Catherwood LibraryILR School

A new basketball league backed by a sports media company is entering the intensifying debate over whether student-athletes should be paid. The league, Overtime Elite, has started a campaign that entails offering high school basketball players $100,000 salaries to skip college. Overtime Elite is formed under the auspices of the sports media company Overtime. Overtime Elite would compete directly with the N.C.A.A. for the nation’s top high school boys by employing about 30 of them. Overtime will offer each athlete, some as young as 16, a minimum of $100,000 annually, as well as a signing bonus and a small number of shares in Overtime’s larger business. The company will also provide health and disability insurance, and set aside $100,000 in college scholarship money for each player in the case that a player decides not to pursue basketball professionally.