Spartan Legend Kelser Sounds Off on Current College Sports Landscape

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Aidan Champion | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 2:03 PM ET

Last week, the House v. NCAA settlement was approved, allowing for student-athletes to be paid directly by the universities starting July 1.

We've already seen the sport drastically change with third parties being able to pay student-athletes -- some being given an incredible amount of compensation.

It's quite a different landscape from the one that Michigan State legend Gregory Kelser played in. The 1979 NCAA national champion, who played alongside Earvin "Magic" Johnson and under the late Jud Heathcote, played in an era that was nearly half a century away from universities being able to pay their student-athletes.

The Spartan legend discussed the contrasts when he joined Michigan State sports historian Jack Ebling on a recent edition of "The Drive with Jack."

"It's not the college template (today) that I think any of us prefer," Kelser said. "But I'll say this: I can go back 40-- almost 50 years when I first started playing at Michigan State, I always felt we should be compensated. I knew that there was tremendous amounts of money that were being generated on the backs of these athletes in the revenue of sports.

"And yet people said for the longest time, 'Well, you're getting a free education.' Well, you know what? I didn't think that that was efficient enough.

"And I guess the thing that really, really bothered me, Jack, is that back then, if you so much as accepted any type of benefit -- a coat in the winter time or a meal -- anything that they could find, they could hit you with it and jeopardize the rest of your eligibility, label you a cheater, and yet, on the other side of the coin, unbelievable and untold amounts of money was being made and pocketed and kept in private coffers on the backs of amateur athletes.

"So, that was the far extreme; well, what we're seeing now is just the other end of that far extreme. Somewhere, I think there has to be a meeting in the middle to kind of get the sanity back. I don't know if the current model is even sustainable.

"However, I will say this: While they're going back -- I'm biased, of course -- but I don't think it's fair to go back 10 years and say, 'OK, we're going to compensate these guys and bring them into the NIL conversation and consideration.' I don't know how you do it, but I think you go back farther than that because that was the case when I was playing and guys that were playing 20 years before I played."

" ... I guess there's no fair way; you got to cut it off at some point, but it would have been nice to have been included in that."

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This article first appeared on Michigan State Spartans on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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