The Student as AthleteThe student athlete is a term often used to describe a member of an institution's student body as well as a member of one of the school's athletic teams. This is not a label that includes students who play recreational sports during their free time; this term is used for those students who divide their time between athletics and academics. At the beginning of intercollegiate competition and even now the governing body of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) wanted athletes to maintain their amateurism. Being an amateur means, remaining unpaid because competing and performing a c. Athletes had to come from the student body, and off-campus athlete recruiting was prohibited. The problem with the NCAA's many rules and regulations in the beginning was that they expected schools to self-police and uphold a certain morality, but without checks and balances corruption was sure to take place and it did. From the late 1920s through the 1940s, elite athletes were “sponsored” by former students to play for the school team. Former students usually only paid the athlete's tuition and it was usually seen as a loan but was rarely repaid. In 1948 the NCAA passed new legislation called the Sanity Code that allowed institutions to pay the tuition of "exceptional" athletes as long as they could qualify academically. The Sanity Code would last about ten years, then it would be replaced by a new financial aid package very similar to the one used today. This package allows a school to pay for an athlete's tuition, room and board, and other fees such as books, etc. in exchange for the athlete's services. For many critics this was seen as half of the card, even if it is not produced right away. Underclassmen will continue to leave early as long as there are NBA teams that want them and as long as college basketball continues to perpetuate the myth of the amateur athlete. College basketball has gone from amateur competition to multi-million dollar tournaments and will continue to get bigger and bigger. The student-athlete is no longer a student and has increasingly become an athlete. Admissions are loosened and deals are made to get the best basketball players in the country. Athletes who are not students are criticized when they leave for the pros even though they are probably doing the right thing by not perpetuating the myth of academia and athletics. College basketball has become a multi-million dollar industry, whether schools admit it or not, and the student athlete is the one who gets played.