to the guys putting on the show.

Is that fair?

Yes. College athletes should NOT be getting paid.

They should not be getting paid because THEY ARE ALREADY getting paid.

For example, the cost of attendance at Duke University is $75,370 per year. Over four years, that adds to $301,480. A basketball player on scholarship pays a hefty bill of $0.

At North Carolina, the cost of attendance for out-of-state students is $52,026 per year. That’s a four-year total of $208,104. Once again, a scholarship basketball player at UNC pays a steep amount of $0.

Over a four-year career, a basketball player on scholarship has the ability of coming out with a degree from one of these prestigious schools with a debt of NOTHING. I feel like that is enough for anyone.

When people say that college athletes don’t get paid, they are lying. Plain and simple. They get paid because they don’t have to pay.

If you were a parent, and you didn’t have to pay for your child’s college funds, you would be ecstatic. However, apparently that’s not enough to some people. Why? I don’t know. Universities are covering student loans that would bury families financially for a lifetime, and they want some more just for themselves– I don’t understand it.

College athletes are already getting paid in more ways than one, so the idea of paying them a salary is NONSENSE.