The Southeastern Conference’s annual Media Days are often filled with ridiculous questions and wild predictions about the upcoming college football season.
On Thursday, however, Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace turned the topic of conversation to a more serious issue.
Wallace was asked about player rights Thursday in the wake of a recent rule passed by the NCAA allowing unlimited meals to Division I student athletes.
“A lot of guys go to bed hungry at night. That’s real,” Wallace told CBSSports.com. “We have our breakfast and lunch. Our cafe is open, so you can go and swipe your card, but dinner you have to pay for it… We need more compensation for that just to be able to survive. If I didn’t have my parents I don’t know what I would do.”
Wallace’s comments allude to remarks made by former University of Connecticut star Shabazz Napier, who told reporters during this year’s NCAA tournament that he often goes to bed “starving.”
The 22-year-old Wallace, who has been the Rebels’ starting quarterback for the past two seasons, offered his take on what the NCAA should do to bridge the gap between its revenue and the needs of its student athletes.
” … A lot of these kids don’t have the same things that I have. I know that their struggle is something terrible. The cost of attendance, if they could just give us that, I think everybody would be OK.”
Wallace also brought up the issue of NCAA jersey sales, which are often boosted when uniforms with the numbers of star players are sold.
“People might buy that (No.) 14 jersey because they want my jersey or something,” Wallace said. “If we can have a portion of jersey sales or something like that, it would be great.”
Photo via Twitter/@SEC
