We were quite interested in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion this week regarding the NCAA and student-athletes and what compensation students can expect for providing their talent to a college or university.

The nation’s highest court unanimously ruled Monday that the NCAA illegally restricted the education-based benefits that could be given to student-athletes as compensation.

The ruling allows colleges to go beyond the scholarships for tuition, room and board and textbooks when an athlete is NCAA-eligible and pay for additional education- related expenses, including laptops, paid internships, study abroad or future graduate school education. But the court ruling doesn’t go so far as to say students should be paid salaries or compensated for use of their name, image or likeness despite new laws that take effect next week in several states that allow endorsement deals for student-athletes.

However, according to court watchers and legal experts, the ruling opens the door for that and more in the future.

We never expected to be in full agreement with conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination to the high court we vigorously opposed. Surprisingly, however, he wrote a separate and blistering concurring opinion in the case, taking the NCAA to task over using but not paying student-athletes.

This long has been a sore spot for the Free Press, which has seen through the years how many colleges and universities recruit talented African-American athletes, exploit their skills on the football field and basketball court and bounce them after four or five years without a degree, in some cases, or without the education and tools necessary for a stable career after college. Colleges and universities make millions off these young people and show them the door with little support for their futures.

Justice Kavanaugh, reportedly a big sports fan who coaches his daughters’ basketball teams, hit that point hard in his opinion released Monday.

He wrote: “The bottom line is that the NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student-athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year. Those enormous sums of money flow to seemingly everyone except the student-athletes. College presidents, athletic directors, coaches, conference commissioners and NCAA executives take in six- and seven-figure salaries. Colleges build lavish new facilities. But the student athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African-American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing.”

He wrote that while the NCAA and its member colleges and universities maintain important traditions with a variety of sporting competitions that have become part of America’s fabric, “those traditions alone cannot justify the NCAA’s decision to build a massive money-raising enterprise on the backs of student athletes who are not fairly compensated.”

He continued: “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate ... and under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”

NCAA officials balked at Justice Kavanaugh’s opinion.

Taking it further, the state of Virginia and many people living in the Commonwealth have been making out like bandits on the backs of professional and amateur athletes alike since Jan. 1, when sports betting was legalized in the state.

According to the Virginia Lottery’s sportsbook report, bettors in Virginia wagered a record $304 million in March – think NCAA Tournament and March Madness – with the state collecting tax revenue of $1.18 million.

Seven online sportsbooks are up and running in Virginia. In April, $236 million was wagered with more than $1 million in taxes going to the state.

Virginia has been blessed with many gifted African-American athletes — current and past—who have made their mark here and at colleges and universities elsewhere.

We believe it is time for these athletes to come together, weigh in on their experiences and make recommendations to the NCAA and the nation. We urge them to use their collective voices and their depth and breadth of knowledge from firsthand experience to help the NCAA chart an equitable path going forward.

Additionally, Congress currently is considering legislation that would allow college athletes to enter into endorsement deals and be compensated for use of their likeness. The federal move is in response to a bevy of new state laws taking effect July 1 in Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and New Mexico that will allow student-athletes to engage in endorsement deals.

Congress needs to hear from our Virginia athletes about this. It may change the future—and fortunes—of the many young aspiring male and female athletes now in the pipeline.