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Thursday, May 7, 2026

Pay For Play Is On The Way - The Assembly

The Assembly is a digital magazine about the people, institutions, and ideas that shape North Carolina. Founded in 2021, we feature interesting, deeply reported, nuanced stories about our state.

We’re telling big stories and giving our journalists space to be ambitious. We want everything published at The Assembly to surprise, inform, and leave you with a better understanding than when you started.

During spring practice, UNC-Chapel Hill star quarterback Drake Maye rises at 5:45 a.m., eats breakfast, attends a short football meeting, and participates in drills until 10:30 a.m.

He races to get to his first class by 11, and finishes with another at 1:30. He attends a series of football meetings in the afternoon, including watching video of games and practices, and typically finishes at 7 p.m.

“That’s a long day,” said his father, Mark Maye, a former UNC quarterback who described his son’s schedule to The Assembly. Maye has three other sons who played or still play college sports, including former UNC basketball standout Luke Maye. “I’ve really come around to the idea that they are more like employees.”

College athletes are considered amateurs—but they are the essential components of what has become a multibillion-dollar entertainment enterprise.

As coaches, administrators, and TV executives made more and more money from college football and men’s basketball, various college athletes laid the legal groundwork for why they should be paid for their labor. But none of those...



Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiRGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWFzc2VtYmx5bmMu...