Recently, University of Memphis basketball forward Austin Nichols decided he wanted to transfer from the school, not feeling like he was developing well in the program. Memphis, feeling slighted, denied his initial transfer request before giving Nichols a list of schools that he could not transfer to. The University of Virginia, Nichols reported favored destination, was on the list because they were a "future opponent."

Memphis tried to put the University of Tennessee on the list of future opponents, before Tennessee said that they were not playing Memphis in coming years. Tennessee was still restricted -- essentially, just because.

Nichols's family realized the clear unfairness of what Memphis was doing and hired a lawyer. Memphis, not wanting to be pummeled in court, gave Nichols his full release and Nichols ended up committing to UVa.

However, he will still have to sit out a year per the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Shaka Smart, the head men's basketball coach at the University of Texas, left Virginia Commonwealth University this year for the position in Austin, leaving his players shocked and disappointed. Smart has no restrictions on his ability to coach the team, even though he also decided to switch schools.

Welcome to the NC-Double Standard.

The NC-Double Standard has been alive and well since the formation of the NCAA. "Student-athlete" is commonly used to refer to a collegiate athlete. However, even that term has a double standard to it. Walter Byers, the executive director of the NCAA from 1951 to 1988, exposed that the term "student-athlete" was devised in order to help universities and colleges not have to provide long-term compensation for players who were hurt playing at their institution.

We're off to a flying start.

One of the largest events on the sports calendar is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness. It is a three-week long tournament that compiles 66 teams to compete for the NCAA championship. It is one of the most watched events of the year, averaging 11.3 million viewers per game during the tournament.

What makes the tournament so gigantic is the fact that it makes a ton of money. According to this Kantar Media report, the NCAA Tournament made $1.15 billion in ad revenue. In 2010, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting inked a 14-year, $10.8 billion agreement with NCAA to broadcast the NCAA Tournament. Those are absolutely staggering numbers.

One would think that the people giving the NCAA the content they are selling, the athletes, would get a slice of this pie.

Collegiate athletes are paid nothing for playing top level football, basketball, baseball, etc. Not one cent. So while coaches like Nick Saban, the head football coach at the University of Alabama, will be paid $6.9 million a year by the University until 2022, his players cannot collect any sort of money. Even if that is off their own name.

In 2014, University of Georgia running back Todd Gurley was suspended four games for accepting $3,000 for signing memorabilia over a two-year period. The NCAA prohibits any athlete to make money that is beyond reasonable necessity, which would be great if this was not an issue.

At the time of the suspension, Georgia was selling Gurley's number three jersey on their team's website. Even though Gurley's name is not on the jersey, anyone who watched college football last year could tell you that Gurley wore number three for Georgia. So, to be clear, Gurley could not make money off his own name, yet the NCAA and Georgia could sell his jersey for $80 to $135 and give none of that money to him?

Right.

The players are not allowed to accept any sort of monetary compensation. However, the NCAA does claim to give the athletes something of value: an education from top universities and colleges. This is extremely admirable, as athletes are referred to as "student-athletes" so they are reminded that they are students first. It seems like a good deal.

Until we find out that some schools are not always interested in the whole educating part.

The University of North Carolina was recently found to have steered athletes to take so-called "paper courses" in the African American Studies major. These courses were aimed to boost athletes grades so they would remain academically eligible to play. Athletes rarely showed up to the classes and their papers were done by tutors.

What's worse is that this had been going on for years at the University. UNC's former head football coach, Butch Davis, has been alleged to say, "If y'all came here for an education, you should've went to Harvard."

So, let's tally up the scores here: the athletes cannot make money, the NCAA and universities can. Athletes are sometimes not adequately educated, while the head coaches and professors are not always worried about their education.

However, it may not get more heartless and awful than making a college kid apologize for receiving the necessities of life.

In February, Baylor University walk-on running back Silas Nacita tweeted that he was no longer on the Baylor roster after the school said he accepted improper benefits under NCAA rules. What were the improper benefits? The formerly homeless Nacita accepted a place of shelter, food, and financial support from someone he called a "close family friend." He did not deny the allegations and later apologized on Twitter for breaking the rules.

A player was left with no other choice than to apologize for accepting food and shelter. Are you starting to see the double standard in effect? Nick Saban is making $6.9 million a year, yet Silas Nacita is having to apologize for accepting a place to live after being HOMELESS.

It was only after Shabazz Napier, a guard on the 2014 University of Connecticut men's basketball championship team, brought to light that he went to bed some nights "starving," that the NCAA finally loosened up some rules on unlimited food for athletes.

Such a concession. Really, it must be hard to allow players to actually eat.

What has become painfully clear is that the NCAA has become a big business. This leads to the NCAA clearly exploiting student-athletes and their talents in order to make money. The players have become smaller parts of a greater machine. Those parts are what really makes the machine go, but once they are of no use, you throw the parts away and replace them.

Now, athletes are starting to realize ways out.

While the National Basketball Association requires incoming draftees to be 19 years old, athletes do not have to play college ball. Emmanuel Mudiay, the seventh pick in this years NBA Draft, was headed to Southern Methodist University to play for a year before going to the NBA. However, after controversy of admittance to SMU, Mudiay bucked the system and played professionally in China for a year before going into the draft. As a result, he could make money and play the game professionally, garnering great experience.

Mudiay is not the only player to do this. Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings did the same thing before the 2009 NBA Draft; playing professionally in Italy after verbally committing to the University of Arizona.

Last year, the Northwestern University football team decided that they were tired of being unrepresented at the debate table. In January of 2014, the team filed a union petition, as former NU quarterback Kain Coulter, who led the charge, talked about his long-term health care, the long hours spent on the field, and further driving home the point that athletes deserve a spot at the table. The team won their regional NLRB's ruling that scholarship players are university employees and have the right to unionize.

Northwestern is appealing the decision, with the NCAA supporting the appeal.

Ed O'Bannon, a University of California-Los Angeles basketball player from 1991 to 1995, sued the NCAA after he was not paid for his likeness being used in the EA Sports NCAA Basketball 2009 video game, which he also did not give permission to be used. The suit claimed that, upon graduation, student-athletes should be financially compensated for future use of their likeness and that the NCAA failure to pay players was a violation of antitrust laws. O'Bannon won the case, as the judge ruled that the NCAA was violating antitrust laws.

The NCAA is appealing.

Remember Walter Byers? Well, he wrote a book in 1995, "Unsportsmanlike Conduct," in which he shares his belief that the NCAA is no longer a truly amateur activity, now becoming a high-dollar business. He also writes that the student-athletes deserve the same access to make a profit as their coaches and schools do if this is the course the NCAA wants to travel.

If the NCAA truly wants to promote amateurism and return to its roots, then maybe it is time to give up the sponsorships, the TV contracts, and the huge stadiums. However, let's face it - in this day, amateurism is a pipe dream. So, it may be more reasonable to give the student-athletes some kind of compensation. Cover the cost of attendance, help with food, or allow them to make money when they are doing independent jobs, like Gurley did.

If the NCAA does nothing and continues to hold the position that student-athletes cannot make any sort of money, they will prove that their is a double standard in collegiate athletics. And the NC-Double Standard is not a random issue.

It is a full-on epidemic.