Louisiana's Billy Napier is Forcing Scholarship Players to Pay $50 to School's Athletic Fund

Student-athletes are burdened with amateurism, which means that just about any non-NCAA approved incident wherein money trades hands can get the player, coach and school slapped with heavy fines and sanctions. While the NCAA has no problem penalizing schools that provide a hot meal here or there to a student who can't afford it, they're apparently ok with coaches REQUIRING players to give money to the school.

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns head coach Billy Napier is mandating that all scholarship players donate a minimum of $50 to the school's athletic fund, while the option isn't mandatory for walk-ons.

“It’s all about gratitude,” Napier said. “That’s probably a little bit unheard of and a little bit unique, but I think this is a place where that would be appreciated...We want our players to be educated and understand the benefits that come with being a student-athlete and that is not something that should be taken lightly."

OH PLEASE. First off, these players aren't allowed to either profit from their own image or get any sort of extra benefit, lest the NCAA come down hard on them, but now they have to PAY for the privilege to play football under the guise of "gratitude?"

Is...is that even legal? Can you force people to pay money to keep a scholarship?

Even in college football, the land where egotistical coaches and exploitative governing bodies reign supreme, this is a new low.