This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm David Green filling in for

Shimita Bessu. Today the big business of college sports.

For the next few weeks,

for the next few weeks, I'm going to be filling in for Shimita

while she is out on maternity leave.

You might recognize me, or at least my voice, from NPR's Morning Edition, if you listened.

I was a co-host there for many years.

Since leaving NPR in 2020,

I've been working on, well, a whole bunch of different projects.

And one thing that I've been digging into recently

is sports.

I've always been a die-hard sports fan, but more and more I've been exploring

sports through a more journalistic lens, talking to professional athletes, analysts,

industry experts. So that's going to be my focus for the next few weeks.

And for this episode, we're talking about money and college sports.

For more than a century, amateurism has been a cornerstone of college sports.

Meaning student athletes were, well, considered just that, amateurs.

They played for the love of the game,

for pride in their school.

And according to NCAA rules,

they could not be paid to play.

But over the years, collegiate sports, specifically men's basketball and football,

...