The romance is found in the traditions such as the uniforms and the mascots and the songs. Romanticizing the sport because it is played by “student-athletes” was gone by the wayside long ago because everyone knows that the best players already get paid. The romance is not gone because kids get paid/cars, it's because the NCAA and individual schools make an insane amount of money off the kids' brands and they are pathetically compensated for it Yeah, the question of under the table money should be largely irrelevant; college basketball and football are basically raking in pro league money, and the people who are the reason for it aren't even allowed to get a sponsorship deal with the local pizza chain. It's absurd.