Time for the NCAA to pay.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports - Column

In April, Fox News's number one blatherer, Bill O'Reilly, hectored Kentucky head coach John Calipari about today's players in language with more coded racism than a speech by Paul Ryan.

O'Reilly asked Calipari if it was possible in the twenty-first century to maintain discipline in a "coarser" age of "rap stuff," "hip-hop stuff," and "hustlers."

Why did O'Reilly have his condescending racist phasers on full blast?

It could be because the young, predominantly African American men in the revenue-producing NCAA sports of football and basketball are asking for a seat at the table and some semblance of say about their travel schedules, health, and educational guarantees.

They want a measure of power, and that is something O'Reilly and his ilk simply cannot abide.

The NCAA's system, described by Martin Luther King's biographer Taylor Branch as having "the whiff of the plantation," is being attacked from all sides.

This process has been led by the football players at Northwestern University organizing a union. But the Northwestern football players are hardly an isolated storm in a sea of tranquility.

Other football players at private colleges are also talking union.

In addition, a massive class-action lawsuit is moving forward with demands that the NCAA share its billions of dollars in revenue. This is on top of the lawsuit brought forward by UCLA All-American Ed O'Bannon about the use of the images of athletes without permission or compensation.

The NCAA's response to these myriad challenges has been bluff and bluster with just a charming measure of condescension, led by Mark Emmert, the NCAA president with the seven-figure salary.

Emmert's idea of dialogue is to say that there needs to be reform, while not doing much of anything. After UConn's Shabazz Napier, the 2014 Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, spoke to the media about going to bed hungry at night, the NCAA announced that there would now be unlimited meals and snacks for players.

Hey, you don't need a union now! We're offering you snacks.

The NCAA has been leaking out their moral authority like an Exxon oil tanker that's hit an iceberg.

A March survey from National College Players Association and Drexel University found that the actual value of a college football player is $178,000 per year from 2011 to 2015. In college basketball, it is $375,000.

Arguments about the NCAA have been taking place...