Than a scholarship to attend class. Their coach, pat fitzgerald, says thats compensation enough for student athletes. Im a football coach, im a teacher, im an educator alright . This isnt what i signed up to be, i signed up to help these guys develop to be the best they can be, not to be an employer. But in january, his players demanded to be considered employees, becoming the First College team to seek a union. Guys come in here and bash all day, then then theyre injured 5 years down the road and they get nothing. Right now, athletes dont receive longterm medical care and cant collect a paycheck or form a union. The National CollegiateAthletic Association or ncaa sets the rules for College Sports. But those rules could soon be overturned. Fault lines investigates the multibilliondollar business of College Football, the players who produce that wealth, and their demands for a more equitable game. I just hope the ncaa does understand that some things do need to change. The first thing right behind me, you guys see our lovely bookstore. Lots of orange apparel. You guys all got coupons for that. Ten percent off. Head in there afterwards. Today is solid orange friday which is a little bit of a tradition in tigertown. With anybody who has attended clemson we all like to show our orange around clemson on friday. If you want to become part of this family, get your orange today. Weve joined along with a tour of clemson campus. Were following abby, shes a sophomore here, and she clearly loves clemson. And a couple Times College football has come up as a big part of the life here. Its actually a 40 Million Dollar enterprise for the schools. Now the part of the tour youve probably all been waiting for. If you look right through here you can all see death valley. Whos been to a game at death valley . Clemson university has one of the 25 most lucrative football programs in the country. We have the spring game tomorrow, which is great because a lot of people have been waiting for football season to start back up. And its not abnormal for a lot of our season Ticket Holders and alum to travel to this game even though its just clemson against clemson. One of those alums is darius robinson, who just played his last season at clemson. Darius is playing professional football now, but making it there was a financial struggle. I came from a household where both of my parents didnt go to school, so we didnt necessarily have the type of income to provide my sister with a good education and to be able to help me out whenever i needed it. His scholarship didnt cover the cost of living, so he started a business in college. But when he began using his name and image to promote it, the ncaa threw the book at him. Theres so many rules saying what we cant do. In my mind, i had the mindset like, what can we do . Everything in the rulebook is, student athlete cannot do this cannot do that, cannot do this cannot do that. What about what a student athlete can do . Ncaa rules prevent current athletes from making money off their fame. Darius is part of a Class Action Lawsuit to overturn that ban. Weve been working hard our whole lives, weve been doing this since we were 6 and 7 years old. So for someone to say that because youre a studentathlete, you cant even promote yourself and be who you are, because youre a studentathlete, to me i find that very disrespectful. Its gameday, and on main street, the football economy is in high gear. The Clemson Tiger paw is one of the highestgrossing logos in College Sports, and its the players who draw the crowd. They have 2 and ill bet you, they have, yep, 10. Those are the jerseys worn by clemsons star players Sammy Watkins and tajh boyd. All of this merchandise is a 4 billion a year industry. And now that tahj and sammy are not actually College Football players, theyre getting ready for the nfl draft, they can make some money off of this, and theyre actually here today in the store signing autographs for 30. And theres a line out the door of people waiting to get their autograph. We have sweats, we have ties, we have hats, we have bags, we have flip flops, we have watches, we have flags, we have wallets, we have keychains, we have jewelry. We have everything down to nightlights, to stuffed animals, to sink stoppers. I have a guitar, i have drumsticks. Would you like to see the players get some money from the jerseys with their number on them . Um, if that happened from a business standpoint, wed have to jack up our prices. What are the ends of the ncaa . On one hand its easy answer to that. That has to do with profit, and that has to do with who controls the incredible amounts of money that are produced by College Athletics in this country. We are talking billions and billions of dollars. The ncaa did not agree to an oncamera interview, but replied to questions by email. The Organization Says it spends about 200 million each year on scholarships for athletes like darius. But to get that scholarship, darius had to sign away his commercial rights to the ncaa. If youve watched clemson football on tv, youve probably seen this. The tradition is all the players get off the bus. Then they run down our green grassy hills. Everybodys jumping up and down. There are fireworks going off, cannons, everybodys yelling screaming. Theres nothing like being there with 80k of your closest friends. In two decades, the ncaa has built a stockpile. And its assets have increased by 1000 percent. The entire economy the tshirts, ticket sales, and tv deals relies on the player on the field. Now players are suing for a share. Were the marketers. Were marketing the nike here at clemson, the paw. We have on the nike checks, and making people be like ooh dad i want those nike gloves, i want those nike cleats. Matter of fact, can i get them in orange, and can i buy them at clemson . do you know now what you gave away . Absolutely, i definitely understand now what i gave away, and it was pretty much who i was. I became in a sense, in some peoples eyes, ill always feel like a person, but in some peoples eyes, i became more of a clemsons possession. Meanwhile, the College Football boom has been good to clemson. The school has committed 200 million in a decade to expand its stadium and practice facilities. Corporate fingerprints are all over this game. Up on the electronic banner, you can see it says verizon. Weve also seen td bank, ups coca cola, and nike. Nike in fact is not just on the banner, its on every single players uniform, and on their shoes. We bring in a lot of profit in this city alone. So the fact that were putting our lives on the line, theres people out there dying from this, being able to never walk again. Coach dabo swinney enjoys celebrity status, and his opinions can sway the fan base. What we try to teach our guys is to use football, to create the opportunities, take advantage of the platform and the brand and the marketing that you have available to you. As far as paying players professionalizing College Athletics, thats when you lose me. Ill go do something else, because theres enough entitlement in this world as it is. Coach swinney just signed an 8year contract that will pay three Million Dollars next season. Meanwhile, 86 percent of College Football players live below the federal poverty line. The reason why were at a breaking point is that we currently have two economies existing side by side in one structure. You have the coaches are like the wolfiest wolves of wall st. So its free market run amok. Ayn rand would weep with joy at the Economic Situation for the coaches. But for the players its indentured servitude. All i know is, College Football is a great opportunity. Its one of the last great things in america thats still teaching young people how to think right, hard work sacrifice. It is in a way set up as the modern slavery as far as the type of work we do, what our body goes through, and the type of money we bring in for what we do. Watch more faultlines on demand or visit aljazeera. Com faultlines. Do you want to be the quarterback . Come on. The battle inside College Football is over more than profits. Athletes want their safety concerns addressed. Adrian arringtons career at Eastern Illinois university did not lead to the nfl. In fact, due to his health problems, adrian cant hold down a job at all. Did they teach you to hit safely . In college, i never had no drills in like, where you had a form tackling. Stuff like that. Did they ever talk to you about how to hit people safely . After my concussion, i never had anyone tell me adrian, you gotta stop hitting like this. noel lucero met adrian in college, when his concussions began to trigger seizures. To be honest i dont even remember the first time because theres been so many, but he had one in our bed, and at the time we had nightstands on either side, and he fell off and hit his shoulder on the nightstand and his head was banging on the nightstand while hes having the seizure, so im moving everything out of the way, and just trying to put towels under his head, and he had bit his lip so hes bleeding. Adrian is the lead plaintiff in a classaction lawsuit seeking damages from the ncaa. He owes more than 100,000 in medical bills. The ncaa has not offered adrian longterm medical care. When it was really going on in college. I honestly thought i was losing my mind. I would never remember nothing. People would come up to me and say, remember you got in the bar fight . im like what was you talking about . I dont remember that. most of the time, when i have seizures i dont remember the situation but then people come up to me and say stuff, its like whoo, this is really scary, this is crazy. Back to the days of roosevelt when the ncaa was first created, theres this mandate of protecting the student athlete and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the student athlete. His lawyer joe siprut says safety concerns inside College Football are nothing new. So were basically saying wait a minute, what happened to that idea . Today, more than a third of all concussions in College Sports happen on the football field. The ncaa denies it is legally responsible for the longterm safety of college athletes. It claims the schools are liable. Schools like adrians alma mater, Eastern Illinois. That coach came to my house and sat down in my house, and told my mama and my daddy, we want your kid to come to our school, and were gonna take care of your child. So football was your gateway to a fouryear degree . Mmhm, and thats why i worked so hard at football. Because coming from a family that didnt have much and living in a homeless shelter, living in housing authority, i felt that that was going to be the only way to pay for college, without stressing my parents out. You were pretty successful at Eastern Illinois . I was the captain, i felt that i did whatever coaches wanted me to do, and i was having a good time until my concussions and bad Health Situation came up. Did you talk to Coaching Staff . Yes, i talked to Coaching Staff, and they just said when you come back in a few days, youll be fine, and take these pills, called kepra, and they said as long as you take your medicine youll be allowed to play, but they still kept going on throughout my career. He had head injury after head injury after head injury. And every time, he was involved in situations where the coaches didnt pull him out of the game, and he was put back in the game. His own father pulled him off on the sidelines and said adrian are you ok . didnt even recognize him. He was still ready to go back in and play. Were the coaches going to put you back in the game . Mmhm, they were going to put me back in the game and my dad had to come from the bleachers they say and tell them not to put me back in the game. Thats how impaired he was. And that happened a few too many times. When arrington played, the ncaa had no specific return to play rule requiring schools to keep players with concussions on the sidelines. It takes at least 34 hours its said, for the symptoms of a concussion to heal, and often times much more than that. The interesting thing about that is last time i checked a Football Game is 34 hours. So what that alone means, is that there are really no circumstances that someone who has sustained a concussion can ever go back during a game. Did Eastern Illinois had a protocol or requirements in place . It couldnt have been a protocol if i get a concussion in the game, and you put me right back in the game to where my dad had to take me out of the game and not you guys. It cant be a protocol. But that changed after arrington graduated. In 2010, the ncaa required schools to develop guidelines for concussion safety. But arringtons suit alleges that this safety mandate was designed to be weak. Some of these emails are shocking. I would call them smoking guns. Internal ncaa emails show former head of safety David Klossner pushing for more stringent rules, and facing pushback from inside the organization. Very interesting email here from klossner where he says, return same day issue seems to be our biggest barrier. Ive yet to find legitimate data to show that same day return to play is a good thing. klossners the one in here who keeps bringing up the idea about rules for return to play, the safety of this and what an issue it is. Ive been pretty busy with meetings, and trying to get David Klossner off my back. That dude wears me out. So the one guy raising the red flag here, is getting shut out . Shut down, suppressed, and criticized. I think its a big lie and a big facade that the ncaa is putting on with the commercials that their main priority is the student athlete and their health. Thats a lie. The ncaa has not investigated any school for violating its safety rules. At least in the case of the nfl players is that theyre professional athletes being paid millions of dollars, and they have lawyers, they have agents they have a union. They have all sorts of people protecting their interests visavis, the nfl, and the ownership. At the college level, the players have none of that. The ncaa says studentathlete safety is a priority, and is in settlement talks with adrians lawyers. I just pray it doesnt get worse. Looking at these other football players, that had similar injuries i dont want him to get alzheimers when hes 35 or, you know. I try not to think about it. Watch more faultlines on demand or visit aljazeera. Com faultlines. Were here to fully get into the nuances of everything thats going on not just in this country but around the world. Getting the news from the people who are affected. People need to demand reform. Ali velshi on target weeknights 10 30p et trafficked labor on the front lines . Theyre things, theyre commodities. We go undercover. It isnt easy to talk at this base whats happing on u. S. Bases . The tax payer directly pays the human trafficker fault lines Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Today they will be arrested. Ground breaking. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Emmy Award Winning investigative series. Fault lines americas war workers only on Al Jazeera America 11 afghan policemen who failed to stop a mob killing a woman are given jail sentences eight others go free. Hello, welcome to al jazerra live from doha, i am nick clark. Also coming up on the program yemens exiled president and his saudi allies are about to announce their next move in dealing with houthi rebels. After taking romadi, isil sets its sites on capturing more territory in anbar province, well have the latest live from baghdad. And president obama bans the use of some military equipment by