I am aware that not everybody who reads this is familiar with the sports culture in the U.S. But I want everybody to be able to contribute to this thread. I am responding to this story.

If you need a crash course, here it is in two sentences: the member institutions of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) are supposed to be practicing amateurism, but it is no secret that they and their boosters regularly break NCAA rules and give cash and other improper benefits (such as academic fraud to keep players who can't read or write eligible) to student-athletes--especially in the revenue sports, football (American football) and men's basketball--to gain an unfair advantage over the competition. They do this because there is a lot of money in the college sports business, and coaches and administrators get paid handsomely for their success on the field/court.

Here is what I do not get: why aren't these players and their families who take this money going to jail for tax fraud or some other tax crime?

Do you mean to tell me that all of the cash that has been improperly given in the history of the NCAA was reported by the recipients to states and the IRS and taxes were paid on them?

I thought that almost all income is taxable.