The time has long come for the NCAA, its member institutions, and college athletes to sit down and discuss compensating college athletes for playing. Rather than continue a war of words with increasing animosity between college athletes and the NCAA, the parties should take advantage of the existing infrastructures to begin a discussion that would lead to the abandonment of the prohibition on compensating athletes and the adoption of a model for payment. Once the parties begin that conversation about compensation for college athletes above their scholarship amounts, this article sets forth a proposal, the "Duke Model," that serves as an archetype for how to pay college athletes.

The Duke Model would compensate college athletes in football and men's basketball, which are the two revenue generating sports, based on their performance on and off the field. In particular, the more a player plays, the more that player earns. The model also includes bonuses for athletic and academic performance through tangible measurements. The Duke Model earned its name for several reasons. First, its architect (i.e., the author of this article) graduated from Duke University School of Law. Second, the Duke University's men's basketball team (the Blue Devils) represents one of the most prestigious, successful, and profitable college basketball programs in the country. Finally, since men's college basketball is one of the two sports included in the compensation model, the title is apropos.